Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Plaine Magnien, Mauritius

I was house sitting last week and saw this on the person’s book shelf. I’ve vaguely wanted to read this book since 2016 when the movie was released with Finnick...I mean Sam Claflin as Will, but it was one of those stories I didn’t think would be worth the effort of actually tracking down the book (and I was right). Fast forward to August of 2023, and the book was sitting on the bookshelf of a person I frequently house sit for. I read it within the long weekend that person was away.

The story follows Lou Clark, a former cafe waitress from a small town that is forced to find a new job because the cafe closes. She stumbles upon a caregiving position for Will Traynor, a wealthy 30-something quadriplegic man that was hit by a motorcycle two years prior to when the book begins. Lou soon discovers that Will plans to commit suicide at an assisted-suicide facility in Switzerland in 6 months time. She makes it her mission to change his mind.

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The book was okay. I had a really hard time connecting with Lou because she was so boring, her family because they were so mean, and Will for being a complete dick bag (who honestly got what was coming to him). Despite not liking any of the characters and knowing the ending (spoiler alert simply from the name of the sequel, “After You,” which was sitting next to this one on that bookshelf), I found myself compelled to keep reading. Perhaps because I found the concept so disturbing. First of all, it is nobody’s job to try to convince someone to stay alive. And, for crying out loud, the guy is a quadriplegic. That is most people’s idea of actual torture (I am not saying that all quadriplegic’s should commit suicide. Quadriplegic people can and do accomplish amazing things and live exciting, fulfilling lives, but if a person, especially when they were born fully able-bodied, doesn’t want to live like that, they have every right to make that decision for themselves).

And like, what is the deal with Louisa’s family. There supposed to be this picturesque, quaint, happy family, but they are downright awful to Louisa. The amounts of comments this woman gets about her personality, her smarts, her ability to be independent are disgusting. And the constant remarks about her weight! Louisa’s mother is described as not having an ounce of fat on her body, and, at one point, Louisa borrows her clothes. Even though they ripped, she has to be relatively thin in order to fit in her mother’s clothing. Based on what her family and her boyfriend say, you would think this woman is obese. And even if she was, her family should NOT speak to her the way they do. I know it was 2012 when this book came out, but seriously, enough is enough on those comments.

My favorite part of the book was the ending. I’m so glad that, even though Louisa confessed her love to Will, Will decided to go ahead with his suicide. If he had decided to stay with Louisa, that would have been some 13 Reasons Why-like problematic concept of “love conquering all.”

I knew exactly what this book was going to be like, and it didn’t change from that trajectory one bit. It is a book written by a white, forty-something for white forty-somethings to “expand their world view.” I can just imagine this author writing a similar book about abortion rights and changing the minds of all the forty-something middle-class white people in the world. Not every book needs to be life-changing, but can there be at least a little bit of substance in it? Just a little? But I’m giving it 3 stars because Moyers did attempt to teach readers about shoving your own world view down someone’s throat and forcing them into something they don’t want to do.

Review by the Numbers

Overall: 3/5

Writing: 3/5

Message: 2/5

Plot: 3/5

Character Development: 3/5

Challenges Satisfied

- Mauritius (Reading My Way Around the World Challenge)

- A Romance with a Fat Lead (2023 PopSugar Reading Challenge)

- I chose this as the prompt to fulfill for 2 reasons: 1) part of the reason why I disliked the

book so much is that there were so many comments about Lou’s body and 2) I don’t read very many romances

- A Book Featuring an Inheritance (52 Book Club’s 2023 Challenge)