By JoJo Moyes
Penguin Publishing, 2012
Genre: Fiction
Will Traynor loved his life and lived it to the fullest. He climbed mountains, traveled, and sky dived. He worked hard, loved his job and reveled in making huge deals. He had “leggy” girlfriends and loved to spend time with them. Everything was going great for him, until one day while crossing the street on the way into the office Will was hit by a motorcycle. Two years later, Louisa (Lou) Clark lives with her whole family. She sleeps in the smallest room with no windows, so her sister can have the larger room for her and her son. She has just been fired from a job she loved at a nearby cafĂ©. She has been trying to find a new job and cannot do another minute at the chicken processing plant. While at the Career Centre, they offer her a position as a companion for a quadriplegic. She has never worked in this capacity and is quite nervous at the interview. Carmilla Traynor interviews Lou, to be with her son Will during the day. Her job is to make sure he isn’t alone and that he has someone to drive him around, or give him anything he needs. Carmilla hires Lou, and the next day she meets Will; He is angry and in constant pain. As time passes Lou learns she has to make Will love life again, and Will learns he needs to help Lou have a life.
This was one of my vacation books. It was such an easy read, and I got sucked in pretty quickly. It was well written, and the language is easy, as if it was just unfolding before you. As I worked my way through this one, I knew it was going to be a crying book. But in the end I didn’t cry as much as I thought I would. It felt inevitable, what else would happen? This was realistic, and even though it feels a little black you knew it was coming. But let me tell you that I wasn’t fully prepared because in the VERY END I was crying hard, like put the book down and get the tissues. Not one graceful tear, but the whole waterworks. But I couldn’t put this one down. I had to know what was going to happen to these two, and it didn’t disappoint.
This story was real to me, there was no glossing over the difficult parts of Will's various problems. There were some folks on the internet that Lou turns to for advice and they were real. There were two sides, the ones that were getting on and doing what they could to have a good life. Then there was the darker side, the anger and the pain. I liked that Moyes didn’t shy away from any of that. I also loved that she including the errors that anyone would make (trying to shake Will’s hand). Nor does Moyes shy away from Will’s pain, it is honest and so heartbreaking. Which is why all together it felt so much more realistic to me.
I really wanted to smack Lou’s family sometimes. It was just like “why do you make fun of her when she works to keep you all happy? WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?” I really didn’t like that they picked on her so much. It made me angry, because she seemed like a good person. Perhaps a little lost, but still a good person and she didn’t deserve that. But then there is a part with her birthday and her parents redeem themselves. Later on in the book I grew fonder of her sister because she could cut through all of Lou’s crap and see the truth. It was also hard to like Carmilla, until there was a chapter from entirely her perspective, it made me understand her better. Sometimes I really hate when there are chapters from another point of view, but this one was essential.
In the end this was a story of two people, both stuck. One in a wheelchair and the other stuck in her own fears. In the end it just affirms my belief that we really should live to the fullest. Do what you can to not put anything off, and live. It was a beautiful story and I really loved reading it, in fact I would read it again!
My verdict: READ IT!
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What did you think of this book? Did you cry too? Did you find the end inevitable?
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If you liked this,
then try:
The Night Circus
My Name is Memory
All the Light we
Cannot See
