Is love enough?
There are so many ways people can be stuck in life. Money, circumstances, family issues, a violent act or an accident can all put people in situations that they feel they can’t break out of. In Me Before You, an active young man (Will Traynor) becomes a parapalegic after an accident and has a hard time finding the will to live. A young woman (Louisa Clark) loses her job and finds a new one taking care of Will so she can bring money to her family in a small town she has never left.
This was the book club book choice for May since the movie based on the book is coming out in June. I had seen the trailer for the movie but didn’t know much more about the plot before I picked up the book.
This book has so many great themes to it and is so well written that it easily captivates your attention and heart. I read the book fairly quickly and had a hard time putting it down toward the end because I had to know what would happen next. The ending was not what I wanted, but it did follow the author’s intention of telling a story where people have to make their own choices and live their lives how they wish.
Louisa and Will take a while to get used to each other, but Louisa finally breaks through and gets Will talking and laughing again. However, she soon finds out why she was hired when there is a nurse caretaker there, too – Will is on suicide watch. He has already tried once and his family doesn’t want it to happen again – at least, not until the appointed time. When Louisa finds out the family has agree to assisted suicide, she first has to decide whether or not to stay and be part of the entire process or to stay and try and change his mind.
I don’t want to give away much because the details are the joy in watching this story unfold. It is a story of love, a story of family, a story of moving on, a story of really living, but it is also a story of assisted suicide. Due to that, and some people’s beliefs on the topic, the book may not be for everyone. If you don’t mind that subject being part of the story, it is a wonderful story. If you don’t believe that it is something people should consider, you’ll leave wishing the story was something more.