50 pages • 1-hour read
After You
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Background
Authorial Context: Jojo Moyes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by medically assisted suicide and death.
Jojo Moyes is a British novelist. She began her writing career as a typist and a journalist. She earned her undergraduate degree from Royal Holloway, University of London. After graduating, she worked for NatWest and reported for the Egham and Staines News. She later worked as an Arts and News Editor and an Arts and Media Correspondent for The Independent and as a reporter in Hong Kong for the Sunday Morning Post.
Moyes launched her authorial career in fiction with the 2002 publication of her debut novel Sheltering Rain. During this time, she also wrote for The Daily Telegraph. Since her literary emergence, Moyes has published a succession of titles including Foreign Fruit (2003), The Peacock Emporium (2004), The Ship of Brides (2005), Silver Bay (2007, Night Music (2008), The Horse Dancer (2009), The Last Letter from Your Lover (2011), Me Before You (2012), After You (2015), Still Me (2018), Lou In Lockdown (2020), The Honeymoon in Paris (2012), The Girl You Left Behind (2012), The One Plus One (2014), The Giver of Stars (2019). Someone Else’s Shoes (2023), and most recently We All Live Here (2025). Moyes’s catalog primarily features romance novels and thus are stories of finding, losing, and embracing love.
Moyes is best known for her Me Before You Series. The inaugural book in the series was adapted into a feature film in 2016. The novel was also a New York Times Bestseller and was nominated for Book of the Year at the UK Galaxy Book Awards. Me Before You and After You were both Platinum Hall of Fame Winners in the Nielsen Awards, and Still Me later won the Good Reads Best Fiction Award Winner in 2018.
Collectively, Moyes’s novels “have been translated into 46 languages, hit the number one spot in 12 countries, sold over 57 million copies worldwide and been Reese Witherspoon and Richard and Judy Book Club picks” (“About Jojo.” Jojo Moyes). Her work is in conversation with other contemporary romance novels including Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novels Forever, Interrupted (2013) and After I Do (2014) and Colleen Hoover’s novels Finding Perfect (2019) and Point of Retreat (2012).
Series Context: Me Before You Trilogy
After You is the second book in Moyes’s Me Before You trilogy. The series begins with Me Before You and ends with Still Me. In the inaugural title, Me Before You, Moyes introduces the main character Louisa Clark’s narrative world. The title establishes the complexity of Louisa’s character and circumstances. The stakes, conflicts, and themes of Me Before You set the precedent for the entire series.
Shortly after Louisa gets fired from her café job, she takes a job as the caretaker of a quadriplegic man named Will Traynor, who is in a wheelchair. Will’s family believes he needs 24-hour assistance, but Will is reluctant to accept Louisa’s help. Will’s life changed forever after he was in a motorcycle accident, and he feels trapped living with his parents. Despite Will’s moodiness, Louisa doesn’t give up on him. She has a quirky wardrobe and effervescent personality which ultimately encourage Will to open up. Over time, they grow close. However, Will is set on dying by assisted suicide: He has led an adventurous life and doesn’t think his life is worth living after his accident. Louisa does everything in her power to convince him otherwise but ultimately accompanies Will to Dignitas, a non-profit organization in Switzerland that provides death by assisted suicide.
After You picks up 18 months after Will dies with Louisa’s help. The novel traces Louisa’s work to orient to a world without Will. As Louisa opens herself to new experiences and relationships, she learns that living after Will’s death doesn’t mean forgetting or dishonoring him.
Still Me is the third and final installment in the Me Before You series. The novel begins where After You ends, as Louisa ventures off to New York to begin a new life. In New York, Louisa begins living with and working for the Gopnik family. Meanwhile, she and Sam Fielding maintain a transcontinental relationship. The distance between them creates conflict throughout the novel, even resulting in their breakup on Christmas Day. However, the two ultimately find their way back to each other at the novel’s end. In tandem, the three novels explore seasons of love and loss and the possibilities of discovering oneself while maintaining relationships over time.
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