Have you ever read a book that made you cry? For example, did you cry in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when (spoiler alert if you’ve been living under a rock) Mad Eye Moody, Hedwig and Dobby die, or later in the book when Fred, Tonks, and Lupin all die? Me Before You by Jojo Moyes is a novel in which you may find yourself reduced to tears or throwing the book across the room.
Louisa Clark is a 27 year-old woman living of life of static stability with a small town job, steady boyfriend, and supportive family. Lou soon finds herself desperately looking for a new job and she applies for a position as a caretaker for a quadriplegic man.
On Lou’s first day, we share her apprehension and quite apparent awkwardness as she is introduced to a man in his thirties named Will Traynor. Will went from being a mountain-climbing, crazy adventurer to being confined in a wheelchair in the split second due to an accident outside his apartment. Now, instead of being a ruthless financier, he spends his days in his parents’ upscale home being cared for and waited on. Lou’s job, as described by Will’s mother, is to be a day companion for Will to cheer him up. What Lou doesn’t know, is that Will has told his parents that after six months, he wants to end his own life.
Suddenly, Lou finds herself thrown into the task of showing Will how to be happy and how to make a new life for himself. With her, we experience a small bit of Will’s life as an extremely disabled person as she attempts to take him on outings or entertain him from the house. In public, people stare and are unsure how to act. Inside, Will suffers from pain and is constantly battling possible infections with antibiotics. And meanwhile, his ex-girlfriend is marrying his best friend, proving that life doesn’t slow down even for those literally stopped in their tracks.
Moyes is gifted in allowing the reader to feel everything that Lou is feeling as she is immersed in Will’s life. Honestly, there is nothing particularly extraordinary about Lou, nor is there anything supremely noble about Will. However before we know it, our hopes are on a rollercoaster with them, flying through the good days and trying to push through the bad ones. We are involved and can’t stop reading, though we may occasionally need to take some deep breaths to quell the tumultuous feelings that Moyes has brilliantly stirred.
It’s slowly that Lou realizes the depth of her feelings for Will, and that we readers realize that we are captivated by our own questions about morality and the importance of a life worth living. We learn that sometimes, the small moments that we live to treasure are not always enough. By the end, even the strongest of us are tearing up, because we can’t choose how this story ends.
