Book 15: Me Before You

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes was April's hardback book for one of my goodreads book clubs, so it became book fifteen.

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Book Summary:
Louisa Clark is your average 26-year-old. She's got a great family, a boyfriend whom she will probably marry, and she's never been outside of her small village. But when her boss tells her that he's closing the café and she gets a new job as the caregiver for Will Traynor - a quadriplegic, she finds herself thinking about her life in a completely new way. 

Will Traynor used to be a big shot until he was hit by a motorcycle while crossing the street that caused him to become a quadriplegic. He hates what he's become and finds nothing good in his life...that is, until Louisa Clark enters the scene.

My Review:
Oh. My. Goodness. 

If you'd like to stop reading this review now, you totally can because those three words basically sum up everything I feel for this book. It has to be the most beautifully depressing book I've read since The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and I loved every single second of it. Now, before you run out and buy this book, let me give you fair warning that this book gets kind of deep and debates the topic of assisted suicide. If you are okay with that, then I would suggest you read it. 

Now, on to the ins and outs of what I liked and didn't. What I loved most was the writing. Moyes made me want to go read the rest of her books because of how lovely this one was written. I think she does a fantastic job of developing the main characters, and by the end I was so attached to them that I set the book to the side and sobbed for a solid 2-3 minutes. Now, as I've said in a previous review, I don't like when authors go between narrators, but for some reason it really worked in this book. It helped that she didn't do it often (it is primarily told from Louisa's point of view) and that when she did it she put the name of whomever was narrating at the start of the chapter. I actually really liked those few chapters that were told from another's perspective. As I said earlier, this book delves into the subject of assisted suicide, in fact the author speaks of a real place in Switzerland where one who is terminally ill can go to do this. Some may find this issue unbearable to read about, but I found it thought provoking. On top of this, I was constantly contemplating the fact that an accident like Will's could happen to anyone at any moment. Anytime a book gets me to think deeply on issues that I wouldn't normally think about, I definitely deem it a wonderful story.

There really wasn't much that I disliked about Me Before You, the main thing being the character of Patrick, Louisa's boyfriend. I was constantly irritated by him and found myself wondering why Louisa was with such a jerk. And his character just goes from unlikeable to even more unlikeable when he sells Will's story to the press. 

The only other thing I have to say is that I wish the ending had been different. I wasn't surprised by it, but I wished the author had chosen to give us a twist and go a different way. That being said, it did not degrade this story in any way whatsoever. 

As far as family friendliness goes, this is not a book for young teens. There are many curse words and multiple sexual references (not to mention all the suicide talk). 

My Rating: 9/10

Book 7: Still Alice

Still Alice by Lisa Genova has been on my to-read list for a couple years, but for some reason I never got around to reading it. I decided this challenge was the perfect time to pick it up, so I chose to read it as my seventh book.

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Buy it Now: Amazon / Barnes and Noble








Book Summary:
Alice Howard lives a great life. She's in her early fifties, has a husband and three grown children, works as a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard, and is an expert in linguistics. After becoming extremely forgetful and at times disoriented, she goes to the doctor to find out if these are symptoms of menopause or something greater. From there her doctor sends her to a neurologist, where she discovers that she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Told in month to month format, this heartbreaking story tells of how she progresses from simple misplaced items to forgetting her family.

My Review:
Since I can't afford to purchase fifty-two books this year, most of the books I've been reading have come from the library. Because they come from the library, at times I won't be able to read the book I really want to read. This is what happened to lead me to read Still Alice. I really wanted to read Insurgent (the sequel to Divergent) next, but I was unable to obtain a copy. Instead, I decided to read one of the books that I pulled from my grandma's shelf last month when I went to Wellsburg for her funeral. I am so glad that I did.

I really, really enjoyed this book. The story was so heartbreaking that I couldn't put it down. Having had two Grandmother's fall into dementia, much of this story hit close to home for me. Especially when it got to the point of her not recognizing her children and calling them, in her mind, "the mother" and "the actress". I've not done this in other reviews, but I'm going to go ahead and quote my favorite scene in this book:

--Alice looked at Lydia in pieces, close-up snapshots of her features. She recognized each one like people recognized the house they grew up in, a parent's voice, the creases of their own hands, instinctively, without effort or conscious consideration. But strangely, she had a hard time identifying Lydia as a whole.
"You're so beautiful," said Alice. "I'm afraid of looking at you and not knowing who you are."
"I think that even if you don't know who I am someday, you'll still know that I love you."
"What if I see you, and I don't know that you're my daughter, and I don't know that you love me?"
"Then, I'll tell you that I do, and you'll believe me"--

I absolutely loved this scene because it just felt so real and raw to me. As her youngest child and the one from whom she was most distant, it makes sense that Lydia would be the first she'd start to forget. This is one of the times where she is realizing that she's starting to forget her own child. Everything about this scene is perfect for me. And it's so true, once someone you love forgets you, you just tell them that you love them and hope that they believe you.

The only thing that bugged me in the book was her husband John's response to her. I totally understand why he was being distant, he couldn't bear seeing her descent into madness, but it still bugged me.

I would definitely recommend this book to others. It takes a little bit to get started, but the story is ultimately beautiful. There are a few swear word sprinkled throughout, specifically the f word, but I honestly believed, for once, it was well used in a book. Where the character was at emotionally when she used it, was exactly on point. Other than that, I don't believe there is much, if any, sexual references.

My Rating 9/10