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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
As it appears on The Accidental Reader
Once I read the first two pages of the book I immediately understood that this will be a hard book to judge, it is nothing like the books I read before but it is so beautiful and sad and a huge tear jerker.
It starts with a small background story that initially a lot of us may not understand and it moves on in the present with Lou.
An ordinary woman in her mid 20's. A woman with no real interests and no adventurous life but with a scary experience behind her. When Lou loses her job because of the financial crisis she is over herself because her family has it hard. She knows that there is no way that she will find a decent job in order to support herself and her family and she seems to lose hope when she visits the unemployment office the only available job for her is as a carer for a quadriplegic man. She has no experience over this but then again she doesnt have experience in anything at all its the money that she needs and the pay is good that motivate her to go in for the interview.
Once she is hired she comes face to face with Will. A 35 year old man in a wheel chair unable to move from his chest and down. An ex businessman, he used to be encircled by fame, women sex and luxury and now he is being Lou's nightmare on a wheel chair. She is uncomfortable being around him he is making her life a living hell with his attitude and here starts adventure.
While the book moves on we start to see the real reason Will is treating Lou like that. That he is fighting for his right to have a say in his life now that his mother wants to control most of it out of fear that he will attempt suicide. Now that he is unable to take control of his own life by himself, that he constantly needs someone there to help him with everything. Deep inside we see a man thinking of his amazing and adventurous past and comparing it to the dull and full with misery future that expects him. He simply didnt chose this life for himself. Here we experience the great writing of the author. Although the perspective is from Lou;s point of view we get to know Will a lot better.
We get to see Lou getting attracted to him as he is being a little nicer to him, how she tries to cheer him and actually change her life for the best because of him. How she doing a great research on quadriplegics and the effort she puts in making Will's life easier. But to all that there is a reason.
Some of you may be little reluctant when it comes to the subject of the book. Its a really complicated story that evolves in a love story and how a small decision can change your life for ever. We see how a person can change who you are in a matter of a few months. That was the most beautiful part of the book , how I, the reader got to bond with Will and Lou. Their personalities are so alive, so full of life that I laughed and cried with them. They made me see things from a different perspective.
Moyes does not preach or judge of anyones ethics and decisions and she is really going through the stages of life and how an accident can change you. She gives some interesting perspectives on subjects but still she is letting the reader decide what to believe and what to judge. For me this is amazing storytelling.
I will definitely come back to this book again one day. In my opinion this is a book for those who like books that make you think , books that make you cry and books that the ending always leaves a taste bittersweet and for a lot of thought. Definitely worthed it.
Once I read the first two pages of the book I immediately understood that this will be a hard book to judge, it is nothing like the books I read before but it is so beautiful and sad and a huge tear jerker.
It starts with a small background story that initially a lot of us may not understand and it moves on in the present with Lou.
An ordinary woman in her mid 20's. A woman with no real interests and no adventurous life but with a scary experience behind her. When Lou loses her job because of the financial crisis she is over herself because her family has it hard. She knows that there is no way that she will find a decent job in order to support herself and her family and she seems to lose hope when she visits the unemployment office the only available job for her is as a carer for a quadriplegic man. She has no experience over this but then again she doesnt have experience in anything at all its the money that she needs and the pay is good that motivate her to go in for the interview.
Once she is hired she comes face to face with Will. A 35 year old man in a wheel chair unable to move from his chest and down. An ex businessman, he used to be encircled by fame, women sex and luxury and now he is being Lou's nightmare on a wheel chair. She is uncomfortable being around him he is making her life a living hell with his attitude and here starts adventure.
While the book moves on we start to see the real reason Will is treating Lou like that. That he is fighting for his right to have a say in his life now that his mother wants to control most of it out of fear that he will attempt suicide. Now that he is unable to take control of his own life by himself, that he constantly needs someone there to help him with everything. Deep inside we see a man thinking of his amazing and adventurous past and comparing it to the dull and full with misery future that expects him. He simply didnt chose this life for himself. Here we experience the great writing of the author. Although the perspective is from Lou;s point of view we get to know Will a lot better.
We get to see Lou getting attracted to him as he is being a little nicer to him, how she tries to cheer him and actually change her life for the best because of him. How she doing a great research on quadriplegics and the effort she puts in making Will's life easier. But to all that there is a reason.
Some of you may be little reluctant when it comes to the subject of the book. Its a really complicated story that evolves in a love story and how a small decision can change your life for ever. We see how a person can change who you are in a matter of a few months. That was the most beautiful part of the book , how I, the reader got to bond with Will and Lou. Their personalities are so alive, so full of life that I laughed and cried with them. They made me see things from a different perspective.
Moyes does not preach or judge of anyones ethics and decisions and she is really going through the stages of life and how an accident can change you. She gives some interesting perspectives on subjects but still she is letting the reader decide what to believe and what to judge. For me this is amazing storytelling.
I will definitely come back to this book again one day. In my opinion this is a book for those who like books that make you think , books that make you cry and books that the ending always leaves a taste bittersweet and for a lot of thought. Definitely worthed it.
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am not a crier, but I BAWLED throughout the end of this one. It's going to stick with me for a while. I see the points that members of the disabled community have made with this book, but I felt that Jojo Moyes really laid the groundwork for these characters and made it clear that this was Will's story, not one that was meant to be representative of everyone. There's actually a lot to add about class and how it drove Will's thought process in this situation.
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Friendly warning: My review may contain spoilers so beware if you haven't read the book and are sensitive to such things.
I read After You before its prequel, Me before You, and while I wish I had read them in the right order, I gained an interesting perspective reading them in reverse. This was the third book in the last month that I have read by Jojo Moyes, and it's my least favorite and I still loved it. The Girl You Left Behind is my true favorite and After You my second favorite, even though I was so fed up with Lily, the spoiled little brat, but alas, annoying characters are part of a great story.
I was far more attuned to the audio version and the reader's voice in After You that it took me a few hours into the book to warm up to this female version of Louisa Clarke, but warm up I did, and I stayed up late, laying on the carpet, stretching my limbs and listening to the final hours of the story of Louisa Clarke and Will Trainer. It was truly a lovely story, even if you had to tolerate way too much of Patrick (aka, running man! yikes!) and too little of the love story between Louisa and Will - it really didn't come into play until the latter part of the book, and it ended almost before it started.
Jojo Moyes grapples with some complex themes, the biggest one the choice of self-assisted suicides for those terminally ill and suffering, and whether this is something their families and loved ones and the right 'authorities' should allow or deny. I learned quite a bit about the limited life of quadriplegics and admired Louisa's determination to help Will find a thread of hope in the living side. And yet I couldn't help but see Will's side of life in this way versus life the way he had known it, and despite the love that had grown in his heart, he couldn't bear the thought of living this way. Dying looked more appealing than living in his condition, and that made this book a terribly sad story to read.
I wasn't crazy about the break in the choice of narrators especially since NONE of them included Will. One chapter was by Trina the sister, another by Nathan the medical care provider and another by Mrs. Trainer and yet another by Mr. Trainer, but mainly we saw the world through third-person limited view of Louisa Clark, but this did afford you the 360 view into the tragic lives of those affected by such awful twists in fate.
Overall, I LOVE love LOVE this author. Jojo Moyes is funny, smart, both heart-wrenching and heart-warming, and draws up characters and circumstances and lives so real that you feel you are there with them, watching them go through their conflict and triumphs and being as real as your own breathing! Plus I'm now into my modern English female novelists phase, so I'll be reading more of her work.
What would you do if you were a 35-year old most successful, admirable, adventurous, physical, wealthy and life-hungry person and an accident took all that away from you, leaving you at the mercy and burden of others to take care of you, to see to your every need and to go through hell with you. What if you knew that not only you won't be getting better, but you will actually be getting worse, with frequent bouts of pneumonia and various infections, and a very good chance of some bacteria or virus taking over at anytime and declaring you finished. Just like that.
Maybe a part of you might choose a dignified way of dying, on your terms, on your chosen day and hour, with all who love you surrounding you.
This is a book that shows us to respect the choice and decisions of those who are most affected by their own affliction, and to honor the choice of life or death, whatever their wish may be, even if our own selfish desires would rather see the suffering person among the living. It's a vastly complex and yet simple theme and Jojo Moyes does a brilliant job of exploring it to its very core.
I read After You before its prequel, Me before You, and while I wish I had read them in the right order, I gained an interesting perspective reading them in reverse. This was the third book in the last month that I have read by Jojo Moyes, and it's my least favorite and I still loved it. The Girl You Left Behind is my true favorite and After You my second favorite, even though I was so fed up with Lily, the spoiled little brat, but alas, annoying characters are part of a great story.
I was far more attuned to the audio version and the reader's voice in After You that it took me a few hours into the book to warm up to this female version of Louisa Clarke, but warm up I did, and I stayed up late, laying on the carpet, stretching my limbs and listening to the final hours of the story of Louisa Clarke and Will Trainer. It was truly a lovely story, even if you had to tolerate way too much of Patrick (aka, running man! yikes!) and too little of the love story between Louisa and Will - it really didn't come into play until the latter part of the book, and it ended almost before it started.
Jojo Moyes grapples with some complex themes, the biggest one the choice of self-assisted suicides for those terminally ill and suffering, and whether this is something their families and loved ones and the right 'authorities' should allow or deny. I learned quite a bit about the limited life of quadriplegics and admired Louisa's determination to help Will find a thread of hope in the living side. And yet I couldn't help but see Will's side of life in this way versus life the way he had known it, and despite the love that had grown in his heart, he couldn't bear the thought of living this way. Dying looked more appealing than living in his condition, and that made this book a terribly sad story to read.
I wasn't crazy about the break in the choice of narrators especially since NONE of them included Will. One chapter was by Trina the sister, another by Nathan the medical care provider and another by Mrs. Trainer and yet another by Mr. Trainer, but mainly we saw the world through third-person limited view of Louisa Clark, but this did afford you the 360 view into the tragic lives of those affected by such awful twists in fate.
Overall, I LOVE love LOVE this author. Jojo Moyes is funny, smart, both heart-wrenching and heart-warming, and draws up characters and circumstances and lives so real that you feel you are there with them, watching them go through their conflict and triumphs and being as real as your own breathing! Plus I'm now into my modern English female novelists phase, so I'll be reading more of her work.
What would you do if you were a 35-year old most successful, admirable, adventurous, physical, wealthy and life-hungry person and an accident took all that away from you, leaving you at the mercy and burden of others to take care of you, to see to your every need and to go through hell with you. What if you knew that not only you won't be getting better, but you will actually be getting worse, with frequent bouts of pneumonia and various infections, and a very good chance of some bacteria or virus taking over at anytime and declaring you finished. Just like that.
Maybe a part of you might choose a dignified way of dying, on your terms, on your chosen day and hour, with all who love you surrounding you.
This is a book that shows us to respect the choice and decisions of those who are most affected by their own affliction, and to honor the choice of life or death, whatever their wish may be, even if our own selfish desires would rather see the suffering person among the living. It's a vastly complex and yet simple theme and Jojo Moyes does a brilliant job of exploring it to its very core.
The ending was predictable... however, it was still a fairly cute read.
There are some slow parts but the parts with depth and transparency are lovely and make it worth it!
There are some slow parts but the parts with depth and transparency are lovely and make it worth it!
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated