Me Before You Discussion Guide: Home
Articles, Interviews, and Reviews
- Cost of Care: ‘Me Before You,’ by Jojo MoyesThe New York Times Sunday Book Review
By LIESL SCHILLINGER
Published: January 4, 2013 - Me Before You Goodreads Reviewsgoodreads.com
- Me Before You by Jojo Moyes Delivers Emotional PunchInterview with JoJo Moyes
Authorlink.com - JoJo Moyes: A Modern Day Love StoryBookpage.com
Interview by Abby Plesser - ‘Me Before You’ is one you should readUSA Today
By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY
December 28, 2012
Other Works by JoJo Moyes
- The Last Letter from Your LoverISBN: 9780670022809
- The Girl You Left BehindISBN: 9780670026616
- Silver BayISBN: 9780143126485
- One Plus OneISBN: 9780525426585
Videos
1. Me Before You - JoJo Moyes Interview Part I
2. Me Before You - JoJo Moyes Interview Part 2
Discussion Questions
(From the publisher)
- When Lou meets Will for the first time he is less than welcoming to her, even playing a mean trick on her to put her on edge. What were your first impressions of both Will and Lou? Did your view of them change over the course of the book and to what extent?
- Will and Lou have a profound effect on each other's lives. How do their lives change after they meet compared with how they were before? In what ways do they change each other?
- When Lou first learns of Will's intentions to go to Dignitas to end his life, she is shocked that his mother, Camilla, could be prepared to play such a role in her son's death and thinks of her as heartless: a view shared by other characters, such as Georgina and Lou's mother. How do you feel about Camilla as a character? Do you think this view of her is justified?
- Both Will and Lou have experienced a terrible life altering moment – Will's accident and Lou's assault in the castle maze. How do their reactions to each of their experiences compare? In what ways are their reactions similar/different?
- As his nurse and friend, Nathan is also a big part of Will's life. How important is his role in the novel? How does he affect the dynamic between Will, Lou and Will's parents?
- Lou is very close to her family, despite her frequent squabbles with her sister Treena. How important are they in the decisions she makes, such as her decision to take the job with the Traynors and keep it – even when she discovers why she is only contracted for six months – and her decision to go to Switzerland to be with Will at the end?
- Will and Lou come from very different worlds. Will's was one of success, ambition and privilege before his accident, while Lou inhabits a modest, simple and unadventurous world, restricted to the boundaries of the small town she's lived in all of her life. Do you think they would have fallen for each other if they had met under different circumstances?
- Will's right to die, and Lou's determination to change his mind about exercising that right, is a theme that runs throughout the novel. How did you feel about Will's decision at the end? Was it what you expected? Do you think the novel should have ended differently?
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Suggestions for further reading
- Talk Before Sleep byThe gripping story of a woman dying from cancer. The narrator is Ann Stanley, an unhappily married nurse. All the more reason for her to admire Ruth Thomas who leaves her husband, even though it means leaving her son, too. A bond develops between the two and when Ruth is struck with cancer Ann helps her die, the process described in minute detail.
- You're Not You byISBN: 9780312352295Hoping to revitalize her lackluster existence by taking a job as a caregiver for a married woman with ALS, college student Bec finds herself profoundly moved by her relationship with her employer, with whom she experiences unanticipated life changes.
- The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving byISBN: 9781616200398Jonathan Evison has crafted a novel of the heart, a novel of unlikely heroes traveling through a grand American landscape, and most of all, a story that offers a profound look into what it takes to truly care for another person. Bursting with energy and filled with moments of absolute beauty, this bighearted and inspired novel ponders life's terrible surprises as well as its immeasurable rewards.