Miranda Levi

After You by Jojo Moyes

When I finished reading Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, I was a bit surprised to see that there was a sequel. If you’ve read the first one you’ll know why I’m scratching my head a bit, but heck. I’m game for just about anything so bring it on.

While I enjoyed this book, it wasn’t what I was expecting. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but I can see why I’ve heard/read some mixed reviews.

To me, the first book felt like it was about finding happiness. In a lot of ways the second is the same, finding happiness through pain. The biggest different is that the first book was the secondary main character was searching and the second time, it was our main character. The majority of this book is Lou working through the grieving process. Jojo Moyes does a beautiful job of showing that grief comes in all forms, and so through the eyes of various side characters. I couldn’t always keep them straight but it never seemed to matter.

After the ending of the last book, you can’t help but wonder what happened to Louisa Clark. Did she pick up the pieces? Did she go on grand adventures? Did she really live? Were left thinking maybe, as we leave her sitting in a Paris cafe. In After You some of our questions are answered. Lou did go and travel, she tried to pull herself together, only in the end she failed. She failed so hard that one night she drank to much and fell off the roof of her condo building. Ouch!

What we do learn though, is even through life’s obstacles, if we seek the things that make us happy, sometimes with enough luck, we can have them.

Did I like part two as much as part one? No. Was I glad that I read part two? Yes. Was it a lovely book where I got to spend several more hours with characters that jump off the pages? Yes. Without a doubt.