BOOK REVIEW! NO.2: ME BEFORE YOU BY JOJO MOYES

My mum gave me this book. She said: "You might like this." So I read it.
Usually when people recommend books to me - especially my mum - I'm very careful. I know that I have a rather specific taste in books and very high expectiations. I've had a lot of books recommended or given to me that I didn't enjoy at all. Jojo Moyes's me before you was definitely different!
In the prologue, we meet Will Traynor, successful businessman, getting up early on a rainy London morning, kissing his beautiful girlfriend goodbye, running down the street to catch a bus. The last thing we know, he is hit by a motorcycle.
Two years later, Lousia Clark, living with her parents, grandfather, sister and nephew in a tiny house and being the almost sole support of all of these, loses her job in the café she has worked in for the last six years. When she starts jobhunting, at first nothing goes right. Then she is offered the job as a carer for a quadriplegic. Incredibly well paid, limited to six months. Mostly because she needs the money, she accepts.
Will Traynor suffered a severe spinal cord injury in that accident. He cannot use his legs at all and has very limited use of his arms. Before the accident he was successful in his job and an action man in his free time, skiing, bungee jumping, anything. Now he is just that poor disabled man. He's miserable. And he's incredibly rude to Louisa.
Now, we all kind of know that plot. The concept is very The Intouchables, that beautiful French film from a couple of years ago. Only different.
Louisa thinks her life is all right. She has a boyfriend, she has a job, she has a family.
Will thinks her life is boring. As soon as the two of them start properly talking, he tries to tempt her into doing new things, trying new activities. And Lou manages to get him out of his shell.
What I love about me before you is mostly the characters. There are a lot of people to meet, from the two main protagonists to Lou's sister Treena who Lou thinks is always better at everything, her parents, Will's parents, Will's Australian medical carer Nathan who pretends to be cheerful all the time and Lou's boyfriend Patrick who at some point turned into Running Man and only ever talks about body fat ratios and his running times. You kind of get to know all of them, and every single one of them is interesting. They all have good and bad sides and even when you're not reading you catch yourself thinking about them.
The storyline is also very well set out, logical and fluent and it sucks you right in. And, yes, I cried a bit.
The topic of this book is rather sensitive and I actually can't talk very much about it without majorly spoiling it but still. Will's situation makes you think - what would you do? How would you deal with this? It's rather depressing, actually, but that really doesn't stop you from enjoying the reading experience.
Also, me before you is terribly English. So that's nice, too.

Let me know what you think, and also if there's anything specific you would like me to do over the course of the next six-ish weeks while I'm on school break. Poems? Short story? More book reviews? Field trips?

Love,
Jojo

(And no, I did not write that book although I share the author's name. Whish that I had, though!)

UPDATE-ISH

'ello, my lovely friends.

There's quite a lot I'd like to talk about that couldn't really fill seperate posts but I want to tell you anyway. This is mostly rambling and might not have any kind of structure but off we go!

Let's start with my writing process. I've set myself a very clear goal concerning the novel I've been working on for the better part of a year, and I've written that goal in my calendar so at least I won't forget it. I've decided to have at least Draft Two finished by the Sunday before my eighteenth birthday next February. I deliberately chose the Sunday because it is about a week from my actual birthday, giving me some extra time in case I have any difficulties thrown in my face. It's a fairly big project and I still have an awful lot of planning to do.

(Just in case you're wondering what Draft Two is: Draft Zero is the one you don't let anybody read, Draft One is what you show your best friend and Draft Two is where things get serious.)

Last Monday I went to see a Poetry Slam with my German course. While it was definitely not as good as a lot of Spoken Word poetry that I've seen online, there were one or two texts I honestly enjoyed. The evening was generally fun, although much too long for a Monday night. But apart from extreme tiredness I've taken with me a new motivation to try writing some myself. I've tried a couple of times in the past to produce something worth performing but usually failed, and now I gathered some new inspiration and encouragement. I promise that if I ever manage a worthwhile piece I'll either post it here or even record it and show you.

There's only one and a half week of school left for this year and to be honest, there's not much going on. Next week alone I'm going to be on one excursion, participate in the oh-so-wonderful running for charity, help at the sports fest for the younger students and enjoy a wonderful day off while our teachers try out new teaching methods and, I don't know, play some team-building games. So no homework anymore!

Since we're graduating next year, the students from my grade are voting for a motto tomorrow. I am painfully aware that this has the potential to become an absolute desaster but I'm hoping for the best (meaning a motto I can live with without having to change schools). Fingers crossed, everybody!

So this was a rather short post about rather uninteresting things. But if you would like to read this type of post more often, I'll definitely think about it and try to improve them!

Lots of love,
Jojo