Publisher: Michael Joseph
Release Date: 5 January 2012
Rating: *****
The back cover blurb:
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.
I was hooked from the very first page of this novel. This doesn't usually happen. It usually takes me at least the first chapter for me to settle in and decide if I am to continue. Especially if it's a book by an author I'm not familiar with.
Anyone reading the blurb on the back of the book, writing it off as just another 'love story' will be disappointed. It is MUCH more than that.
The story focuses on Will Traynor, a guy who had a fantastic, privileged life that he lived to the full, until a tragic accident, and Louisa Clark, a small-town girl who works selflessly to help provide for her slightly dysfunctional family. Usually their worlds would not be further apart, until a cruel twist of fate which sees Louisa down on her luck after loosing her job and reluctantly forced (by the job centre) into taking a job as a carer for a quadriplegic man - Will.
I don't want to give too much of the book away, because I really believe it's something you should read yourself. It is definitely a book I will be reading again.
It is beautifully written and really makes you think about life, how you should live it to the full, and not take anything (or anyone) for granted. The complex issues are dealt with sympathetically, but that's not to say it's not an emotive subject, and the ending of the book is a real tear jerker.
Personally I have never read anything by this author before, but if her other books are as thoughtfully written, then I would have no hesitation in giving them a try.
I also think this book would make an amazing film, but don't take my word for it, give it a go for yourself.
You can buy 'Me Before You' online from Amazon and all good book shops.
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