Before I Fall
Like Adam Silvera's They Both Die at the End and Colleen Hoover's It Ends with Us, Before I Fall raises thought-provoking questions about love, death, and how one person's life can affect so many others. With this stunning debut novel, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver emerged as one of today's foremost authors of young adult fiction.
For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12--"Cupid Day"--should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is...until she dies in a terrible accident that night.
However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.
Before I Fall is now a major motion picture Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, and Kian Lawley. Named to numerous state reading lists, the novel was also recognized as a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Daily Beast, NPR, and Publishers Weekly.
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Community Reviews
Page 1: "Don't be an asshole. The end."
For the main character in this book, there may have needed to be some additional pages that included:
-Don't be friends with the folks you are friends with.
-Stop thinking you're better than everyone else.
-Hey, maybe start thinking for yourself.
-Stop judging everyone, you self-entitled brat.
-That may seem cute in high school, but no one in the adult world is going to like you, respect you, or tolerate you.
I had such an angry reaction to the first part of this book that I had to physically put it facedown on the table and rant about it. That may have been intentional on the author's part. The problem is that Sam never really redeemed herself for me. I didn't care how sorry she was (not to mention that she was only sorry because she died...but that's neither here nor there). I didn't like that because she had these cute giggly girly moments with her friends and because they stuck together and had each other's back despite all their "flaws", I was supposed to let bygones be bygones and appreciate their friendship. What were these flaws? Oh, just that they were shallow and demeaning and flat out BULLIES to everyone who wasn't in their inner circle. Those aren't flaws. That's just being an asshole. And because you died and are having to relive that day over and over and end up having some conversations with people you would never have before and realizing that they aren't the total scum of the earth does not redeem you, it just makes you look even worse. OF COURSE THEY AREN'T AS BAD AS YOU THOUGHT. THEY WERE NEVER THE BAD ONES TO BEGIN WITH.
Whoa.
I was actually going to start with how I felt during the first part of the book and then get into why I kept reading and how this wasn't that bad and maybe even a little bit cute. It turns out I have more hostility towards it than I thought. There seems to be a general divide on this book. Those who lived a similar life to Sam adored it. These are their people and they understand these characters. Those who lived on the bullied end feel no sympathy. I wasn't bullied in school (nor was I in the popular circle), but I have a very low tolerance for people like this. And as it turns out, I have a very low tolerance for this type of book, too.
2.5 Stars - it did keep me reading and wasn't poorly written.
Rounding down to 2 because I want to try out this whole mean girl thing. Yeah, take that.
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