After "Me Before You"
A review of the trilogy by Jojo Moyes, including Me Before You, After You, and Still Me
The Gist:
The opening book of the trilogy is Me Before You, about English woman Louisa Clark who takes a job as a caretaker for Will Traynor, a young, handsome quadriplegic. Louisa’s job is nothing like she expects, and Will soon becomes a close companion. Then Louisa learns something about Will that she can’t accept… and it changes the way she thinks about herself, and the way she lives her life.
The proceeding books After You and Still Me follow Louisa’s life after Will Traynor, someone who will impact her forever.
My ratings:
Me Before You: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
After You: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Still Me: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
I just l finished the Me Before You series this past weekend! The first book was definitely my favorite and the last book I didn’t love, but it’s sad to finally end the series and leave Louisa Clark.
TL;DR: It seemed like Jojo Moyes continued the series just because her readership wanted it, and I think the book would have been better as a standalone. BUT I did love the character of Louisa Clark, and it was worth the read to follow her life in two more books—even if it didn’t wrap up in the way I was expecting.
*SPOILER ALERT*
If you haven’t read the first book, STOP HERE! You definitely don’t want to spoil the end of this read!
Like I said, I loved Me Before You, and when I finished it, I couldn’t imagine it as anything other than a standalone. I was skeptical to continue the series and considered not even attempting it after the ending of Me Before You. I didn’t want to ruin the magic of the book!
After You was a good follow-up novel. Moyes found a creative way to carry on the story after Will’s death in a way that kept the memory of Will still in the narrative. And Lily was such a loveable character, how could you not enjoy her addition to the story?
However, it took me until the end of Still Me to enjoy it as much as I did. For one, Louisa’s relationships with Sam and Josh frustrated me to no end! I also had a hard time getting into the new plot in New York, with all the new characters added in a completely different setting.
When Louisa dumped Sam, and then after she dumped Josh, I finally started to appreciate the book: it’s called Still Me for crying out loud! I was excited to see how Moyes chose to wrap up the series focusing on my favorite part of it: Louisa Clark.
The ending was, needless to say, disappointing.
A perfect end to the series would have been Louisa on the Empire State Building by herself… but I guess that’s just my unsolicited opinion.
You know it, I’ve got the books! Shoot me a message if you want to read! Happy reading.