After You

As we approach the release date for the movie adaptation of Jojo Moyes book ‘Me Before You' I took time a week or so ago to watch the trailer of the film and was immediately reminded of the sadness, joy and overall greatness of the story of Will and Louisa who fall in love in unusual and very difficult circumstances. It comes at a time where Moyes is also releasing this book to the world, ‘After You' the story of how Louisa is coping after the assisted suicide of her love Will.

It was always going to be difficult to trump the original story, after all we did fall in love with Will Traynor alongside Louisa and cried with her when he ended his life in a Swiss Dignitas clinic. It was such an iconic love story that they have achieved the status shared by famous book couples like Darcy and Elizabeth, Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy, Heathcliff and Cathy. For our generation we had Louisa and Will and no matter how Moyes wrote her sequel there was going to be as big a hole in which her readers hearts as her main character was living through. The absence of Will was palpable, you could feel it from beginning to end.

The opening of the book finds Louisa involved in a fairly major accident herself and she meets a paramedic called Sam. As a result of her family questioning whether her accident was in fact a result of her grief she also begins attending a grief support group. With a dead end job and few friends Lou feels she is letting Will down because she promised him that she would live a full life.

The most interesting aspect of the book for me though was the arrival of 17 year old Lily in Lou's life and the announcement that she is Will's daughter. For me this story was the most heartfelt part as Lou tries to introduce Lily to her grandparents and learning as she goes the trials of parenting a teen with a host of problems and parents who seem to have disowned her. The blossoming friendship between Lily and Lou is for me the only parts where I became so drawn in that my mind wasn't wandering a little.

The story was about 50% amazing and 50% chic lit filling, I wanted Lou to do something monumental and to find true happiness, instead I felt the story set itself up for possibly another book in a series, the story didn't feel complete. Lou seems to be off on a grand adventure and I suspect we may get to join her but I ask myself if some of this books characters didn't come along for the ride would I miss them and Lily aside I'd have to be honest and say I wouldn't. I felt Lou has yet to find the same depth of emotional connection as she had with Will.

I haven't been surprised to read mixed reviews on this book as I suspect like me many people just didn't connect emotionally with it as much as they did with its predecessor, no tears this time, I'll need to save them for the cinema when I go to watch the movie of Me Before You.