Review: Me Before You

Jojo Moyes’ novel tells the story of the friendship and romance of Will Traylor and Louisa Clark. Will is confined to a wheelchair with no use of any of his body below his chest. This was caused when a motorbike crashed into Will as he was crossing the street. The terrible irony is that he decided that morning not to ride his own bike due to rain and he did not what to take any unnecessary risks. He was a man of adventure imprisoned in his own body. Louisa is hired two years later after Will has tried to commit suicide. Over the course of the novel she makes it her mission to show him what life can still offer.

Moyes uses these characters to demonstrate to readers how important it is to live your life to the fullest. So you will not pass with regrets. Just as Louisa attempts to show to Will what life can offer, Will attempts to do the same with Louisa. They live in a small town in England, with an economy dependent on tourists coming to visit the castle there. Louisa has been with the same man for seven years up to this point, and has no desire to change her life, satisfied with the mundane. What is most enjoyable about the novel is the friendship that Will and Louisa develop, the ways that Will challenges Louisa, and how she reminds him how to be happy.

Despite the novel falling into the genre of a romance, a descent portion of the book is dedicated to the friendship between Will and Louisa. The two spend their days with each other, learning very intimate details about the other. Especially Louisa, who must help feed Will and accomplish small tasks such as turning the television on and off. This is very awkward to start, but eventually it is like Louisa can read his mind, “I fed Will another piece, and then some bread when I saw him glance at it. I had, I realized in that moment, become so attuned to Will’s needs that I barely needed to look at him to work out what he wanted” (Moyes 177). Because the two are in each other’s company from eight to five everyday it speeds up the relationship to the place that many couples do not achieve for at least a year in.

Louisa is not a very adventurous girl, she is in her late twenties and she probably has not been outside of England, despite Paris being only two hours away ("London to Paris"). Her family has little means and rarely strays outside her comfort zone. But Will Traynor challenges that, pushes her to try new things. When she hesitates he gets her to dive in, “‘Not ‘perhaps.’ You’ve got to get away from here, Clark. Promise me you won’t spend the rest of your life stuck around this bloody parody of a place mat…You only get one life. It’s actually your duty to live it as fully as possible’” (Moyes 194). The book can quite honestly be summed up in that statement from Will. This is the way he lived his life before he got in the accident. Now that he is severely limited it is all the more frustrating when he meets someone who is letting their own life slip by. He encourages Louisa to look for a life that not only makes her happy, but excited. By his perspective it is not enough to be simply content with your life, you should want to jump out of bed at the crack of dawn to get to living all the sooner.

After living the way that Will did it is almost impossible to imagine how a person could be happy in a life like that, and for Will (before Louisa) it is impossible. To the point of becoming so depressed he is suicidal. This is the state that Louisa comes to him in, but in two short months she is able to start to turn him around. “I wanted him to be happy – for his face to lose that haunted, watchful look. I gabbled. I told jokes. I started to hum. Anything to prolong the moment before he looked grim again” (Moyes 97). Will can never return to life that he had before the accident, and he has been sulking in that for two years. He had nothing else to think about, so Louisa provides that. She does not treat him like a child and begins to work for those small moments when he smiles. What makes him happiest are mundane moments where he is treated like an adult, like getting to make his own decisions.

Moyes’ story continues a conversation that John Green speaks to with The Fault in Our Stars, about what to do with our lives. In Me Before You Moyes makes that argument that what is most important is to find a meaningful, and exciting life. She creates the characters Will and Louisa to go on that journey to find it, and creates a friendship that lets them challenge each other. They each make the other better in one way or another over time. Overall this was a fantastic read, though I recommend reading it with a box of tissues or chocolate, or (my method) a small furry pet close by to catch any sadness that falls from your eyes.

Works Cited

“London, England to Paris, France.” Map. Google Maps. Google, 17 May 2016. Web. 17 May 2016.

Moyes, Jojo. Me Before You. New York: Penguin Books, 2012. Print.

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