Me Before You [Kindle Edition]

Jojo Moyes (Author)

Book Description

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, January 2013: Before Louisa met Will, her plans didn't reach beyond their tiny English town. Will, when he wasn't closing multimillion-dollar deals, blew off steam scaling mountains, leaping from planes, and enjoying exquisite women--until an accident left him paralyzed and seriously depressed. When his mother hires Lou to keep his spirits up, he meets her awkward overtures with caustic contempt, but she's tenacious and oddly endearing. Their fondness grows into something deeper, gaining urgency when she realizes his determination to end his life, and her efforts to convince him of its value throw her own bland ambitions into question. Plumbing morally complex depths with comedy and compassion, Jojo Moyes elevates the story of Lou and Will from what could have been a maudlin weepie into a tragic love story, with a catharsis that will wring out your heart and leave you feeling fearless. --Mari Malcolm

Review

'An utterly absorbing and blissfully romantic read' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A gorgeously romantic and partner-ignoringly compulsive read... Immaculately paced, genuinely touching and stuffed with Mad Men-esque period details, it's a page-turner that loves words themselves.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Moyes is a romantic, and there is a gloriously happy ending, but the story is also surprising and genuinely moving' THE TIMES 'Beautifully written... an exquisite tale of love lost, love found and the power of letter writing.' ***** SUNDAY EXPRESS

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 705 KB
• Print Length: 385 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0670026603
• Publisher: Penguin (January 2, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0718157834
• ISBN-13: 978-0718157838
• ASIN: B0065GC0BA
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,744 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

229 of 263 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime and powerful January 29, 2012

By Dee18 TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

Louisa Clark has lived in the shadow of her town's tourist attraction, the Castle, all her life. She has never left her small town, and has worked at the Buttered Bun cafe for so many years, she knows the in's and out's of all her regular customer's lives. So when the Buttered Bun is closed to make way for more Castle-associated tourist cafes, Louisa `Lou' finds herself jobless in the middle of Britain's recession. She has no schooling or qualifications other than waitress. She needs a job, and fast, because her parents, Alzheimer grandfather and single-mother sister rely on her paycheques. Her boyfriend, Patrick, can't help her out either - he's obsessed with the `Viking' marathon and fat-ratio-body-count zero-carbs dieting.

So when the job centre recommends Lou try for a job as carer to a quadriplegic, she reluctantly goes for the interview. But Lou really isn't qualified to `wipe bums' - she's not even very good at helping her mother take care of her grandfather who suffers from Alzheimer's. Lou's interview takes her to the affluent side of town, to the Traynor family mansion. The Traynor's own the Castle, are descendants of the original royal occupants. They are moneyed and infamous in Lou's small town, but she never knew about the troubles they've had at home . . . the eldest Traynor child, Will, was in an accident two years ago that has left him a quadriplegic. He has movement of his neck, but minimal control of his hands and fingers. Everything else is paralysed, and he is confined to a chair and needs 24/7 care, especially after a suicide attempt put the family on high-alert.

Lou doesn't think she's qualified to be Will's carer, at all. But Mrs Traynor is adamant that she does not want a nurse-maid for her son.... She just wants him to spend time with someone who oozes joie de vivre, who will entertain and be a companion to him. Will already has a qualified nurse, a New Zealander called Nathan. Now he needs someone to be his friend - and the Traynor's think Lou fits the bill. She's chatty and quirky, dressing in colourful tights and sparkly gumboots. She's just the sort of positive influence Will needs in his life right now.

But Will Traynor is not the easiest person to get along with. He's bitter and depressed - constantly reminiscing about his life `before' and `after' the accident. He used to ski, bungee jump, rock climb and just generally travel the globe looking for the next adrenalin-rush. Now he is chair-bound and suicidal.

Lou has six months to prove her worth to the Traynor's and make a difference in Will's life. And what originally starts as an easy paycheque and cosy new job turns into a mission of hope. . .

`Me Before You' is the new novel from British author, Jojo Moyes.

I was hearing a lot about Jojo Moyes last year, thanks to her novel `The Last Letter from Your Lover'. Ms Moyes has been releasing books since 2002, and already had seven books under her belt before `The Last Letter' was released as her break-out hit in 2010. The novel won a slew of awards throughout 2011, including the UK's `RNA's Romantic Novel of the Year Award', and is now being adapted for the big screen. More than that though, I kept hearing whispers from my fellow book bloggers that `Last Letter' was something very, very special. Still, I didn't read it - God knows why. And then `Me Before You' came my way - the all-important next book to be released after Moyes's surprise hit. I had high expectations, based purely on previous book hype . . . and I've got to say, Moyes met and exceeded every single one of them.

Reading the blurb of `Me Before You', I thought I had a pretty good idea of where this book was going to go, and I did have my reservations. Purely judging a book by its cover (and blurb), I thought I had this novel pretty well pegged from the first page. But I was very, very wrong. Moyes surprised me at every turn, never more so than in how deep she delved into the `issues' of this novel, without ever preaching.

Will Traynor lived a full of adventurous life, until it was cut short one rainy London day. Now, in his early thirties, Will is a quadriplegic who needs round-the-clock care for his physical ailments, but for his mental road-blocks his mother has hired Lou Clark to be a companion to Will. Lou's contract will last up to six months, after which time Will has a decision to make about his life . . . he'll either find the will to live, or his family will let him go to Dignitas, an assisted dying organisation based in Switzerland.

In the beginning, Lou is none-the-wiser about Will's ultimatum. She reluctantly goes to her new job at the Traynor's plush mansion and grows to dislike Will and his curmudgeon behaviour. But slowly, very slowly, he starts to let a little of his old self seep in . . . Lou sees a charming and enigmatic young man, with strong opinions and a dried-up thirst for life. Lou also witnesses the many ways that Will's life has vastly changed from two years ago. She meets Will's ex girlfriend and his ex best friend. She stares at photos of Will standing tall upon a ski-slope and hears him tell tale of his trek up Mount Kilimanjaro. Lou finds it hard to reconcile that man with her wheelchair-bound charge. But Lou understands a thing or two about transformative events, and how hard it is to reconcile the `before' and `after'. Because Lou has her own personal tragedy and remembered history which keeps her in this small town, never to venture beyond the shadow of the Castle.

Will, likewise, comes to care for Lou. Very slowly he starts to see her as more than just a dumb waitress from the bad part of town. He encourages her to read the books from his personal library and begs her to leave their small town, to see Paris or Sydney, just expand her four walls. But when Lou discovers the real reason behind her short six-month contract, and Will's potential life-or-death decision, their time together becomes even more important. Lou becomes desperate to convince Will of the reasons to live, and she plans outings and activities to do just that.

Jojo Moyes is exploring a rather contentious issue - euthanasia. Going into this novel, I already knew where I stood on the topic of euthanasia - and that was that people should be allowed to die with dignity, on their own terms, and in their own time. But my stance was garnered from newspaper articles and raw, flat facts. In `Me Before You' Moyes really does put a face and emotion behind this issue. And it should be noted that the book is full of gray areas - Will has plenty of people in his life (including Lou) who do not agree with this potential decision to die at Dignitas. But Moyes digs - she delves and explores the myriad of reasons for Will's decision to live or die . . . and one of the reasons to stay is a powerful one - love.

But Moyes has certainly done her research, and in the book Lou trawls internet forums and speaks to other quadriplegics in her attempts at understanding Will. The potential diseases which could end his life, the various dangers of the body (regulating body temperature could be the difference between life and death). It's all very fascinating, if heartbreaking.

But this novel isn't just about Will and Lou. Moyes has peppered the book with a cast of lovable characters who enrich the story. There's Patrick, Lou's long-term boyfriend who has become a fitness fanatic, much to her chagrin. Lou's sister, a single mother to Tomas who dropped out of university to be a mother to him. Lou's parents, an affable duo who are struggling to keep their heads above water in Britain's recession. And then there's Will's family - his polished mother whose cracks are beginning to show, and unfaithful father who selfishly feels the strain of Will's condition. Moyes has certainly filled out Lou and Will's lives with this cast of characters - and she delves into the gray areas with these people too, when she provides certain chapters told from their perspective. We learn of Camilla Traynor's divided heart - her love for her son versus the condition which has turned him into someone she doesn't really know. I loved these little asides, especially because Moyes offers them up at exactly the moment when you think you have the character figured out - she then lets us pick around in their brain and read their perspective, know their struggles and illicit unlikely sympathy.

I did cry buckets in this book. I won't give anything away, but throughout parts of the book I was a blubbering mess. Moyes certainly plays the heart-strings with a deft pen, and she does keep you guessing until the very end. But as much as I cried throughout the book, by the last page I was taking deep, cathartic breaths and feeling better for having read `Me Before You'. Moyes pushed me to think about an issue I was already firmly decided on, more than that though, she gave an `issue' real heart and perspective. I loved `Me Before You' so much, that I rushed out and bought a copy of `The Last Letter from Your Lover' (and after that, I intend to read every single one of her backlist books too). I'd say be prepared for `Me Before You' - Moyes forces her readers to think and feel every awful, beautiful, heart-rending and chest-constricting emotion. Sublime and powerful. Read more ›

99 of 117 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Yet another quad-wants-to-die plot June 2, 2012

By Ruth Madison

Format:Paperback

Never has 480 pages sailed by so quickly. The main character is sweet, endearing, and adorable. Her kooky family members are entertaining secondary characters. And the love that develops between Lou and Will is quite profound. It builds very, very slowly and blossoms into one of the most believable loves I've seen in fiction. Because it takes Lou so much time to realize her feelings, the love is that much deeper and more real.

Lou has her own past experiences and the lead up to that reveal is very subtle. I thought it was handled well.

I was glad that some other voices were included. Lou joins an online forum to help her learn about disability and meets some quads who don't want to die. I wish that had been further developed, since we never get to meet a character who expresses that view.

There's a point of view oddity. Almost the entire 480-page book is told from Lou's first-person point of view, but there are five individual chapters scattered throughout where other characters take on the narrative (Will's mother, Will's father, Lou's sister, and Will's main carer). This was extremely disconcerting. Though it was interested to get those characters' takes on things, it felt random, unplanned, and the first time it happened I had no idea it was only for one chapter, so at the next chapter I couldn't tell who was narrating for quite a while until I figured out we were back to Lou.

The other strange thing about these point of view changes is that Will never got to speak. For a love story, how very bizarre that the only time Will was in control of the narrative was a third person prologue. After his accident, he has no direct voice and the other characters all speak and think about him.... This may have been a conscious choice, since Will's biggest complaint in the book is that people do not listen to him, don't take into account what he wants.

And then the biggest problem. I find the quad-wants-to-die plot extremely tiresome. It reeks of ableism: "I, an able-bodied woman with no experience of disability shall write about a quadriplegic because I read about it in the news. What should I write? How about how miserable his life must be?"

I, also an able-bodied woman, have no authority to say that's not true. What I can say is that I've known quads, two of them being at the same injury level as Will and one higher. None of them have wanted to commit suicicde. They expressed to me how grateful they were to be alive and emphasized how they have grown from the experience. One told me that he had learned so much from it that his life was better than it had been. If you're going to ever read any book where the plot is quad-wants-to-die, this is the one to read. It does present a fairly balanced view of the issue. I'm reluctant to recommend any book with this plot, but I did find myself moved by it. If you do read it, I urge you to remember that whatever it might seem like from an outside point of view, many people with quadriplegia are living happy and content lives. I've never met a quad who wanted to kill himself.

I was reluctant to read the book knowing this was the plot, but I am actually glad that I read it. I enjoyed it, found the writing good, and would recommend it with the above caveat. Read more ›

65 of 78 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute must read. January 29, 2012

By Lynnie

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Generally my reading tends to be towards light romantic comedies. This is not that. It is well written with a thought provocing storyline. It is deceptively simple at heart and I don't want to give away the storyline because it is interesting to read this book with no idea what to expect. Because it very quickly picks up speed and becomes a very thought provoking story. What you can expect is one of the best books I have read over the past twelve months. Do yourself a favour and give it a chance you will not regret it.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking, yet such a fantastic read. December 31, 2012

By Miss Bonnie

Format:Hardcover

My heart was not prepared for those kind of feels... *sigh*

'The thing about being catapulted into a whole new life - or at least shoved up so hard against someone else's life that you might as well have your face pressed against their window - is that it forces you to rethink your idea of who you are. Or how you might seem to other people.'

Louisa's life is lackluster and she's completely content with 'playing it safe' at life. Not that she's ever allowed herself to contemplate how different things could possibly be. She goes to her job at the tea shop, she goes home to her windowless room at her parents house, and she occasionally spends time with her boyfriend Patrick who is far more concerned with his exercise regiment than he is with her. But when she loses her job at the tea shop she accepts a temporary 6 month position as a caregiver to a quadriplegic, Will Traynor.

Louisa and Will are complete opposites and the first few weeks of them knowing each other the quite truly hated each other. Will was oftentimes irrationally difficult and Louisa was ready to quit, but she stuck it out and slowly they developed an extremely touching friendship.

All I can say is that you make me...you make me into someone I couldn't even imagine. You make me happy, even when you're awful.I would rather be with you- even the you that you seem to think is diminished- than with anyone else in the world.'

Their blossoming romance was one of the most convincing I've read in a long time and was truly uplifting. They changed each other in massive ways in such a short period of time. Louisa gave Will happiness that he hadn't experienced for a very long time and Will gave Louisa the determination to do something with her life and not let it go to waste....

Calling this book chick-lit isn't doing this book any sort of justice; the subject matter is simply far too thought-provoking for that kind of label. The real meat of the story focuses on Will's decision to end his life by assisted suicide, which is the reason behind Louisa's 'temporary' position as he promised his parents he would give them another 6 months but no more. Convinced that he just needs something to live for, his parents hire Louisa who is bright, fun and talkative in hopes that she can convince him that he still has something to live for.

"You only get one life. It's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible."

It was certainly a tough subject matter to read but was so well written and managed to actually make me laugh out loud at several parts. I loved Louisa and Will's wittiness and constant banter, it was the perfect addition to this poignant story. It was hard not to picture what it would be like if you were put into a situation such as Louisa and Will's. What you would do, if you would actually do anything different. All I know is that they both had an incredibly difficult decision to make and either way was bound to lead to heartache.

This was an incredible story that was so painful (in that crazy heart hurting kind of way) to read but I simply could not put it down. Me Before You is a heartbreaking story about finding what makes life worth living and making the decision whether it's truly enough. Definitely a new favorite and one that my heart won't be forgetting any time soon. Read more ›

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Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#48 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

#80 in Books > Romance > Contemporary

#87 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Romance > Contemporary

#48 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

#80 in Books > Romance > Contemporary

#87 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Romance > Contemporary