Book Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Title: Me Before You

Author: Jojo Moyes

Genre: Fiction

First Published: July 30th, 2013

Number of Pages: 369

(NOT MY WORDS) Summary from Goodreads.com: Louisa Clark is an ordinary young woman living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.
Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.
A love story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

Summary (my words): The story depicts a fickle attachment of two people belonging from completely different background (personal, familial and social) and possessing polar opposite personality. Louisa Clark, called as Lou, who has never got the scope to at least imagine how the world farther from her village might look like, was badly in need of a job. William Traynor, short form Will, on the other hand, used to live the way he dreamed of. His passions such as - world travel and extreme sports were his life; which abjectly changed later on, and that too was caused by a small accident. With absolutely no ability to do what he wants, his life got him stuck to a wheel chair along with stuffing arrogance. 


SPOILER ALERT

Review: The story, for me, revolved around two characters; Lou and Will, duh! The personality of both the characters, I found repulsive, however, I would rank Louisa the worse. Speaking of the former character, Louisa Clark, I found her to be immature considering the facts that she is okay with 'any' job she finds, she is okay with her boyfriend even after stumbling upon the negative qualities of her boyfriend with open eyes and she has got no skill for the job she was assigned to do. Speaking of the first point, people may argue by pointing out the burden of poverty she had on her shoulder; but in my opinion, that is not a justifiable ground for her to rationalize or play the victim card to defend her deficiency of skill which she didn't even try to ameliorate throughout the entire story. 

Will Traynor, on the other hand, despite being in the wheel chair he is a successful and an ambitious person. At least, he used to be one. Speaking from a deep tone being constantly encouraged by the cold heart I have got, no sickness or weakness gives you the 'right' to be an arrogant person. The way Will's ego despite crossing the border between individualistic personality and self obsessed, was being pampered by his mom and being glorified by will himself forced me to feel worse about him as a person than about the accident he had to face out of misfortune. 

Now comes the reason why I liked Will Traynor more than Louisa Clark. In the end of the book, we found Louisa to be completely different from the previous version of her. The changes she has made to herself, I felt, was never the 'divine power' of love or something. She was just influenced by the words of Will and faced them since those were few easy challenges one can bet on. She stepped out of her comfort zone, because Will had forced her to do so. This single point makes my judgement on both the characters clear-

• I disliked Louisa because she was easily influenced and was solely depended on Will. (she was dependent on her previous boyfriend too; but this time she relied on someone better- let's not confuse it with Lou being individualistically ambitious)
• I liked Will, because he played the role of a pioneer of pushing Lou in a better direction.

So, amalgamating and preparing a good proportion between the thoughts I had regarding both the characters, I found 'Me Before You' to be immensely a good read. Though I am an unromantic person, but I liked the way the book either glorified or just merely depicted the power of love (only the author knows). 

In the places when the narrator changed, I found it difficult to continue since I had to process so many things in my head. Being bewildered by encountering multiple minds' thoughts, I thought of skipping a short chapter and the rest of the story still made sense. That being said, I found the chapter where the narrator was changed to be completely useless. 

Rest was great! I do not regret reading the book, though it failed to make me cry which I was willing to experience.

Score: 7/10

Comment: There is a sequel of it. I am unsure if I am waiting to read it with alacrity. Moyes's usage of vocabulary is commendable.