Book Review: After You

This review contains spoilers.

After You
By Jojo Moyes
Viking, 2015

In this sequel to Me Before You, Louisa recounts her surge towards a new life right after Will's death. Heading out in Paris to "live boldly", she found herself in a downward spiral after the initial high of receiving Will's legacy. The old folks back in England are in a bad state of mind and heart like Louisa except for Nathan, who seems to be the only one who has his act together.

At the end of Me Before You, Louisa received a letter from Will that explained what he wants her to do with her life. It took her more than a year to figure things out and the reader is taken to witness the ups and down of Louisa's grieving process.

What worked

Will is now an invisible character in the novel, but his presence is strongly felt by those who love him dearly. His father, though starting a family of his own, is in a state of melancholy. His mother has turned into a hermit whose only way of coping is through gardening. Louisa struggles the most with the guilt, the loss and the pressure of living boldly. How can you really live with great abandon and positivity after death. Enter the weekly counseling and therapy session, which Louisa attended after her fall from her apartment's rooftop. In the company of people who experienced a loss, Louisa found common ground in a process that is not as easy as it looks especially for the reader, like myself, who has been invested in the Will and Louisa love team.

New characters emerge and were introduced in funny and surprising events. There is Will's long lost daughter, Lily. Sam the paramedic and a host of new friends Louisa was able to make along the way that helped her overcome the mourning process. How conjoined death and living are. Even Louisa's family felt the effect of Will's death through her. Take for example, her mother's sudden turn to feminism and her sister's aggressive attempts to wake her up from a zombie-like existence.

In the end, Louisa made the choice to just live and to live life well. This second book stays true to its message that free will, our capacity to make our own choices enables us to live boldly and to love fully. And this was amplified once more from Sam's choice to let Louisa take that job in New York. After You is indeed a romance story that broke the typical happily ever after mould.

What did not work

Lily's arrival in Louisa's life after Will's death is, really, ah, surprising. But, Will was introduced as a playboy early on, so why am I surprised to find Lily at Louisa's rooftop? Because the only lasting relationship Will had before his accident was with Lissa. Lily was a blast from the past. It could have worked better if in the first novel, there was a mention or an indication of a tryst that may have resulted in an unexpected pregnancy of one of Will's girls.

Overall, Afyer You is a sequel that fits the closure (or is it - because it is interesting to figure out how Sam and Lou plan to work out a long distance relationship) to a beautiful and unforgettable love story.

Rating: 3.5 Bookmarks

Book Review: Me Before You

SPOILERS ALERT.

SPOILERS ALERT.

SPOILERS ALERT.

You have been warned.

Me Before You
By Jojo Moyes
Penguin, 2013

I rode the bandwagon for this book. I knew it was a best seller in Amazon a few years back, but I was still in my Rainbow Rowell phase then. With the movie's trailer scattered all over social media,  starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin, I made the jump and boy, did I get a wallop.

Me Before You is the story of Louisa Clarke and Will Traynor. Two very different people who were thrown together into circumstances they have no control of. Both discovered love but in the end, it was the choices they made that defined who they were for each other.

What worked

Louisa and Will have chemistry. Like opposite poles of a magnet, they were drawn to each other instantly. Moyes, however, revealed this so carefully through well developed characterization of Louisa and restraint in keeping Will's mindscape from the reader. It is through her description of Will's actions and subtle affections towards Lou, the events that they are put together and the plotting of crucial events, like the family dinner, the wedding and their trip to the maze that made him such a darling despite his bossy exterior. Lou may seem like a teenager at age twenty six, but Moyes was able to present why this was so in an experience that left her fearful and cautious. Thus, her child like qualities of transparency, cheerfulness and sincerity scored big time not only in readers' hearts, but in Will's as well.

Their banter and witty conversations were delightful to read. It was easy to love these two. Indeed, this is the couple worth rooting for. That is why, when the time came for Will to end his life, tears can't be helped but pour out.

That was the most difficult part for me. It was tough letting go of Will and seeing Lou in misery. What now? After all the effort and the love, the sacrifice and the suffering, Will has chosen to leave her with an impressive inheritance and inspiring words to live by. How can one's joy be a source of pain? Yes, this is love that is true, but the choice to leave and to let go is a way of loving too. Isn't it? Or is it?

I couldn't help but think how unfair Will had been to Lou. On the one hand, he was fair and humane to her considering that she deserves a better man who could give her, not just inspiring words to go and live boldly, to see the world and to conquer one's fears but for her to be loved as a woman should be loved. Something that Will was very good at before being confined to a wheel chair.

What did not work

Which is my issue at the end of the book. I want to know what happens to Lou after Will. She deserves her happily ever after or a closure that would tell me that things are going to be alright.

This is why, I am off to read the sequel, After You.

Over all, I love the book because of its fearless narration of how love can bring out the best in us and that loving is the respect we give to the ones we love as they make choices we often couldn't fully grasp.

Rating: 4 Bookmarks