Book Review: After You

Like many readers, I had read and enjoyed Jojo Moyes Me Before You. I didn’t think a sequel was really necessary, as I generally like endings that leave things open for the readers’ imaginations.

Nevertheless, I still picked this up when it came out and enjoyed this novel – although perhaps not as much as the original.

Jojo Moyes is adept at crafting damaged characters who are lost and drifting. In the opening of this novel, that is exactly how we glimpse Louisa (Lou) Clark a year and a half following the death of Will Traynor, the man whose caretaker she was in Me Before You and with whom she had fallen in love before he decided to commit assisted suicide.

After a period living abroad, Lou has returned to live in London, where she knows no one and barely gets by in a dead-end job. When a stranger arrives on her doorstep, claiming a tie Lou never knew existed, Lou has to decide whether or not to open her life to others, and how to move on after the loss that left her devastated.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m still not convinced the original novel needed a sequel, but I did find it readable and was pleased to see the new life Lou constructs for herself. The story lines, humor and full cast of characters keeps this novel moving swiftly along.