From the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars, discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.“You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.” How do you move on after losing the … Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.”
How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?
Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.
Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .
For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.
more
Enjoyed the continuation of the story begun in “Me before You”
I enjoyed this book but liked the first one more.
I loved this whole trilogy!
Not as good as the first book . Sequels usually aren’t
Good sequel
Amazing
Did like her first book much better
The story of Louisa Clark continues in Jojo Moyes’s brilliant follow-up to her book Me Before You. Plenty of twists and surprises keep us turning pages as we race toward the end to learn if Louisa will find happiness and where she might find it.
I had read some reviews of this book on Amazon and saw that some readers were not happy with the transformation of Louisa Clark after what she’d been through in Me Before You. I was so taken with Jojo Moyes’ writing, I didn’t let those unfavorable reviews stop me from reading the sequel. I’m glad I had gotten a warning about the change in Louisa’s personality, and the storyline is completely different than the first book. But the writing was still quite good and though it’s a harder story to read, I think the author did a very good job taking the protagonist through her metamorphosis. It wasn’t an easy journey, but I think it was an honest journey, though there were times when I was a little frustrated by Louisa’s actions. In the end, I was left with a feeling of satisfaction and hope for Louisa’s future. I think it says a lot about an author when readers become emotionally involved with the characters he or she creates.
I look forward to reading more by this talented author in the future.
Great story
JoJo Moyes really this at my heart!
Healing and starting over doesn’t go as planned after falling off of her roof, but something hopefully good came from it. Ambulance Sam is down to Earth and mourning his own loss. But, trying to move past Will can be hard when a girl named Lucy shows up at Lousia’s door saying she is his daughter.
Oh, JoJo. Making me cry again. I didn’t get in to the book until about a third of the way in, but then I couldn’t put it back down.
Jojo Moyes knows exactly how to describe how losing someone important feels, and how it is after they’ve gone.
Great follow up to Me Before You! Enjoyed it very much.
First reaction…
Oh, Louisa. You’re not who you found yourself to be with Will, and yet you don’t seem to have figured out a new version of yourself. …I’m worried and a little heart broken.
Final thoughts…
Reflecting back on the story after turning the final page, I can appreciate it more than when I first started, but that’s about as far as I get. I suppose I didn’t feel as secure in Lou’s world when she truly lost sight of herself, not to mention the fact that the teenage interloper and instant reminder of Will was so much more than a handful I quite literally wanted to put her out on her rump! By book’s end, I’d made a sort of peace with her, as with so many characters her story actually runs deeper than the shaken snow globe version she presents, though I wouldn’t go quite as far as to say I was fond of her. I accepted Sam for the person he was and respected his openness with Louisa, though I was a bit concerned (while still touched!) by his ability to just let her go.
All in all, a lovely bridge between our initial meeting and the grand finale, but still it rates lesser on my totem pole of book love. I missed her brilliant nature. I missed her personality. I missed her being her without a care nor a second guess…and that loss felt too personal…which actually speaks to the author’s ability to draw us into her worlds (nice job!).
Louisa had only six months with Will Traynor before he took his life, and hers. The Lou she was before Will was lost in the reality of his choice and her grief. Now, eighteen months later, she is trying to live her life as she promised Will, but she is failing miserably.
But, one night, drunk on cheap wine and despair, she hears a voice just before she falls two stories off the roof of her London flat. Racked with a new pain, Louisa finds herself on a new road to recovery…when an unexpected knock on her door changes everything.
I love how Jojo Moyes weaves a narrative that can make you laugh out loud on one page and sobbing on the next. I liked this book, but I didn’t love it as much as Me Before You. That being said, I’m very much looking forward to the final book in the trilogy, Still Me.
Jo Jo did it again. For twenty-eight of thirty chapters AFTER YOU floated like one of those expensive Viking river cruises on a beautiful voyage of healing, discovery, and reconciliation. The author skillfully untangled the Gordian knot of emotional chaos left in the wake of Will Traynor’s suicide. In this sequel, not just Lou but everyone affected achieved a measure of peace and stood poised ready to move ahead with confidence, most of all poor tortured, caring Lou. The author brilliantly assembled her relationship with Sam into something that could work. In addition to love, she had everything she needed – professional accomplishment, respect, and admiration from family. I sensed a shift in her relationship with sister Treena. Through her success with Lily and helping Will’s family, Lou had subtly taken command. By book’s end, Treena was the one stuck in a rut. (Kinda felt good to read.)
So here we are in chapter twenty-eight. Lou cruises down the Rhine, sipping Chardonnay, at the top of her professional, social, and personal world. Then, the author runs the ship aground on an uncharted shoal when Lou, in an almost spur of the moment decision with unconvincing prior foundation risks all she’s gained to take a job in New York. Because there is a Book Three, I knew something like this was coming. This book should have ended with Lou leaving the plane and deciding to stay with Sam.
I have two other, lesser, peeves about AY. First, leave out the feminist propaganda. It distracted from the story. Almost like the author tried to make up for Lou being so girlie in MBY, but that was a quality that made her endearing. At least not too much of her mother’s and sister’s BS rubbed off on her. Dad’s wimp out at the end was pathetic. I would’ve shown up with a thirty-year-old hottie. My second is the tolerance shown for Thomas’ bad behavior. If this is how British kids are raised, no wonder the empire fell apart. That boy needs some serious disciplining. I also thought the graphic description associated with his case of pinworms was TMI.
Okay, enough of the bad. The book is still a good read. Enough so, that I’ve reserved STILL ME at the library. Jo Jo, this is your last chance to make things right for Lou. I hope you haven’t screwed it up.
Good topic – NOT well written!
Great sequel to Me Before You. Now that Will Traynor is dead, Lousia Clark must learn to live her life without him, even though they’d only known each other for six months. (I highly recommend reading Me Before You before reading this book.) It’s been 18 months and she’s still at loose ends, working in an airport bar and living in a flat paid for by Will’s generous bequest. But, she’s just going through the motions of living.
One night, she’s a bit tipsy and standing in the edge of her flat’s roof-top garden when a voice startles her and she plunges off the 5-story building. She lives, recovers at her parents’ home and finally starts to move on with her life, only to have it complicated by a moody, rebellious 16-year-old girl and the attentions of the paramedic who saved her life.
Great read. If you’ve read the first book, there will be tears as Lou remembers Will as she tries to incorporate these two new people into her life and move forward.
My only complaint is that the book ends on not-quite-a-cliff-hanger, but definitely no resolution. (Do I sense a Book 3 in the offing? Yes. Will I read it? (You bet!)
3 stars to Jojo Moyes’s After You, the follow-up to Me Before You, which was a very popular book made into a movie earlier this year. The “After You” sequel is good (not as good), but for a different reason. Many folks complained about the need for this second book, and with the first one being made into a movie, it may have been a required follow-up as opposed to a story that yearned to be told… either case, I did enjoy it. Let’s dive in…
Story
The book opens about 18 months after the first one ends, which was when her patient and soul-mate, Will Traynor, committed suicide. (If you are reading this review, it’s not really a spoiler as that’s the whole point of Me Before You — how will she handle the tragedy of being with him… and if you haven’t read Book 1, stop now and go back and read it even before this review of Book 2. You can also check out my Book 1 review in the link below).
Are you listening? 😛
Louisa (the girl who fell for Will) has been on the outs with her family due to her role in Wil’s suicide, and she took a year off to travel and try to move forward. Of course, it never happens, and she goes back to the quiet and sheltered life she had before she met him. When she accidentally falls off her roof, it sets into motion several challenges for her to face. Some think she tried to kill herself. Some think she is rotting away her life. She goes back to a very sad job where she’s yelled at by a nasty boss all the time. She tries to get better by going to a self-help group for people affected by a loved one who died. She meets the ambulance medic who saved her after the fall. She gets a job offer to go to NYC. And she meets Lily, the secret daughter Will had that no one ever knew about. While Louisa tries to figure out her life, she learns all the lessons she needs to be able to move on… but when it all comes together in the end, and she has to make a choice on her own future, will she be able to? (And that’s for you to find out when you read the book… I can’t give a spoiler away, right?)
Strengths
1. Lou is a fantastic character. She’s flawed which makes her real. She’s whiny yet she stands up for herself. She’s smart and she makes dumb decisions. She’s got potential but she lets it waste. We can all find a piece of Lou’s personality in our own, which makes reading about her and understanding her actions all the more interesting… because you can question whether you would have done the same thing or made a different decision. She’s quite relate-able… on may levels.
2. The plot is great, especially as a follow-up to Me Before You. It could have gone in many directions, e.g. a trial/lawsuit from the family or the government for her role in his death, a barrage of press harassment, the anger of her family, etc. Instead, the book gives us an 18 month break from the last one, and its inherent immediate reactions to the death, which also allows the reader time to grieve and want to see Lou move on. So… the plot had room to be widely open, but needed to be connected to the first one — a mysterious unknown daughter — while over-played in movies — isn’t so common in books… and I enjoyed watching it unfold.
3. It’s witty. Dialogue is on-target. Characters are bold but also complex. The story is consistent. It holds interest. It retains some of the sadness of the first book but brings you to a middle / average level of how you feel about the pain… and leaves you thinking “these people are real.” And that’s what I enjoy in a book. I don’t want to feel harsh and judgmental of character actions, or find myself in love with something perfect that doesn’t really exist… yes, literature is often supposed to take you out of reality and into something fantastical where you feel magical… but for me, the very nature of fiction does that — I enjoy the great sweeping arcs of magic, but when the story is simple and beautiful, it’s even better.
Suggestions
I don’t believe there should have been a follow-up to Me Before You, and I’m a serial-fictionist… as well as a lexiconnoisseur neologist (apparently, I make up words like serial-fictionist). The first one was so good as a stand-alone, I don’t want to compare anything to it with the same story and author being involved. Perhaps if I just picked up After You, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much without knowing what happened to Lou in Book 1. Book 2 (After You) is a good story with good writing, but there wasn’t anything special about it, hence why I have it a 3. If I hadn’t witnessed her struggle in the previous book, it wouldn’t have been as powerful in this book to watch her recovery.
Final Thoughts
So… with it getting a 3, and with me not having anything truly remarkable to say about it, I’d recommend it to folks under certain conditions:
1. If you read Me Before You, you should read After You. If you love Louisa and her family, then why wouldn’t you want to read another 350 pages about their life… it’s like having a friend who lives far away and just happens to be in your town and may never be again for years. It’s there… It’s a day’s read. It’s enjoyable. It just isn’t the same as it was the first go around. But you still want to know “how is that friend of mine different these days…” – so go see that friend.
2. If you love the author’s style, read After You. It’s a well-written book and has a few good characters you will root for.
3. If you can accept the original is the best, and know that you won’t always get the same vibe and attraction to its successors, then you probably have an open enough mind to check out what happened in her later years.
But if you are looking for an amazing follow-up with an absolute blockbuster of a story and ending to Lou’s life… you will be somewhat disappointed. After You is a slice of what happens to her in a 3 month period set nearly 2 years after the first one ends. It’s nice. It’s a good read. But you won’t walk away with the same level of emotions as you did with Me Before You.