Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

One of the books that I actually had to go out and buy for my Popsugar reading challenge was "a book by or about a person who has a disability." I'm trying to read what I already have on my shelves for the most part, but I didn't really have anything that fit that particular category. I did a search on Goodreads to see what ideas other people had and stumbled across Me Before You, which centers on a quadriplegic character. It received rave reviews from readers, ended up on a bunch of bestseller lists, and was even made into a movie recently. With it being the month of Valentine's Day, I decided that this unconventional love story was a good one to purchase.

The plot of the novel follows Louisa Clark, or Lou, for short. She is in her late twenties and lives an ordinary life with her parents, grandfather, and sister in England. As the story begins, Lou loses her job at a local cafe when the owner decides to close up shop. As she is one of the main financial providers for her entire family, finding another job quickly is crucial. She ends up taking a job as a home health aide for a man named Will Traynor, a former corporate raider who became a quadriplegic after being struck by a motorcycle two years ago.

Lou soon comes to realize that working for Will isn't going to be easy. He is consumed by anger over his injury and takes his feelings out on everyone around him. He is cruel to his family and mean to Lou, insulting her regularly as she tries to help him. However, Lou's quirky personality eventually starts winning him over and a shaky friendship develops between the two. Things proceed more calmly between the pair until Lou overhears a conversation between Will's mother and sister. She discovers that Will is planning to commit assisted suicide at a facility in Switzerland. His mother has convinced him to put it off for six months, in the hopes that she can persuade him to change his mind. Hiring Louisa was part of her plan to try and get him to enjoy his life more.

After adjusting to the shock she feels upon learning this information, Lou decides to participate in Mrs. Traynor's plan for her son. She organizes a series of outings for the course of the remaining four months before Will's deadline to make him want to live. They go to concerts, restaurants, and take a dream vacation to Mauritius, among other things. Along the way, Louisa and Will fall in love with each other. However, living as a quadriplegic is difficult, painful, and often humiliating for Will, and a new love might not be enough to change his mind before his deadline passes.

I had very mixed feelings for Me Before You. On the positive side, the plot was different from a typical romantic story and I was interested enough to stick with it until the end. I wanted to see if Will would actually go through with his plan to end his life. I also liked the exploration of assisted suicide in general, which is a very complex issue. The characters in the novel have different reactions to it, ranging from shock and horror, to placid understanding. I found myself thinking about how I would react in this situation, which kept me engaged in the reading.

However, for every good aspect of Me Before You, there were a handful of things that irked me. For example, the characters were not likable in the slightest. Everyone took their turn being annoying - Louisa whines like a child and doesn't have much going on upstairs, Will's behavior for most of the book is abominable, Louisa's family is helpless and backwards, Louisa's boyfriend Patrick is perhaps the most self-centered man on the planet, and Will's family is incredibly arrogant. There was no one to like throughout the whole novel. As I am a reader that enjoys character-driven work, this was a disappointment. I actually couldn't decide who I disliked the most.

Clumsy writing and long, boring stretches where nothing much happens bugged me as well, but Will's hypocrisy was probably my biggest issue with the story. He tells Louisa multiple times throughout the novel that she has to go out in the world and do big things. She has to enjoy her life. She has to work hard and make something of herself. However, he absolutely refuses to apply any of this advice to himself. He's too miserable, too upset over the abilities he lost in the accident, and too stubborn to change his mindset and adjust to his new normal. His behavior would be boorish and condescending if he were able-bodied, but the fact that he is not make his actions even worse. He refuses to listen to his own words in an outrageously obvious way. Rather than turn his beliefs inward and work on his own problems, he chooses to boss around Louisa and tell her how she should live her life instead. I don't think this discrepancy is artistic or beautiful, as Moyes probably believes it to be. I think it's disrespectful and annoying. What's worse is that Lou actually listens to him. I would have ignored him on principle.

I feel like Me Before You was an interesting idea surrounded by unfortunate choices. There were some aspects of it that I enjoyed, and some aspects that irritated me. In the end, I'm not sure why so many people unequivocally love this book. I felt like it had some obvious issues. It is essentially about a man who is frustrated with his life attempting to control everyone around him through guilt and arrogance. It also contains the troubling idea that life as a quadriplegic isn't worth living, which probably doesn't sit well with people living with this disability. I didn't even think it was particularly romantic due to Will's controlling and mean disposition.

Ultimately, Me Before You was not a favorite for me. I am still glad to have read it, because it did lead me to think about assisted suicide and disabilities in a different light. However, the flaws I perceived prevented me from fully enjoying it. More power to those who were able to get into it though! It just wasn't my cup of tea.


Challenge Tally
Popsugar Challenge: (A book by or about a person who has a disability) 17/40