‘After You’ takes place after the events if ‘Me Before You’, with Louisa still coming to terms with the death of Will, falling in love again and dealing with a surprise from Will’s past. 

 
While I liked the aspects of the book, showing the process of trying to overcome the death of loved one, due to how much happens in the book I feel like it took a backseat and was not explored fully.  I did enjoy the characters at grief counselling, I feel like they brought a lot of different perspectives of how people come to terms with the loss of a loved one.  I also do enjoy Jojo Moyes writing style, it’s very easily digestible. 

 
There are so many plots in this book, that I feel like it has no real plot.  The plot goes like this – Louisa falls off roof, Will has a surprise child, Louisa tries to navigate a new relationship, revenge porn, creepy older guy blackmails a child, attempted sexual assault, gang/drug war, new job offer across the Atlantic and a side plot of a SAHM for years getting fed up and wanting to do something for herself for once and her husband being a misogynistic ass.  As you can see A LOT happens. 

 
I feel like this book tried to do too much, which had things quickly wrap up rather than a proper exploration of any topics it introduced.  In ‘Me Before You’ I felt like the main plotline was pretty streamlined – Louisa needs a job and gets hired to look after Will, a quadriplegic, she finds out he wants to end his life through assisted suicide, tries to get him to change his mind, they fall in love but in the end his wishes are respected and both Will and Louisa grow as characters by the end.  In ‘After You’ it was plotline after plotline after plotline and it hindered my enjoyment of the book. 

 
This book also suffered from a plotline I don’t particularly enjoy and that is the surprise grown child no-one knew existed.  Honestly, even though Lily is just 16 some of her behaviour made me less sympathetic towards her at times.  She smokes and drinks in Louisa’s house even though she is asked not to, it’s like she feels like Louisa owes her something simply because she dated Will (even though Will himself never even knew of Lily), she’s pretty rude to her grandparents, she judges girls for having career ambitions while also like boys which just confuses me and acts pretty forceful in trying to get Louisa up on the roof even though she knows Louisa fell off the roof and nearly lost her life.  This is not to say that I didn’t feel sorry for her, she has an incredibly toxic homelife and is being blackmailed with revenge porn (and by 2 different people, and one a much older man), so I can understand some of her behaviour, I just feel that she doesn’t really grow as a character. 

 
A character who I didn’t particularly like in the first book, I REALLY didn’t like in this book and that is Trina.  In my notes I have “she’s a judgmental little asshole” and I can’t find a more perfect way to describe her.  She is so judgmental towards Louisa throughout this book but what annoyed me the most is when Louisa temporarily moves back home after a serious accident, she’s not even back a week before Trina is telling Louisa she needs to sort her life out and not rely on their mum and dad, however, Trina is the one who still lives at home and relies on her mother providing free child care so she can get and education and a job, her condescension and hypocrisy towards Louisa just made her a completely unlikeable character to me and she never grows and instead I feel like is rewarded.  An incredibly frustrating character who I feel like I’m supposed to like but has no redeeming qualities. 

 
The dad, who I remember liking in the first book, is a misogynistic ass in this book, which disappointed me and while it was rectified by the end, just like all the other plot branches, it feels superficial. 

 
There are scenes of attempted sexual assault and 2 counts of blackmail with revenge porn that I felt was just thrown in the book and not dealt with properly.  The way this plotline was dealt with was like something you’d see in the later seasons of ‘One Tree Hill’ and then never spoken of or dealt with again.  It felt like it was added for the sake of more ‘drama’ and it wasn’t needed. 

 
I liked Sam and Louisa and the time we got to spend with the grief group I enjoyed.  I went into this book expecting to see Louisa trying to come to terms with the events of the first book and moving on and considering I liked these aspects of the book, if they were allowed to be the main plot and fleshed out properly, I believe I would’ve enjoyed this book.  Instead, it tried to do too much and ended up not doing anything at all.