Just a notice that this review (and the synopsis) will spoil the book ‘Me Before You’ so if you haven’t read that book in its entirety, you are warned!
I will start by saying that ‘Me Before You’ is my joint favourite book of all time (Joint with ‘The Memory Book’ by Rowan Coleman and ‘Chasing Daisy’ by Paige Toon), so I was excited when I heard this was coming out. However, I was also a bit apprehensive, as while I don’t normally like open-ended conclusions, ‘Me Before You’ had one that felt like pure perfection! The result is this book has given me mixed feelings, and writing this review is the hardest I’ve wrote to date.
The writing is as inviting as all of Jojo’s books are. You get the feeling of the surroundings in wonderful descriptive detail, and the characterisation is just as vivid.
Louisa is a changed woman. 18 months after she said goodbye to Will, she still hasn’t let go, and just exists, not really living, certainly not the life Will wanted (and I had hope for). The loss Louise has to deal with is beyond terrible and this book shows that for all the hope you can feel, life doesn’t always turn out like you imagine.
Lily is a typical teenager, amplified. She is rude and selfish with no regards for others most of the time. Yet she expects people to bend over backwards for them, then wonders why they don’t like her, when really a lot of the time it’s the circumstances they meet in. You can tell she just wants to feel loved though, as it’s obvious she lacks that from her parents, so I did feel for her.
My issue with the book is that while all the characters were back, for me at least it lost the magic that ‘Me Before You’ had. There was a storyline with Louisa’s parents that seemed a bit ‘out there’ from the parents we knew in ‘Me Before You’, at times it gave a small amount of comic relief, but I’m not sure whether it was meant to or not. Whereas, when there was humour in the first book was the dynamic between Louisa and Will; and little special moments between them, and at times Nathan and Will’s friendship. I laughed out loud at times, despite the overall emotion of the book being one of sadness with some hope. At least I knew it was supposed to be funny. The main plot device wasn’t easy to guess, but once revealed it felt to me like this book was written to please people, not because Jojo had more of the story to tell. Like when reading the Harry Potter series, I really felt like JK Rowling knew what was coming up at all times, like it was written as a complete story, then split and edited into the 7 books. Whereas I didn’t get that feeling here.
I think if I don’t compare it to ‘Me Before You’, I would have enjoyed ‘After You’ a lot more, but as it’s a sequel it’s near impossible to do that. Overall though, it was hard to put down and I did enjoy the book, and would say people should read it, but just don’t expect the same magical experience that I feel you get with ‘Me Before You’. With all this said, if a third book was to be written, it would definitely be a day one purchase for me!
Published by: Penguin
View Book on Goodreads
Order on: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository
