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Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes


I chose to read this book because, like many books before it, it has been made into a movie. I don't know about you but I find it incredibly difficult to read a book if I've already seen the movie. I already know what's going to happen, and the characters and places have already been determined as looking a certain way, leaving nothing left to my imagination.

So, Me Before You is set in England and is from the perspective of Lou, a girl in her late twenties who gets herself a job as a carer for Will; a young man in his mid-thirties who is paralysed and wheelchair-bound.

Before his accident, Will was a very active person; travelling, participating in extreme sports and being amazing at his fancy job in London. As expected he is in a bad place mentally, with his independence and life as he knew it stripped away. Enter Lou, a bit of a quirky personality, who has found her life in a rut, living with her family and not really having any major ambitions.

I won't give any spoilers away, but they inevitably fall in love, which is problematic for numerous reasons, including Lou's indifferent boyfriend.

I was expecting this book to be incredibly sad, but it wasn't as tear-jerking as I anticipated. I imagine the movie will make up for it though, with some extra drama and an Ed Sheeran soundtrack, but we'll have to wait and see.

What surprised me is that there's a sequel, of which you can find a preview chapter of at the end of the book, and it seems darker than the original.

I didn't love this book, more liked it as a friend, but it is a good and easy read.

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