After You

A Novel

By: Jojo Moyes

Narrated by: Anna Acton

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Giver of Stars, discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.

You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.

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. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

©2015 Jojo Moyes (P)2015 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Louisa is the perfect mix of daffy and brilliant, a sartorial risk-taker with a knack for solving other people’s problems. It is utterly satisfying to watch her tackle her own. Readers of Sophie Kinsella and Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project will want to start at the beginning. ... Moyes fans will be clamoring for the return of Louisa Clark.” (Booklist, starred review)

 “When I finished this novel, I didn’t want to review it: I wanted to reread it...an affair to remember.” (New York Times Book Review)

Doesn't come close to, Me Before You.

This was a very average book following an amazing book. It does describe how the tragedy of assisted suicide goes on to affect the survivors for he rest of their lives. Some of the plot was a bit far-fetched,however it was a decent story. If you fell in love with Louisa from the first book you will probably enjoy this one, but it's not a stand- alone book. I can't say I didn't enjoy it - it just doesnt come close to,Me Before You.

Jojo has lost her mojo.

I realize that a lot of people will disagree with me, but I really, really enjoyed Me Before You and this is just not the same Louisa Clark. This is page after page after page of suffering. I wish I'd left well enough alone. Apparently, that was a book that didn't need a sequel or at least, I didn't need to listen to it. Very disappointed.

After You.. Comes a Lot of Drama

This second book of the "Me Before You" series didn't keep me up late reading. This novel loses the character depth and insight of the first book, and is comprised of a string of "mini" dramas. The intensity that made the first novel exceptional is lacking in book two.

Ms. Moyes brings most of these dramatic relationship issues to closure far before the novel ends. Several times, I thought that the novel over, primarily because there was not enough storyline substance left to the reader's imagination. The book could have been significantly shorter.

There were some medical situations that should have been researched more extensively, and were not very believable.

"After You" tiptoes toward the chick-lit genre, Narration was very good,

Fine, but not as good as Me Before You

Jojo Moyes' books really do not fit into my favorite genres, but the powerful story Me Before You caught my attention. I later read The Girl You Left Behind and liked it. After You simply does not have the impact of either of the books mentioned above. The narration is fine, but the single narrator simply is not as good as the multiple narrators used in the other two novels.

Meets the challenge of following Before You.

The first book left me drained of emotion and concerned that a sequel could measure up. I need not have worried. After You was a beautiful walk through the grieving process and sharing the "Waking up and moving on." The characters are engaging and lovable. I hated to see this one end, but it left me elated and satisfied. Wonderful story.

Wow!

Really enjoyed Louisa's healing. The last book left me so raw. Nobody is a better storyteller than Jojo Moyes.

Didn't work for me....

I'm sorry, first of all changing narrator is rarely a good idea. Even if Anna Acton does a fair job, it feels wrong. The story is weird, uneventful and predictable.

I guess this is a follow-up book to please the fans, and not what was intended.

Disappointed! Good, but not great!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I don't think so. I definitely WOULD recommend Me Before You. That was a great book with wonderful narrators. Something went wrong with After You. To me, it was like it was just thrown together to make a sequel. I am very surprised because Jojo Moyes is a marvelous writer! I've read most of her books, but this one lacked something, maybe continuity, and the narrator was not very good, compared to the narrator(s) in Me Before You. If it had been possible, she should have used the same narrator for "Louisa" as in Me Before You.

If you’ve listened to books by Jojo Moyes before, how does this one compare?

Not up to par!

What three words best describe Anna Acton’s voice?

Unclear, too fast and accent too blurred!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, just to see how it ended, but otherwise no.

Any additional comments?

If this series continues, I hope the author makes better choices in future stories.

Thank goodness it didn't rip me to shreds like the first...

A lovely and satisfying follow up to Me Before You! Recommended for anyone that loved the first book, but definitely not to be read as a stand alone.

could not stop listening

I actually loved this book. Altough I was afraid to get my hopes up after " Me before you" was such a fantastic book. But, like I said I loved it. I sobbed, I laughed, sobbed again. The only thing is, that I actually hated the ending. Mabey when I listen to it again in some time I will like it, but right now I was actually miserable. I don't want to reveal the end but it made me cry even more, because for me it wasn't a happy ending. Even after "Me before you" I felt like everything was good, Louisa was good. Mabey my hopes were too up for Sam and Louisa.
But all together it was a great book.