REVIEW: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (ALERT!! mild spoilers ahead)

After bumping into it on many self proclaimed lists of ‘best books’, I signed into my Amazon India account and placed an order for ‘Me Before You’ by Jojo Moyes on 25^th November, 2013. But it just sat there on my bookshelf waiting to be read all these days as I went for it each time only to end up living through a completely different book.

Having picked up a love story after ages, I dreadfully flinched when the presence of the  exhaustingly exhausted ‘poor girl meets rich guy’ basic plot seeped into me. If you’ve read even a few love stories, you’ll recognise this theme to be highly exploited and over done. Though disappointed, owing to my inability to leave a book half read (until it’s so painful that my eyes and the pages both bleed), I read on.

As Louisa Clark went on with her story, there were bits when I turned to look away from her life yawning and actually reading in bed just so I could fall asleep quicker. This ceased to be true once the very truth of her work contract dawned upon us. And from here on, I turned each page desperate to know what would happen next. Would Will really kill himself? Was it alright for him to do so? Would he be able to look at the brighter side of things? Would he recover? Was it possible? Was there anything else up with Mrs. T apart from Will? Who was that lady with red hair? And oh my, did I just read one of the most sensitive love stories! It was great. Had I been who I was when I read Cecelia Ahern’s ‘P.S. I Love You’, I would drown in my own tears. I cried all through P.S. I Love You and three days after I finished reading it. But that was who I was and not who I am now. When I turned the last page of Me Before You today, I shut the book and sat quietly, head tilted and eyes shut for a while. That is the impact the climax had.

No doubt the narration is a bit dragged in places and the story tends to blur at times also occasionally confusing your brain cells. I don’t think it’ll bother you once you get used to Moyes’ writing style. But one of the most remarkable traits that I've noticed in the narration is the simple but conscious style of presenting the story from the view of other members of the cast just so the story may progress and then reach a point from where it may sound 'normal' for Lou to take over again.

Don't forget to tell me what you think of it when and if you live it.