Before I Fall

I don’t know where to start with this review. This is a book I wish I would have read in high school. I feel like every girl needs this book. The popular ones, the nice ones, the mean ones, the losers… EVERY girl. The plot is a mixture of Mean Girls and Groundhog Day. Sam lives the last day of her life as her popular self, dies, and then wakes up to find the same day repeating itself. She’s a teenager and she’s blissfully unaware that things matter – people, feelings, events, connections, etc. As the synopsis says, she untangles the mystery surrounding her death and discovers the true value of everything. At first, I wondered what could really happen in this book and I thought it would be predictable and unoriginal and one of those obvious books that teaches you a lesson. I felt like maybe it would be one of those books where I knew too much and it would just be mediocre. I was so wrong. The most amazing thing about this book is how it made me feel. I couldn’t necessarily relate to the characters (but I did in many ways) and most of them fit a typical teen movie stereotype, but it was getting to know each of the characters on Sam’s repetitive journey that made the difference. It made me look at myself and wonder how I was to other people in high school and remember how they were to me. Everything just really hit me like a ton of bricks reading this book. I loved that it portrayed what it’s like to be in high school and what kind of things matter and what being cool really is and realizing how lame it all is in retrospect. It was able to show how small things turn into big things and vice versa and why people do the things they do. The way the author weaved this story is also truly amazing. I loved the way she wrote and how she managed to convey so many things at once. She was able to give the story from Sam’s point of view (a teenager with a complete disregard for others) while also not making it excruciating for the reader. I didn’t feel like I was watching a stupid girl finally wake up and look around, but in some ways, I was. Sam was a complex person, like we all are. The way she described certain things floored me. I can’t praise the writing enough. “As I head up from the gym it strikes me how strange people are. You can see them every day—you can think you know them—and then you find out you hardly know them at all. I feel exhilarated, kind of like I’m being spun around a whirlpool, circling closer and closer around the same people and the same events but seeing things from different angles.” “Then again, I guess Izzy doesn’t care. That’s another thing that strikes me as funny: that my eight-year-old sister is braver than I am. She’s probably braver than most of the people at Thomas Jefferson. I wonder if that will ever change, if it will get beaten out of her.” “Maybe I am like her, deep down. Maybe we all are: just one lunch period away from eating alone in the bathroom.” I loved this book. But I also hated it because it made me feel terrible. It doesn’t shy away or fail to point out all the screwed up traits in people and it’s embarrassing to be able to relate to even one of these moments. It also doesn’t fail to capture the amazing moments and the great things about people, too. I almost dropped my review to 4 stars because of the way it ended, but I couldn’t take away a star. The book made me feel very strong emotions and made me ask myself tons of thought provoking questions and even though it wasn’t the most comfortable read, it really deserves the 5 star rating for that. In the end, the book is one of those books that say something real about humanity. There’s a lesson and it’s heart wrenching, but it’s also gritty and jaw dropping. I definitely recommend it to others. It’s a book all girls should read, especially teenagers. I think it sparks some self reflection.

I bought this book based on the strength of Lauren Oliver's follow up novel, Delirium, knowing that people really love this book. Personally, I both loved and hated it. Loved the beauty of it, the story that it took me through. Hated that these people are so common place, we all know them, and thinking about how unfair it all is. The first thing that struck me very early in the book is just how horrible Sam and her friends are. They are just the epitome of that popular high school girl, the Plastics, if you will. Anyone who didn't know these girls in school was one of them. Because even if you weren't directly targeted by that group, their behavior inevitably affected you. Sam gets to relive the last day of her life seven different times, a chance to do things differently and maybe change the world for the better. It has a very Groundhog Day feel, so much that Sam herself says it - and like you feel when watching Groundhog Day, you keep hoping that eventually, things will turn out right. Everything will be okay. You never really know when the last day of your life will be, how things will turn out. You feel the same for Sam. This book deals with some very heavy themes, some of which were rather hard for me to read through, given my personal history with them. It's written for a young adult audience, but this is the kind of book that I'd want to read along with my teen and talk to them about a variety of the things that happen in it. I feel like this book is pretty true to teen life these days, so it might open up the avenue of conversation for some parents. I cried through several parts of this book, it left me so open and raw, though admittedly it would have had more of an impact if the characters were more likeable. But that's part of the beauty of this one - each chapter is like peeling back the layers of an onion. You learn something new about people at every turn, and figure out that no one is as they really seem. Who knows, maybe it'll make you want to live your life a little better too.

This is one of the best YA books I've read in a long while. Part Groundhog Day, part The Source Code, part Judy Blume, part The Lovely Bones - all itself. We start with a high school girl, Sam, who dies in a car accident, and is doomed(?) to repeat the last day of her life again and again. Seven times to be exact. Sound like a recipe for repetition? It's not. First of all the writing is lovely. Really lovely. I've read perhaps 50+ first person girl narratives in the last year alone and this one had the best voice. It's fairly well tied with Mary E. Pearson in that regard for recent entries (Judy Blume still wins for lifetime achievement). It's funny clever without the annoying Snark. The voice is so good that it just drags you through the entire book, and it's a pretty long book for YA. Lauren Oliver really is a lovely writer. The dialogue is good, the narrative description and interior monologue are amazing, and even the flowery interstitial description that glues together connected days is short but evocative. The Lovely Bones also had great voice, and a tremendous first half, before it fell apart into an abysmal mess of moral apathy. Before I fall is better. There are some things worth noting. The characterization and the high school realism is top notch. I was reminded a bit of a modern Freaks and Geeks in that there was that kind of insightful tragio-comic realism. These girls felt pretty darn real. Even the minor characters had some depth. It's this more than anything else that echoed the master of all YA: Judy Blume. Blume uses dialogue more liberally, as it's her main method of characterization. Oliver prefers interior monologue and narrative description. The net result is similar. There's a lot of detail here too, but the voice manages to make it interesting. Sam and her friends are popular girls, and more than a little bitchy, but they don't extend into characterture. They are a little bad, but not too bad -- realistically so. This is no melodramatic Gossip Girl. There is plenty of drinking, rudeness, etc. The sexuality is muted. Handled well enough, but perhaps a bit tamer than it could have been. Now as to structure. Oliver does a really first notch job repeating the same day seven times without ever being dull. Sam makes different choices, and on some days this plays out very differently. One time she doesn't even go to school. Still, even when the same scenes are repeated, and they are, different angles are shown, revealing and painting from different directions. This is hard to do, and must have taken considerable planning and rewriting. I'm actually facing a bit of this myself in my second novel, which is a time travel book and involves overlap and revisiting. I'm going to stop for a second to pontificate on writing this kind of fiction. One of the things that makes this work in Before I Fall is the loose structure of the high school day. Sam's day includes: getting up, driving with her friends to school, various classes, lunch, ditching, hanging out after school, and the party. These events flow from one to the next because of the inherent structure. If she skips lunch, or English class, she can pick back up on the schedule, because it's immutable and set at a level greater than herself. This it has in common with Back to the Future I and II. There the structure of the dance forms a background on which Marty can play. In my own story, I have been trying to revisit a complex action scene multiple times. The whole scene -- even the first time -- folds out from the actions of the protagonist without any background structure, which makes altering that flow... complex. In any case, in Before I Fall there is a also a very strongly structured arc, like, Groundhog Day, the protagonist has to learn a series of lessons from the failures of the first and subsequent trials. Much like a video game level, she gets to play it over and over again until she gets it right. This is very satisfying to read. Too bad real life doesn't work like that. The seven day structure also helps avoid the dreaded "reveal" problem. There is no giant structural reveal, the premise is setup in the first couple pages, and so the book does not suffer from the first half being better than the second. It races right on to the end. But there is an end, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Given the options, Oliver chose a pretty good one, and it does leave one with a deep sense of catharsis. So it was probably the right choice. Still the looming shadow over the entire affair left me with a deep sense of sadness not unlike that caused by reading The Time Traveler's Wife (the excellent book, not the mediocre film).

Actual rating 3.25 stars. I started reading this book a few times, abandoning it and returning before making any head way. All the immaturity, the teen girl snarkiness and bullying was just so tiresome. Plus the Groundhog styled repetition of the same day lagged the pacing. I didn't particularly like our protagonist Sam for most of the novel. She wears the moniker 'bitch' unapologetically and seems to pinball from one social scene to the next swaying under the banner of peer pressure and grasping to remain at the precipice of the social hierarchy. Then about halfway through the novel things changed. Sam became much more interesting, her choices became more altruistic. I laughed so hard in her 'rebellious' day it added a much needed punch to a novel I was starting to find boring. The supporting cast felt all very teen - wrapped up in their own dramas and self-importance. So the characterization was bang on, though I had little patience for their carry on. Sheesh I felt so old reading this book. It was a pretty easy writing style, a plain easy beat once the pace picked up, I flew through the second half of the novel. Though I did like the tone ‘Before I Fall’ set: it glances at repercussions of behaviour, atonement, bullying, suicide, depression, compassion, and acceptance. For such a wishy-washy teen babbling premise, it alludes to some much more serious issues. I'd recommend the novel to lovers of YA who don't mind a slow developing story. Plenty of drama and hijinks. Weird in some places, but the cyclical structure of the story resolves everything nicely. And like the proverbial light in the opening scene, you see it coming and there is nothing you can do to avoid it. It’s a fairly chunky and clunky book, it manages to redeem itself. The cover art captures an air of mystery with just a portion of the face lying on the ground… though I would have liked to see it in cooler colours with some snow to reflect the pivotal scene in the novel. The font was on the smaller side and there seemed to be a lot of italicised lines, but it captured the ambience really well and helped keep the page count down from a heavy wrist-aching book. I watched the movie shortly after completing the novel, and have to say I slightly enjoyed the cinematic version of this story more…

First of all this is not a happy book. If you've read reviews before then you already know that Sam isn't the nicest person in the world, but really she pales in comparison to her friend Lindsey who will really piss you off! But the whole time I found myself cheering for Sam to find her way. Yes, I wanted to smack her a time or two. I wanted to reach in to the book and change things at times (just kiss him already!). But really this book was perfect. It makes you think. It makes you feel. It makes you cry. And it makes you want to be a better person. I read this while on vacation so it was more spread out since I had MUCH less time to read. But I still had a hard time putting the book down. If I'd been at home I probably would have sat down and read it in a day. But since I couldn't I was afraid I'd lose some of the effect. I didn't. I finished this book almost a week ago now and it's still strong in my memory. The impression left is still there. It's not a happy book. It's an ending that left me not quite satisfied, but yet I knew to expect that. So I guess it didn't anger me or anything. I just felt sad. But yet not. I was so happy when Sam finally figured things out so I guess that overshadowed the sadness I knew was to come. I had wished that it would have been a bit more mild on the drinking and sexual innuendo's as I really wanted my mom and sisters to read it. But I'm afraid to pass it on to them because of that. My sister had been picked on in High School and transferred because of it. Because of her experience I wanted her to read it but I haven't passed it on to her yet or decided whether I will or not. Oh, and I have to tell you guys this. I was reading it while there were a bunch of people sitting around and visiting and my sister and her boyfriend were apparently watching me as I frantically read (I seriously was SO engrossed!) and my sister asked if I was skimming or actually reading. I told her I was actually reading it and it was SO good! And her boyfriend said that he has never seen anyone's eyes move so fast and it was seriously impressive. That's when I told them the gist of the story and they said that it sounded boring. The same day over and over? Well, yes, but it's different! Each day is different! I highly recommend this book, though it's for a bit older group, I would say. I suppose that anyone in high school probably hears the things said in this book everyday. I feel lucky that there wasn't this problem when I was in school. I never had issues with bully's. And I don't know of anyone who did. We were a small town and I was friends with kids in all of the different groups. I had my group that were my best friends, but I occasionally hung out with what may be considered the 'popular' girls and also with the 'less' popular kids. I was all over the place and it worked. I had plenty of friends and I think everyone liked me. I think. But I realize that's not how it is most of the time and I feel for anyone who has been picked on. Whether you've been picked on or not I think you'll love this book. So pick it up and read it already!

Sam Kingston and her three best friends are popular seniors. Lindsay, Sam, Elody, and Ally are basically untouchable. Put down whomever they please. Go to the best parties. And after one of these parties, crash their car. This is where Sam’s story really begins. And ends. Over and over again. Sam is forced to repeatedly live through her last day and see how her choices change everything. I’m going to start right off with what I didn’t like about the book: I basically hated all the main characters. Sam and her friends are the epitome of the mean-girls trope. They are pretty and popular, and that’s pretty much all they seem to care about. They are bullies: Lindsay being the particularly vicious one, but they all play along. (This is specific issue for me, if you know my history.) They, admittedly, do seem to care about each other, but they are the kind of best friends who call each other “bitch” and “slut” regularly, which I frankly find disgusting. Typically, not having characters I can care about from the beginning is a deal breaker for me. And I thought I was going to hate this book from the first couple of chapters. Then, because I rarely give up on a book without finishing it, interesting things started to happen. Sam’s final day started changing more drastically. Twists were revealed. And I found myself hooked. I was still cringing at things that Sam and her friends would say or do, but I wanted to know what happened next enough that I ignored it (mostly). And as I hoped, Sam starts to - very slowly - have a change of heart. This is helped along by the more likeable side characters. Kent, in particular. Kent is the saving grace of characters in this book. He’s a goofy little sweetheart, who has wanted to be Sam’s hero since they were friends as kids. And finally gets his chance. I can’t quite say I loved this whole book, but I do think it will stick with me. It was a thrilling ride, which turns emotional towards the end. Maybe having slightly unlikable characters is a necessity for telling a story like this. You had to see just how much of a change Sam went through.

Hoping Lauren will read this, here goes: The main reason I found this book, is because I had a dream in which I was dying. I dreamed I was in the middle of a car-jacking and while trying to escape, I was shot. As soon as I was shot, I got out of my body and saw the blood and the hole in my throat. I got out of the car, and was dragging myself on the very avenue, and all I thought was how greatful I was of the life I'd lived and the people I'd met. This dream was actually very shocking to me, I spent days moved by it, by how real it had felt, by all that happened in it. I went on the internet and made a research under the topic of having a dream of dying, don't exactly remember the keywords. One of the things that came up was Lauren Oliver's book "Before I Fall". In october 2010 my first dog whom I'd lived with for years, had ups and downs with and simply adored, died in my arms, thankfully. This past february the second dog, a baby of no more than two years, whom I'd just fallen in love with(having clear that you can fall in love with anything and anyone and there's different ways of it happening), he was the light of my world, he helped me heal my first dog's death and was simply amazing. He died, not in my arms, which hurt more. My point with all this story -I hope it stays here because it is part of the whole review, it completes it- I was looking for things to teach me about death, I was looking for this book from way before any of them died, because of that touching dream. Of all the times I had tried to find it, not once did I do so. Not in the bookstore(I went there a couple of times looking specifically for it), and not in here because the two times I was looking for it, it wasn't available. Until just a few weeks ago, I finally ordered it, and read it in about two days, three tops. I believe it is an amazing book. I understand that some people are not pleased with the bullying and how it got dealt with. I would have loved it if Sam had left a letter on what she lived before she closed the momentum of her death. But that's just something I would add in my mind or do myself if I went through that. Also the bullying was handled differently because it was not the main topic, death was. To me, it was about enough to read the line in which Sam said Lindsay would figure it out someday, everyone has to. "Before I Fall" is a master-piece to me. Leaving aside the usual stuff that's observed like the way it's written and the themes, the way everything is done, what happens, the language(terms such as 'vibration' and the things she saw)how she changes, how she grows even when she is dead, the statements and concepts proposed in the whole book and more are just brave and beautiful and amazing. The book deals with death, and the way it does it, how it is all a process and the things that happen, can help one, like it did with me, to learn to deal with death better. I have been trying to understand the concepts of what happens after death, from my point of view, learn to deal with the death of my beloved babies, but it has been so hard... finishing this book today, crying all the way with it in my hands, many times of which I had to halt cause it was too much, it has helped me to comprehend, internalize the happening that death and life are, one same thing, one couldn't exist without the other, one couldn't make sense without the other. I finally have come to terms with life and death, began to let go, let be. Accept. This and so much more has happened with this book as a help. It has been a wonderful journey reading the book and I look forward to reading more from Lauren. Thanks for this wonderful work Lauren Oliver. Ps: I guess you need to have a reason and an awakened sense of correspondence when reading a book, or else you will find faults continously in many or all of them. I am an avid reader and a writer and it doesn't fail that every time I read a book, there's something that is knocking the door in my life for me to grasp the essense of a situation going on, something I am not getting or stuck at, and the books are there to help me... and I always grow more and more, endlessly. Also, I don't have to remotely say that I recomend the book for people who have a reason to read it, for people who feel attracted to it, otherweise, think about it twice cause it's long and needs profound thought and feeling.

Samantha Kingston is a good girl who has made some poor choices in her life that stem from her lack of popularity in elementary and early middle school and her now popular state. She has a popular, sought-after boyfriend, three popular best friends (Lindsay, Ally, and Elody), and anything else she could want as a senior in high school. Friday, February 12 is just another awesome day in her awesome life until it turns out to be her last. But then, miraculously, she gets a second chance. Then a third, a fourth...reliving the last day of her life seven times gives her the chance to figure out the circumstances of her death and what she could lose. In February, I downloaded the free Story Teen Crush sampler for Kindle and in between books, I decided to, well, sample. Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall was first on the sampler and the only sample I have gotten through so far. I kept thinking the sample would be short but it kept going for like five chapters and I.could.not.stop.reading. Samantha and her friends, Lindsay, Ally, and Elody, get into a terrible and likely fatal car accident, yet everything suddenly stopped and Sam woke up in her own bed...on the tragic day she just lived through. And it kept happening. The first time the accident happened, I was reading quickly like I was tumbling down a hill - like a snowball rolling down a hill and it gets bigger and rolls faster. That was how I was reading each time I got closer to the time when everything stopped for Sam over and over again.. It was crazy and I knew I had to keep reading the book even though I had planned on reading something else. Also, as I read, certain things about the story and the characters kept reminding me of the movie Mean Girls, but way harsher and less comedic. Sam and her friends were the mean girls although there was more going on there than that. There were also cliques and horrible pranks and readers would think that these kids would not do this stupid crap since their school's nickname used to be Suicide High. But they did. And they partied hard because there was nothing else to do. Real time thought from when I was reading: This book is addicting. I have stuff I need to do, like take a break and schedule reviews or use the bathroom but I just cannot stop reading this, wondering if things will be different for Sam this time. It was really interesting to see the same day over and over again from different angles and to piece things together. Seven is a very significant number in religion and in more classical literature. There is a reason Lauren Oliver had seven chapters with Sam experiencing the same day seven times. Reliving the same day seven times with Sam was a new experience for me. I loved seeing the various sides of each character and the many way things could play out just by changing a few details. It was hard to hate the main characters, especially Lindsay, after learning more about them in that one day than I would have if each day was a new one. I actually pitied a lot of the characters, liked Sam, and wished and hoped really hard that everything would work out. At 97% through Before I Fall, I started to realize what Sam might do and I felt my eyes go as big as saucers. Wow. I just - I finished Before I Fall late at night and I could not stop wondering about the aftermath. How would everyone else feel? I found myself studying each character in my mind and imagining what they went through after. I could not stop thinking about Sam's bravery and I ached for everything that happened. Everything worked out - just not the way I thought it would. Recommended for everyone - especially teens - but I really do not care how old you are. The story is exceptional, the characters are well-developed, and Before I Fall will keep you glued to its pages. Google "The Musings of ALMYBNENR" to see this review in its original format and to follow my book review blog. Please note: Whatever I rate a book here, please check what the ratings mean on Goodreads, because those are what I go by.

The story of BEFORE I FALL is set over a period of seven days and at the same time this story is one day replayed seven times. Doesn't sound that exciting to relive one day over and over again huh? But it definitely is! BEFORE I FALL shows how actions can change the outcome of a day and a whole precious life. It was all about the same characters, dialogues and events, but still every time Sam's day started the replay function I couldn't wait to see what had changed and what new was about to happen. Although it was only about that one day, each new replay holds another worthy and important revelation. It wasn't only the story which held me captivated but the character cast as well. BEFORE I FALL is told from Sam's point of view and the chapters are divided into the seven days replayed. Sam is a person that goes through enormous changes in just a short time span. And she is one of the much loved YA characters that achieve progress (which is ironic, cause she is stuck in that loop). She learns from her mistakes and learns how to become a better friend, sister, daughter and person in general. Sam learns how to find her true self and to appreciate every single moment, her family and friends. BEFORE I FALL also has romance. One of the most beautiful and saddest I've read about, which stunned me because it is rather subtle and doesn't dominate the story. Sam falls in love with someone she wouldn't have expected to like that much once she only got the know him. Find out yourselves about his cute and caring character. You'll love the mystery lover!! Fascinating is to see in how far one slightly different action or dialogue can change the entire day and also Sam's relationships with several people. The way they interacted and fitted into the construct of that single day really got my attention. Lauren Oliver's words and the uncertainty of the ending made me cry buckets. All the time I couldn't imagine how the story's going to end and the end definitely came with a surprise. BEFORE I FALL is the second novel by Lauren Oliver that I read and another that made me cry. Lauren Oliver has such a wonderful talent. Every single of her words is simply beautiful, each character like a friend and every new book by Lauren one I don't want to miss! THE VERDICT It's the story of a girl on the verge of dying that will definitely have its readers crying buckets. BEFORE I FALL is a magical read about the possibilities of life, the comfort of love and the transience of existence.

Un libro en buen estado y con hojas adicionales sobre la película, lo recomiendo al 100.

This book is truly good. I had no problem getting from beginning to end. I'm not going to be one of those people that tell you all about it but to say the least it's so interesting how it's almost like a dream. If I do this what will happen? Next what if I do this what will happen? Didn't like the ending too much but it had to be that way.

Non ho visto il film, ma il libro è davvero bello. L’unIca cosa è un teen book essendo ambientato in high school quindi decisamente per ragazze, ma è talmente ben scritto che piace anche a chi a superato i 30

"Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand or three thousand or ten. But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know." I loved the book. It shows how small our life is. Whatever we do, how hard we try, we can't change the end. Lauren Oliver through her writing carries the readers to a different world. One cupid's day and different events -- her writing is simply magical.