Joint Review: After You by Jojo Moyes

Happy end of October everyone! This week Blodeuedd and I are discussing, "After You" by Jojo Moyes. 

Author: Jojo Moyes
Title: After You (Me Before You #2)
Genre: Fiction and Romance
Pages: 353
First Published: September 2015
Where I Got It: My Shelf (Bought from Grocery store - totally on sale)

How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future...


For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings.

Welcome to Izzy Spellman's off-kilter world. Equal parts Sam Spade and Bridget Jones, she's a damn good investigator—if only her dysfunctional family would back off and let her do her thing. Izzy's cynical—okay, wise—enough to realize that a primrose-covered cottage with a white picket fence is not in her future. That's okay with her. Ever the jaded P.I., she catalogs her ex-boyfriends with calculated brevity, reducing her romantic misjudgments to curt summaries of name, age, occupation, hobbies, duration, and last words. No sooner has she met a new man that she begins composing his exit profile.

Hired to trail a husband whose wife suspects he's gay, Isabel easily determines that nothing could be further from the truth. 

**FOREWARNING - THERE MAYBE A COUPLE WEE SPOILERS ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE FIRST ONE**

B: I need to rant first. See, someone was holding on to the English version and I had to borrow the Swedish translation. God! Blergh. Translation rant! When you translate a book you can’t just directly translate things, well at least not in literature, and this book was badly done. Of course I could be wrong and the book itself could be really bad, but the thing here was language. First it sounded like a 80 year old tried to be cool, when everyone spoke! One word I yelled out to bf and he laughed, it sure was not a word anyone has used in ages. So many sentences and words made me cringe, and conversations that are totally normal should not make you cringe. One word I even had to check the definition of! I have never ever heard anyone use it in rl, tv, books, never! There were other normal definitions of that word that people would use 100% of the time. I mean honestly! But that was not all. All conversations sounded like the same person spoke. The language was stilted, the nuances lost. I am not saying I am a translator (sure I did take classes in uni, but not in literary translation). But I know literature, I have read amazing English books translated from other languages, books whose language sang. Here it was grey and lifeless. The whole book lost its meaning cos all I thought of was the language. And that is why as soon as I knew enough English I started to read in English. Because I have read too many books like this. Especially fantasy books, those all sounded like they were made for 10 year olds. I could write pages about this, but let’s talk about the story and see what Carole thought. It might just be that the book sucked ass. C: Holy rant! I’m sorry the translation sucked!!! But the story wasn’t too bad. It was a little rough at the beginning...it felt like the author hadn’t written in a while and was getting back on her feet. But after a while she found her baring and I was hooked.
B: Oh, I was never hooked :/ I just could not get over the language and nitpicked everything. I would def have dnfed this stupid translation, but read it to the end.
C: Oh no! I thought the story was decent. Nothing compared to the first one, but it was interesting. I’m really upset about the road Lou took. Sure...nothing is ever perfect, but she really fell off the wagon of what Will wanted for her. :( B: The feel of the movie was gone for me, here I just wondered how she could have been in love that fast. Also she really went, not crazy, but honestly girl! You effed up your life. Bohoo, you are sad, but think of Will! She was a mess. C: Yes and that pissed me off. AT the end of the last book she was happy and ready to take the world by storm in honor of Will. But no - this was annoying. I wanted to punch her. I felt like everything was stripped away and she was nothing. The character was destroyed….she didn’t wear her funky outfits until near the end. Ugh...and I hated Lily. Like - the character was okay - but I freakin’ hated her role in the story and who she was to Will. Like...why? Ugh.
B: It felt like the author wanted some easy cash and wrote a book and just made her sad again so she would have a book. And yes Lily felt unnecessary. Also if her mother had told her, why not check them out sooner, why on earth go for Lou? Also Lou, you are not a social worker, that kid needed help.
C: Completely agree. I think it would have been more entertaining if the author kept Lou happy and then Lily came out of nowhere. However, I did like the story with Sam. Sam was a sweetie. B: Sam was ok, I did not feel any sparks, but hey that could have been the translation and everyone having the same voice.
C: Maybe, but I didn’t feel any sparks for the vast majority of the book, because Lou was sooooooooooooo miserable all of the time. Why would Sam stay? She treated him like dirt! I felt so bad. He was legit so nice to her and did all that for her. But Lou is still obsessed with Will (which whatever) and how could Sam want to stay? I just don’t get and I don’t think it’s realistic at all. The vast majority of this book was not realistic and it frustrated me. However, I was hooked, because it was like a car accident….you can’t help but move forward and watch in curiosity! C: Lol, well those wrecks are fun to watch, and maybe I could have felt like that too. Sigh. But yes, honestly Sam, you should have run way. Also I so did not get the end….oh and the whole Lily thing, you know, the thing, helllo! Call real people, if you get what I mean B: LOL yeah. No...the whole Lily thing should have been dealt with differently. Her mom and stepdad should have child services called on them, because they are TERRIBLE parents. The mom was a total beeeee-word. With that parenting style and the way they treated her, DUH she was going to grow up to be a mess and want nothing to do with them. B: What else could we talk about, hmmm, miserable Lou, strange Lily, not coping and moving on. Check. Bad parents, check. Nice guy being all nice, check… C: Oh! Don’t forget the slutty red-head secretary that Will’s dad left the mom for. Big check there. This was SUCH a soap opera. I feel it really went off track from the first one. This...was a wreck.
B: I hope they do not make a movie. What a depressing mess that would be. C: 100% agree. If they do make it, I’ll probably watch it because I am one for self-torture. I think we should put a “possible spoiler” at the beginning ;) I’m so bummed that this not nearly as good as the first one. That one was awesome, this? Wreck. B: I do not even know how to rate it, dang, I wish I had read it in English :/ C: I think the story would’ve been better in English and the characters’ convos better, but the whole plot and layout would not have changed I think. B: True, but at least I could have enjoyed the story, and thought if it as a train wreck then ;) C: Hahaha, maybe track down an English version or I can send you mine because I will not be re-reading it. xD B: Thanks, but no thanks, I do not want to take the risk. C: Alriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight whatever you say ;). Anything you want to add?? B: I am good, translations suck! ;) Whose turn next? C: Yours? IDK honestly. LOL XD B: Omg, I will TRY AND PICK SOMETHING GOOD! C: May the Book Gods be with you!

**CAROLE'S CONCLUSION**
I loved the first one and I recently watched the movie and I loved it (I need to write a review for it). I was SO excited for this one, but in the end - I was so let down. I feel the character, Lou, lost everything that made her her. Which is stupid. Lily was interesting, but I hate the whole story and who she was. This was a soap opera and nothing at all like the first book. Nothing felt real. I was hooked, yes, but it was like a car accident and I couldn't put the book down. The ending was decent and there is hope, but I have no faith that the author will allow Lou to be happy. After I was done reading this and everything was able to soak in, I tossed this book. Was this truly the sequel to what seemed a bright future at the end of the last one? Will would be disgusted at Lou and his family. Now...a rating? Mhmmm....2 stars...barely. Sam is the only reason, because I loved him and his story.