After You is JoJo Moyes much anticipated sequel to Me Before You, a book I read on holiday a few years ago and cried myself to sleep after I finished it. So I was expecting more of the same from the follow up.
If you haven't read Me Before You then stop reading right now as you absolutely need to have read the first book to read this book. This review contains spoilers if you plan on reading it just stop.
(Anyone still there?)
Ok, so if you at still reading you know what happened to Will at the end of After You *cue tears* but what became of Lou?
We pick up with Lou 18mths on, after being forced to flee her home by the finger pointing gossips, she is living in a flat in East London, bought with the money Will left her. Despite Will's wish for her to 'just live well' she is working a dead end job in an airport pub, she has become estranged from her mother and generally lost herself. She spends her evenings drinking on her roof and when an unexpected visitor causes her to accidentally fall off the roof a new chapter begins and a new cast of characters mixing with familiar faces.
With such high expectations this book could easily have been a let down but It is an absolute success. Moyes has the ability to handle the difficult subject of grief while still making us chuckle at the situations Lou finds herself in. The journey from being lost and coming back to life is perfectly narrated with some big jolts which shake the story up and stop it from being just a sequel and allow the book to have it's own life. Saying that I do not think I could have got as much from the book without having first read Me Before You. To properly understand the relationship Will and Lou had forms a solid foundation for continuing the story.
Bravo JoJo. I really hope there is a third book as I'm sure there is more to Lou's story.
5/5
Linking up to #readwithme, #twinklytuesday and #triedtested
(Anyone still there?)
Ok, so if you at still reading you know what happened to Will at the end of After You *cue tears* but what became of Lou?
We pick up with Lou 18mths on, after being forced to flee her home by the finger pointing gossips, she is living in a flat in East London, bought with the money Will left her. Despite Will's wish for her to 'just live well' she is working a dead end job in an airport pub, she has become estranged from her mother and generally lost herself. She spends her evenings drinking on her roof and when an unexpected visitor causes her to accidentally fall off the roof a new chapter begins and a new cast of characters mixing with familiar faces.
With such high expectations this book could easily have been a let down but It is an absolute success. Moyes has the ability to handle the difficult subject of grief while still making us chuckle at the situations Lou finds herself in. The journey from being lost and coming back to life is perfectly narrated with some big jolts which shake the story up and stop it from being just a sequel and allow the book to have it's own life. Saying that I do not think I could have got as much from the book without having first read Me Before You. To properly understand the relationship Will and Lou had forms a solid foundation for continuing the story.
Bravo JoJo. I really hope there is a third book as I'm sure there is more to Lou's story.
5/5
Linking up to #readwithme, #twinklytuesday and #triedtested
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