My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was planning to settle down my emotional feeling first before doing the review but it just hasn't subsided yet since last night so yea... where do I start from?
I am a romance-addict and always fancy ones with happy endings. There were two or three books I've read with sad ending and I ended up hating the author for weeks. But things are different with Me Before You. I know. I've been warned by the reviews that this book was about awfully heartbreaking love story. But it didn't stop me from trying it out myself. I had this thing in mind before started reading: "This is a heartbreaking love story, don't expect for an ending that you want in mind". Yet, I still did.
I had several mini heart-attacks during my reading this book, like one on prologue, another ones on every chapter endings... But I haven't stopped hoping for miracle to happen (yes, I did, I know). I was so amazed at the way Jojo played with the readers' emotion from chapter to chapter. How she suddenly changed the point of view when things got interesting on the previous chapter and we were dying to know what exactly happened from Lou's or Will's point of view. I loved how she'd created every character in this book. Like, for Will Traynor, a once passionate man having a turning-upside-down life after an accident. He became sensitive and moody yet the gentle side of him still existed inside. It was finally brought out of him by a comfort-zone-lover, Louisa Clark. I really loved it when Louisa fired back every sarcasm that was thrown at her by Will. You know, that is actually the best thing to do when you're facing sensitive person who just has a big accident that change their whole life. Don't accept their sarcasm but be sarcastic with them.
Reading Me Before You has given me so many things to rethink about in life. I found myself thinking back what I've been doing with my life these past 22 years, what things that I've been avoiding in life, what things I've actually been wanting to do in life but never done. Like Louisa, by the end of the book, I am intrigued to take a step out of my comfort zone. To do anything I want, to go anywhere I want, and never bother to think what people would say about me.
In the end, Will Traynor wasn't just helping Louisa Clark to do better in her life, but me as well.
I never really am affected this much by a book before but Me Before You has changed my point of view of life that I've been leading on these years.
I never really am affected this much by a book before but Me Before You has changed my point of view of life that I've been leading on these years.
So, even though the ending of this book was not kind of ending I always fancy from romance book, I am completely satisfied that I found this book and chose to read it. I also learned a lesson that this book has shown me what a real love story actually happened around us. Not everything ends with happiness, but the sad end is not always the bad kind of ending. It is not the start or the result that matters, but the process in between does.
I am so glad I came across this book and I am totally grateful for Jojo Moyes for writing this wonderful book, for creating Will Traynor who I've oddly fallen deeply in love with and Louisa Clark who's been showing me what should be done to make the person you love happy even though it means breaking your own heart (Yes, I did take out this italic sentence from the blurb of this book).
So, definitely five stars for every aspect of this book!
p.s. Here are several parts where my sobbing turned into an ugly real crying last night.
When I finally spoke, my voice was a small broken thing. What emerged was the only thing I could safely say."I missed you".
I realized I was afraid of living without him. How is it you have the right to destroy my life, I wanted to demand of him, but I'm not allowed a say in yours? But I promised.
So I held him, Will Traynor, ex-City whiz kid, ex-stunt driver, sportsman, traveller, lover.
'...I am conscious that knowing me has caused you pain, and grief, and I hope that one day when you are less angry with me and less upset you will see not just that I could only have done the thing that I did, but also that this will help you live a really good life, a better life, than if you hadn't met me'.
'You are scored in my heart, Clark. You were from the first day you walked in, with your ridiculous clothes and your bad jokes and your complete inability to ever hide a single thing you felt...'
Love, read, and review,
Cynthia D.
