After You

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. How did you respond to the revelation that Lily Miller was Will Traynor’s daughter? How did this plot point alter your perceptions of Louisa’s story and her relationship with Will?

2. The novel explores The Complicated Process of Grieving and Healing. How does Louisa’s experience compare and contrast with your encounters with loss and journeys toward healing?

3. Louisa forms a close connection with Sam Fielding throughout the novel. How does this intimate relationship compare and contrast with your romantic entanglements? Which aspects of the relationship were most and/or least relatable, and why?

4. Louisa gradually reconciles with her family and makes new friends throughout the novel. Explore how these community dynamics influence her internal journey. Have you been in similar interpersonal situations, and how have these relationships affected your personal growth?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. After You sub-textually explores notions of female empowerment and strength. Explore how Moyes represents these feminist issues within the context of Louisa’s story. Which aspects of these subtextual commentaries are least and most effective? (Consider for example Lily’s experiences and Josie’s storyline.)

2. The novel is primarily set in London, England. Analyze the role that this urban environment plays in Louisa’s grieving, healing, and growth journeys. What commentary is Moyes offering about forming communities in such settings; and how does this commentary relate to the contemporary loneliness epidemic?

3. Louisa’s story offers an in-depth examination of loss, grief, and mental health. How does Moyes’s novel contribute to contemporary conversations about personal well-being and self-care?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. The novel is written primarily from Louisa’s first-person point of view. Explore the narrative and thematic significance of this narrative vantage. How would Louisa’s story read differently if written from an alternate point of view?

2. Analyze the significance of Chapter 19’s formal disruption: this is the only chapter written from the third-person point of view and tracing Lily’s story. What does the chapter accomplish formally, narratively, and thematically? How does the chapter nuance Louisa’s story, and how would her narrative change without it?

3. Analyze the narrative, atmospheric, and symbolic significance of the setting throughout the novel. Consider how interior and exterior spaces affect Louisa differently. What do these environments reveal about her character?

4. Identify three major changes that Louisa experiences throughout the novel. How does each of these life events contribute to her character arc?