I woke up this morning with a bit of time to spare before my 8:30 gym class. I thought I’d read a quick chapter and then head out. Then I decided to keep reading and hit the 9:30 class. Then I gave up all hope that I would be leaving my bed before I finished this INCREDIBLE book. Five hours later, I flipped the last page to realize I was littered in tissues and absolutely starving. I literally couldn’t put it down. I cursed Jessica for recommending it and throwing my entire day into an unproductive mess. And then I thanked her for making my heart so full I can barely contain it. (How does she do that!?) Seriously, read this post, then go buy this book.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Before we dive into this gem, a couple of questions:
1. Do you have a 2-3 day stretch of time in which you can neglect all responsibilities and do nothing but devour this book?
2. Are you stocked up on Kleenex?
If you’ve answered “yes” to both of the above, please proceed. You will not be sorry. You will cry buckets. You will question whether or not you’re living your life to its fullest potential. You will realize (but not care) that you’ve accomplished nothing between the time you opened this book to the time you finished it. Nothing.
Me Before You is about Louisa, whose life has stalled. She still lives with her parents, who depend on her salary to live, and has just been laid off from her job as a waitress in a coffee shop. She’s got no ambition, no dreams beyond not letting her family starve. So, she takes a job as a caregiver to Will, who’s only recently had an accident which left him a quadraplegic. He is also suddenly living with his parents, after leading a life of non-stop adventure, promise and privilege. Though the two are from the same country village, their paths would never have crossed if Will wasn’t suddenly dependent on others for even the simplest of tasks. Forced to spend countless hours together, the two eventually explore together what it would take for each of them to lead a full and happy life.
This is the sweetest, most emotional and hopeful book I’ve come across in a long time. Before you’ve reached the 100th page, you find that you care about the characters in it as much as you care about the real people in your life. And you desperately want for them to find whatever it is they’re looking for. Because of that, you cannot stop reading, even though it might be past midnight and you have to work in the morning, or maybe you forgot to eat all day and you’re trying to feed yourself without taking your eyes off the page and you’re not so great at finding your mouth with a fork. No, you’ll keep reading. Everything else can wait. xo, Jessica