Me Before You

Me Before You

By Jojo Moyes

The main character of the book is Louisa "Lou" Clark, a twenty-six years old that lives in a small and boring town with her family, and she has a boyfriend, Patrick who works as a personal trainer. They've been together for 7 years now.

She feels constantly outshone by her sister, that even though had a baby when she was still in college, seems to be more smart, ambitious than Lou, according to her.

Unambitious and with a few qualifications, she lose her job at the local café, so she has to "restart" from the beginning.

She start looking for a job but there aren't really so many opportunities in there. But one day she is offered a unique job opportunity: help to take care of Will Traynor, a young, successful and once-active man that now has a quadriplegia due to a pedestrian-motorcycle accident of two years ago.

Will's mother, Camilla, hires Lou thinking that she can brighten his spirit.

Here Lou meets Nathan, Will's nurse and Steven, Will's father, whose marriage with Camilla seems to be strained.

Louisa and Will's relationship starts out rocky due to his behaviour and bitterness because of the situation he is in.

Things get worse when Will finds out that his ex-girlfriend, Alicia, and best friend, Rupert, they're getting married.

Thanks to Louisa, Will becomes more open-minded and talkative and they start sharing experiences together.

At some point Louisa then notices his scarred wrists and overhears Mrs. Traynor and Will's sister's conversation about his attempted suicide when she refused him to go to Dignitas (a Swiss-based assisted suicide organisation).

She's obviously shocked by it and she then realizes why she was hired. To help him not commit suicide anymore.

Horrified by his attempt, Camilla agreed to help go to Dignitas, but only if he would have give her another six months, because she believes that in time, he will understand that his life can be worth it.

At first she doesn't understand how could a mother do that, but she accepts to try to help him change his mind.

Will will then accept to be shaved by Louisa and he will let her cut his hair too. The two will get closer, because she starts to take him out.

«I just... want to be a man who has been to a concert

 with a girl in a red dress, Just for a few minutes more.»

Thanks to their conversations, Louisa will find out that Will travelled a lot and that his favourite place is a café in Paris. Noticing how limited her life is and that she didn't have so many experiences, Will tries to motivate her somehow to help her change.

What will their relationship entail? Will Louisa be able to change his mind? 

The book is highly recommended as it is very realistic, which is why I give it a 5/5 rating. It is very smooth and not with many pages. It will keep you hooked until the very end :)

The author also wrote two other books connected with this story, "After You" and the new one "Still Me", but the first remains the best one.