Me Before You: There are no easy answers to euthanasia – teen opinion
Most of the best YA fiction books leave room for the reader to decide how they want to interpret them. For me, great examples of this are The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson, Veronica Roth’s Divergent, My Sister’s keeper by Jodi Picoult, If I Stay by Gayle Forman and All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. All of these books make the reader think about the characters’ decisions and all but two have been made into films (and I anticipate movie versions of All The Bright Places and The Art of Being Normal are imminent!). I’ve had so many great discussions with my friends about the issues in these books, and I feel they’ve really added to my life and how I’ve developed as a person.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes – review
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Today I want to talk about the bestselling book and just out now movie, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, and if you haven’t read the book yet then I’d say you should get yourself a copy and read it this instant (if possible before you watch the film if you’re planning to) because it’s the best book I’ve read this year!
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The book tells the story of Will who is paralysed by an accident – and decides to kill himself after two years of suffering. But then he meets Louisa Clarke, his new carer who tries to change his mind about his decision.
Euthanasia is the termination of a very sick person to relieve them from their suffering. From that definition, you can probably tell why it is a controversial topic. It’s assisted suicide and that’s why it’s frowned upon by a lot of people. Now I know that euthanasia is a very sensitive topic to talk about, but this book doesn’t focus on dying, it is about not having a right or wrong answer to situations, or at least that’s how I interpreted it – and that’s what I want to talk about in this article.
I heard about this book from one of my good friends who recommended it on a group chat, so me and five more of my friends all decided to read it and in the end we all had very conflicting views about Will’s decision.
Not all of my friends agree with euthanasia in the first place and that’s why it was interesting listening to all their opinions. In the book, euthanasia is seen as something bad at first, as Will’s carer tries her absolute best to stop him from ending his life, but near the end you kind of understand that euthanasia is a personal decision and that decisions like that should be respected.
Here’s the trailer for Me Before You, the movie version of JoJo Moyes book. But we advise reading the book before watching the film!
Me and my friends argued that Will “was constantly living in pain, constantly getting ill, touching death and coming back, he became sick of it all” and so he wanted to end his suffering. But, “his situation was nothing abnormal as there are loads of people living like him who are happy: but then again, “Does that mean that because they’re happy he has no choice but to be happy? Everyone’s different. Some people learn to deal with it, but in Will’s case he couldn’t deal with it”.
These are just some of the things we talked about and we never came to a conclusion. We found, for us, there was no right or wrong answer.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - review
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I also wanted to know more about the book so I tried to ask JoJo Moyes herself why she decided to end the book this way. I emailed her (found her email address on her website) and I received an email back from JoJo’s assistant saying: “Jojo is so glad you and your friends enjoyed Me Before You as much as you did and that you enjoyed thinking about the characters so deeply. Many readers have expressed their opinions but Jojo likes to leave it to the individual to decide”.
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So it is good to disagree and also good to be informed about a topic and understand that some issues are better left unresolved. Euthanasia is one of these topics because of its sensitive and controversial nature.
I really believe that we need fiction to teach us that there are no right or wrong, no black and white answers to every single situation – and for me that is the wider value of Me Before You. What do you think?
Buy Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You from the Guardian bookshop. Let us know your thoughts on Twitter @GdnChildrensBks or by email childrens.books@theguardian.com.