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T
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he story resumes
where it left off as Louisa tries to overcome her loss and straighten her life
out. She meets a new man, Ambulance Sam, who she’s skeptical about getting
close to, and a surprise daughter of Will that nobody knew existed.
‘me before you’ is one of the
most touching love stories out there, and I was really excited to know that
Jojo was continuing the storyline. I didn’t know, though, until the news broke
about her third novel about Louisa ‘Still Me’ being
released. I got so excited to come to know about the sequel that the very next
day I went and purchased the book and placed it in queue for the next read. The
idea of meeting the characters I so loved, and miss that particular one, was
heart-refreshing. Heart-enriched I am writing this review now, after flipping through
the pages filled with so many emotions.
Richer
this follow-up story is, in every way possible, to the already rich story
introduced in the first novel. The story not only resumes itself but expands in
every direction, effecting the hearts even deeper this time around. The
characters are comprehensively built upon, as each of them are revisited and
exposed more completely. Where on one
hand Louisa is moving on and getting her life together after her recent
tragedy, the Traynor family is now split, in their separate ways, and then
there’s Lou’s family, as everyday-like family as it can be: problematic,
hilarious, and alive, like really alive. But it’s not only the re-visitation
that makes the novel feel so pleasing, it’s the journey they take ahead that
lands this one even better than the last one, if not equally good. I didn’t see most of the things coming my way
when going along with the story and was often times caught off left field. Jojo
has done a wonderful job in carrying her characters and growing them to reach
us even more closely with this sequel.
And where
the existing characters kept the pot boiling, the new ones poured it all over.
This is where Moyes has triumphed with her sequel. The two new main entrances
(I don’t consider these spoilers since it’s discussed in the book-description
at top) Lily, Will’s daughter, and Ambulance Sam, Lou’s key to escape, or
rather, her way forward from her grief. These two characters managed to
produce, with their relationship with Lou, so many emotions that one could
hardly have a plain face when reading about them. Lily: this spoiled, belligerent,
moody and in her ways tortured girl (basically it all defines ‘being a teenager’,
so yeah) and her surprise entrance made her a character that you most of the
times got angry on, and later, pitied and adored where her scars begins to heal
– she is amazing, that one. Then, there’s Sam, one affectionate man, also
bruised like Lou, who is there to make you, the readers, and the characters in
the story, feel all right, and loved; he’s the Will of the sequel, though
better even?! And how could I not mention the people from the Moving On circle, a great, though
generalized, addition to the story. All in all, these new folks place
beautifully into the story and makes it a charm to read.
But what
all these characters portrayed were the brimming emotions that Jojo wanted us
to feel: the grief, the hesitation for a new beginning, the frustration of not
meeting someone who belonged to you so closely, the isolation where no one
understands you, the responsibilities that you never thought were yours, and
then, the healing, the opening of your heart again, the love from your close
ones and from strangers too, the care that surrounds you, the sunrise and the
Spring – it’s all there, all there to teach us the art of being observant,
conscious regarding small details, emotionally intelligent and exaggeratedly
loving. These emotional complexities that Jojo so effortlessly embodies in the
story that invites our hearts to gloom, our eyes to moist, and our lips to
curve (upwards!) is what I am taking away from this sequel, and that is, I
believe, what a writer wants to accomplish and a reader hopes to gain.
The
story, for the more parts, does seem a little on the plainer side, where it’s
smooth and, to some extent, predictable. There are bumps and hiccups but less
intensified, but of course until that
it is – intensified!, then it’s a roller-coaster ride. Not that this sometimes,
plain-narrative dims the story in anyway, but it does stretches it a little,
just like it did in the last one. Though there are surprises and that
anticipation element to keep the readers invested, I did sometimes feel the weight
of the novel, so to speak. Then there’s the mourning that at times gets to your
nerves; getting alongside with someone else might seem like a cheating,
understandable, but cheating on who? A dead guy? Now that pinches – although
it’s dealt with nicely at the end. But
hey, at least no one dies here (despite the close encounters with death).
*Spoilers!
An Excerpt:
“You learn to live with
it with them. Because they do stay with you, even if they are not living,
breathing people anymore. It is not the same crushing grief you felt at first,
the kind that swamps you, and makes you want to cry in the wrong places, and get
irrationally angry with all the idiots who are still alive when the person you
love is dead. It is just something you learn to accommodate. Like adapting
around a hole. I don’t know – it is like you become a doughnut instead of a
bun.”
I won’t recommend
this or urge you all to read this one because if you have read the first one,
or watched the movie even, you’d definitely want to read this one. But for
those who don’t know this crazy, young, awkward, scared, and adorable girl Lou,
I’d say: what are you waiting for? Get these two, or now three, books and start
reading them right away. You won’t regret it, that’s a promise. And let’s have
another movie too, although sequels in movies are pathetic, but I’d really much
like one.
My praise for the
novel:
Richer, more expansive in every way.
A deserved sequel to a
beautiful story.
Rating: 4.7/5
****^
A review by: Ejaz
Hussain
14th
March, 2018. #35th