Mini Review | Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Series: Me Before You #1
Published On: January 5, 2012
Published By: Penguin
Genre: Chick Lit, Realistic Fiction
Pages: 481
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
Narrated By: Jo Hall, Anna Bentinck, Steve Crossley, Alex Tregear, Owen Linsday, Andrew Wincott
Rating: ★★★★

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Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. 
What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane. 
Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that. 
What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

Oh man, this book!
I really like this book and I wasn't sure I would. I was so put off by the hype that I was starting to question whether I wanted to read it or if I should just watch the movie. I'm so glad I read it as I liked it so much more than I was expecting to.

These characters stole my heart.
I really enjoyed reading about these characters and particularly enjoyed how completely different Lou and Will were. I loved Lou's quirkiness and how just plain odd she was, she was such a fun main character. I also really loved Will, how rude, blunt and sarcastic he was for much of the book.

I laughed out loud.
All everyone says about this book is how much it made them cry, so I was not expecting to be full on laughing out loud and getting strange looks from passers-by while I was listening to this in my car. It is a sad book overall but there were so many really hilarious moments.

Can I join the Clark family?
I absolutely loved Lou's family dynamic. I loved reading about her family in general but in particular I loved her relationship with her parents and her sister. I thought they added a lot to the story, especially having Treena help Lou to deal with such a difficult situation.

Some aspects made me uncomfortable.
As a healthcare professional, I did find the whole 'carer'/'patient' relationship a bit uncomfortable to read about. I know that wasn't exactly what this relationship was as Lou wasn't technically Will's nurse or official carer but as I have been trained to see that situation as wrong, it was difficult to read about at times.

This is such an important topic.
I don't want to go into specifics as I'm not entirely sure what is and isn't considered a spoiler. However, I think the main theme of this book is something that needs to be talked about more and I really appreciated the fact that this could encourage some very important conversation.

I didn't ugly cry.
Almost every review I have read for this book has mentioned something about ugly crying but it just didn't have that impact on me. I am the kind of person that cries at books, and I did get a little teary, but I just didn't get as emotional as others seemed to.

Audiobook was great.
I really loved listening to this on audiobook. I thought the narrator was great and actually sounded exactly as I would expect Lou to. I think it really added to the whole experience of reading this book.

So much criticism.
Upon finishing this book, I came across so much criticism for it. I can understand a lot of where that criticism is coming from and I really wanted to address that in my review but really I just have too much to say on the matter, so I have posted a separate discussion on my thoughts surrounding that, which you can find here.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and was glad I didn't let the hype put me off. Although it is a predominantly quite sad book, it was written in a way that allowed for a lot of very funny, light-hearted moments that I really enjoyed. There is a sequel, which many people say was a bit unnecessary, but I am interested in checking it out in the future.