After You by Jojo Moyes

 Amy  

 Lynnie

contemporary fiction

After You is a sequel to a book that we both loved, Me Before You (soon to be a movie!).  Picking up some time after the events in Me Before You, Jojo Moyes tells us about the continuing journey of Louisa Clark, who must redefine herself after Will Traynor's death. 


Amy's Review

This was the sequel to Me Before You, a book which required no sequel. The author had not planned to write a sequel but felt the need to continue Louisa’s story at the insistence of her fans. I loved Me Before You so much that I decided to read the sequel even though I really didn’t feel it was necessary. I was hoping to find out how Louisa and the other characters were doing and that goal was met. However, I had also hoped there was some good news and was severely disappointed. I would have preferred to leave Louisa’s story where Me Before You ended. 

Most of this novel was boring, depressing, and frustrating. I understand that people manage grief differently and that there is no right amount of time required for people to be able to find peace with their loss. But, I really didn’t enjoy a novel that was mostly about someone struggling to find a purpose and joy in their life. It’s simply not entertaining reading and I require entertaining reading. I think the main problem with Louisa was that she had no life before she met Will and was unrealistic to expect that she would have more of a life after he was gone. Louisa is not the kind of person I would hang out with. She has just enough energy to do the bare minimum to get by in life. She doesn’t strive to improve her life in any way. She has no proactive ideas. Instead, she reacts to whatever life throws her. She worries about everyone else instead of herself. She doesn’t make decisions that I think are right. I just can’t feel any sort of camaraderie for her nor do I particularly like her. Yes, she is compassionate toward a select few people and seemingly would do anything, including sabotaging her own happiness, in order to help these other people. That’s sort of redeeming but not really smart. And then, she finally finds the right person she should spend time with, someone who actually makes her happy, and again makes the wrong decision, in my opinion, at the end of the book.

As much as I enjoyed reading about Louisa’s father and his wonderful sense of humor and antics, I feel compelled to give this book a below-average rating. It just makes me sigh. 


Lynnie's Review

This is a follow up to one of my favorite books of 2014, Me Before You- a book which in no way needed a sequel, I might add.

In After You we find ourselves watching Louisa Clark once again as she tries to pick up the pieces of her life after Will's death and find a place where she belongs. In typical Lou fashion there are missteps and mistakes and laughter along the way but she is just as entertaining (and infuriating) as she was in Me Before You. Reading about her antics is like a letter from an old friend.

This book reminds me more of the other JoJo Moyes' books I've read- chick lit with women in need of finding themselves and perhaps a bit of rescuing. This is a perfectly lovely book but I don't think it would be possible to match the emotional punch of Me Before You. So, while I was happy to spend some time with beloved characters, I also don't think you'll miss much by not reading this sequel. It's a wonderful distraction from a rainy weekend though, or to put a smile on your face at the beach one day.