A Review of 'Me Before You' by Jojo Moyles

In the limited spare time that I have one of the things I enjoy doing most is losing myself in a good book.  Having joined a book club about a year ago my range of reading has definitely widened and there have been quite a few good reads in that time along with one or two less successful ones!  However it is very rare to read something so good that you want to stop everything and stay within the world that the characters in the novel inhabit.

I know that I normally do not do book reviews and no-one has asked me to promote this novel, but I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to share it with you.

'Me Before You' by Jojo Moyles is a beautifully written story about Lou Clark & Will Traynor.  She is a 27 year old woman living at home, happy in her little world until she loses her job and finds herself working as a carer for quadriplegic Will Traynor.  He has been injured two years previously and is bitter about the loss everything in his life that had been important.  From his job and his holidays to his girlfriend there is nothing left.  The story is about their relationship and how it builds and develops from it's very rocky start.

We see how hard the daily routing is for Will and the constant pain he is in.  We watch as Lou learns to help with his medication, how to help feed him and gets to a point of understanding his needs so that it becomes second nature to her.  We see the anguish of Will's mother and the discomfort in the eyes of strangers, but we also see how Will wants to broaden Lou's horizons and how she manages to get him to leave the comfort blanket of the annexe where he lives.  We see the banter between the two of them and the strengthening of their feelings for each other.

Although written mainly through the voice of Lou, there are some other chapters where characters such as her sister or Will's father have their take on what is happening, and this is what helps to make it such a rounded story.  The characters are so real that you feel as if you know them and the dialogue so natural that we could be speaking ourselves.  

However this is more than just a love story.  At the centre of this is a moral dilemma which  will impact on everyone's lives.  (You need to read it to find out what it is).  In my heart I knew what I wanted to happen but in my head I wasn't so sure, and I was hoping as much as Lou for what she wanted.  I laughed and cried, and I finished the book thinking Jojo Moyles had got it completely right.  

Football Family

Sitting at home on a Saturday evening we have somewhat inevitably ended up watching the Champions League Final.  Our family are not Chelsea fans and we have no vested interest in the result as it does not affect our team, so why are sitting here at 10.10 in the evening wondering if we will be watching penalties in a few minutes?

I know many will say that with an all male household (apart from me) I am daft to expect anything else and perhaps I am.  I remember that as soon as they could toddle around the garden the boys would instinctively kick any ball they saw.  This wasn't me showing them or influence from anywhere, it was just something they did.

All the boys love football.  Each one has played for the school, in a local team or in an after school club and if they are not actually kicking the ball they are watching football, discussing it, putting comments on Facebook & Twitter, or winding up their friends in a text.

Football is all consuming and last weekend when Manchester United lost, won and finally lost the league title to their rivals there was an air of depression.  Any true fan will know this is not an exaggeration as the strength of feeling by a supporter cannot be underestimated.  I remember my brother at a pay phone from a school trip calling my parents in tears as his team had lost the FA Cup.

As I am writing this the two teams have just finished extra time and now it is penalties.  This is often the time I have peered through my fingers and I ask the boys what is happening.  I am not as good as them at the stressful bits of the games!

After tonight the focus will be on the Euros and then the discussion will be on any signings and changes before the new season begins again.  Football never really disappears it just has slightly less prominence in our lives. 

As I sit here Chelsea have just won the Champions League and perhaps now I can subtly turn over the TV to something else!  Tomorrow we have our own end of season presentation to go to and then we will have our weekend back for a few weeks before it all starts again.  Whoever it was that said that football is more than just a game must have been looking through our window.