My Review

“There are some books where you immediately feel at home with the characters, and We All Live Here was certainly one of those for me”.

Jojo Moyes has a wonderful way of creating characters who feel like real people, complete with their flaws, frustrations, complicated relationships and very human decisions. I genuinely felt as though I got to know them as the story unfolded.

The writing is warm and engaging, with plenty of humour woven through the more emotional moments. There is a lot going on within this family, and Moyes captures the chaos of relationships, motherhood and trying to find your way when life doesn’t quite turn out as planned.

I also enjoyed the fact that there were a few moments I genuinely didn’t see coming. One in particular had me thinking, you absolute arsehole! — which probably says something about how invested I’d become in the characters. When a book can make you react like that, it’s doing something right.

A Little Slow to Get Going

That said, while I liked this book, it didn’t quite have the same emotional impact on me as Me Before You. That is probably an unfair comparison in some ways, because Me Before You left a much bigger impression on me and stayed with me long after I finished it. We All Live Here was enjoyable, but I didn’t feel quite the same connection to the story itself.

I also felt it took a little while to get into. Once I was settled into the story, I enjoyed the flow and spending time with the characters, but it did feel as though it dragged in places, and I felt the same towards the end. I was ready for the story to reach its conclusion.

The premise itself also treads some familiar ground: a struggling, divorced mother trying to juggle family chaos, relationships and uncertainty about what comes next. There is plenty of family drama here, and if you enjoy stories about complicated families and the messy realities of relationships, there is certainly plenty to keep you reading. However, some of the direction the story took felt a little predictable to me.

And perhaps that’s what stopped it from being a five-star read for me. The writing is good, the characters are well thought out and there are some genuinely funny, surprising and emotional moments. But throughout the book, I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was missing.

Overall, We All Live Here is a warm, funny and character-driven family drama. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to read more from Jojo Moyes, but for me, it didn’t quite reach the emotional heights of Me Before You. Still, if you’re looking for a story filled with family drama, complicated relationships, humour and second chances, this is an enjoyable read.