After You-Book Review

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Title: After You
Author:  Jojo Moyes
Genre:  Adult Romance

“I loved a man who had opened up a world to me but hadn’t loved me enough to stay in it.” 

Blurb: “You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.”  How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

WeReflect: I picked up this book without realizing there was a prequel to it. It is only halfway through the book I felt something is missing and I was right. "After You" indeed had a well-known prequel named "Me Before You" and a film adaptation too starring Khaleesi of GOT fame Emilia Clark. Now there are two options in front of me; one to order the first book, finish it off, and continue reading the second; another, just continue with the current book as a stand alone. And I chose the second option.

The story of Louisa Clark begins after 18 months of Will Trantor's death. Now she lives in a flat in east London, which she purchased from Will's money. She is stuck in a meaningless job at the city airport's pub. She keeps cold distance from her family. But an unfortunate accident forces her to move in with her parents for recuperation.  Her father is worried about her mental health, coerces her to attend a therapy group, aptly named "Moving On". The falling off the roof incident introduces two new people in Louisa's life; one ambulance Sam with whom she romantically gets involved eventually; another, Lily, a 16-year-old teenager.

The other supporting characters are Lou's parents, her sister, nephew; Will's parents; and Lily's mother. The angle where Lou's mother's new found feminism and her father's difficulty in coping with it is quite amusing. Who is Lily? Will she be able to help Louisa to move on in life?

Louisa greatly suffers from grief of losing Will and guilt of helping him end his life. This is where I thought I should have read the first book because I'm unable to feel the love and loss in Lou's life. Maybe I would have felt different if I had read the prequel. Nonetheless as a stand alone it is pretty decent read. And this is the book that introduced me to the author Jojo Moyes.