Me Before You: A Hearbreaking Story

If you have read my past posts,  you would know by now that the following post might contain some spoilers. So stop now if you want to actually read the book for yourself.

Me Before You: A Hearbreaking Story

Me Before You is a Jojo Moyes novel about Will, a man who lives life to the fullest and Lou, a woman who is quite content on living her simple life being safe. 

I havent cried from reading a book since Nicholas Sparks' Suzanne's Letters To Nicholas (I know, I know, I was a kid back then. lol. And just so it's clear, I hated the ending) 

I first heard of this book from watching SourceFED a few days ago. They mentioned that this book was currently the number one e-book and that got me curious. I first went to Amazon to read the synopsis and the first chapter of the book. I didnt make it past the first four pages as I knew instantly I would like it. The summary, I didnt give much thought as I had already made my mind up about wanting to read it. 

I failed to realise though, that Will is a quadriplegic in this story. My mind totally spaced out that the first chapter actually said "Epilogue". Most of the chapters in the book were written through Lou's (Louisa Clark) point of view and a few chapters by Nathan (Will's primary carer), Mrs. Traynor (Will's mom) and, Mr. Traynor (Will's dad). 

Lou came into Will's life when she lost her job at the cafe and was offered a six month contractual job as Will's carer. The pay was good, better even than her last job and they (her family) really needed the money. So she took it on. As to be expected, they didnt get along fairly well the first few weeks but somehow, Lou managed to get through to Will and they started to form some sense of friendship. This has proven difficult at times as Lou was in a relationship with someone else (which later ended up in Lou breaking up with her boyfriend). 

Things started to move along as Lou found out that Will had signed up for one of those euthanasia clinics in Switzerland and she was determined to change his mind. 

This story was so heartbreaking. I was crying through the last three chapters of the book. And Lou really did her best, at times it seemed that Will was making headway, he was more relaxed, he went to outings, he laughed, he seemed a bit himself, albeit being stuck in his chair. And this human emotion that we all have, this hope that somehow Lou would convince Will that life is still worth living regardless of his situation, this happy ever after - that is stirred up reading this book. And you know, you just know that he would eventually fall in love with her, she can make him fall in love with her - and she would fall for him, and you think this can turn thing around, you hope it will.. you wanted it to.. 

or maybe i just have a penchant for sad stories. I was rallying for Will, that even at the last minute when he begged Lou to come to Switzerland, when she lay in his bed in the euthanasia clinic, that he would change his mind. That somehow things will be okay, things will be better. 

I guess somehow things did get better, depending on how you feel about euthanasia. Before reading this book, I was really more of anti-euthanasia, right now, I'm not sure if its the emotions or if its something else, but i'm not really sure how i feel about the topic anymore.Will had a great argument, much taboo as it is in this day and age. 

So what's my point? Nothing really (as usual) but please do read the book (or not if you're suicidal) but it does raise great talking points on the subject of life and being in control of one's own body.