Book group choice for 26th April – 24th May. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

My 2nd book club meeting takes place tomorrow where we will be discussing what we thought of Room by Emma Donoghue, I will be posting both a personal review and a group review some time soon after this meeting.

Our next book club choice is Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and this will be discussed on the 24th May.  Below you will find some suggested questions to get you thinking if you would like to contribute to our discussion by cyber link, nobody took me up on this offer last month but I will continue to offer the opportunity.

1) When Lou meet 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?

 

2) 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?

 

3) 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?

 

4) Both Will and Lou have experienced a terrible life altering moment – Will’s accidents and Lou’s assault in the castle maze.

How do their reactions to each of their experiences compare?

In what ways are their actions similar/different?

 

5) 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?

 

6) 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?

 

7) 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 her life.

Do you think they would have fallen for each other if they had met under different circumstances?

 

8) 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?

 

Personal read out of 5 and why

Group read out of 5 and why

 

Would you like to read more of Moyes books?

 

Do you have any other general opinions about the plot, characterisation, reality, issues raised, style of writing, or anything else which you would like to comment on?

~ by adelesymonds on April 25, 2012.