# data[].attributes.body
'After You' is a romance novel written by Jojo Moyes (Pauline Sara Jo Moyes) who is an English journalist and, since 2002, a romance novelist and screenwriter. It is a sequel to 'Me Before You'. The book was first published on 29 September 2015 in the United Kingdom. A third novel in the series, 'Still Me', was published in January 2018.

She is one of only a few authors to have twice won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association and has been translated into twenty-eight languages.

It is written in the Post Modernistic times, so it reflects the main features of the period such as using a mixture of different styles. Only postmodernists are able to bring melodrama, tragedy, thriller and comedy into one piece. It is no coincidence that they say that the main form of postmodern self-expression is collage. The book can be further characterized by superficiality and depth at the same time, embrace of randomness, playfulness, fragmentation, metafiction, intertextuality, an unreliable narrator, parody, dark humor and paradox.

The author in her book rejects the scientific approach to understanding life and speaks through the main character Lou Clark: "I guess I will never understand why he did it, but my heart is with him, I feel him, I trust my guts."

# data[].attributes.body
Speaking of the ganre, one can for sure identify it as a romance novel, therefore a type of fiction which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people. But in her style Jojo Moyes obstains from creating another basic book with abundant love scenes and a 'happy end'. She decides to show the essence of love through a realistic situation between life and death and puts up a question: 'Is there any life after death, any love after losing your partner?' Is it worth it? Can one survive such a great loss and just move on with their life?'

She also managed to engage psycholgy in the most effective and understandible way by giving broad explanations of characters' feelings. The novel deals closely with the issue of suicide, particularly physician-assisted suicide. It has been critiqued, along with its film adaptation, for its portrayal of assisted suicide as the main character, WIll Traynor, having suffured from quadriplegia and depression after a terrible accident, decided to take his own life in this way in the previous book. Thus, she transferred the novel also in some kind of research.

# data[].attributes.body
'After You' opens with the protagonist, Louisa Clark, working in an airport in London. She lives in a flat with her inheritance money from Will but has been stuck in an unfulfilling job at an Irish-themed bar.

One night after work, Louisa drinks a lot of wine and climbs up onto the rooftop, while thinking about her grief over Will’s death. She hears girl’s voice causing her to fall two stories down her building. Paramedics take Louisa to the hospital. As a way of recovery  her family suggested attending grief counseling sessions where she bumps into Sam, one of the paramedics who saved her life. Sam is a complicated character and at the begining even becomes an antagonist.

One night at her flat, Louisa is visited by a teenage girl named Lily Houghton-Miller who claims to be Will Traynor’s daughter. Louisa visits Lily’s family and discovers that her mother, Tanya, never told Will that he had a daughter.

How will our heroine deal with the unkindness of the world again? Will she fall in love again? These are only some of the questions covered in the book.

# data[].attributes.body
I highly recommend reading this book as it has really helped me get through the struggles of my recently ended relationship. I realised that even if the dreams are usually unattainable and not everything in life works out as you want, it no longer upsets me. Even when it feels like the person you loved actually passed away, there is so much more to life. Your story is never really over, not even after death. With the love to life in your heart you will surely be given new chances.You have very little time here and just can't afford to waste it. Enjoy it while you can!