Before I Fall

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).

I found this book very enjoyable even though in age, I am many years removed from this teenage period of my life. Lauren Oliver clearly knows her characters and her situations and develops them one within the other quite skillfully. Her liberal use of similes and metaphors to create striking images of the mind, body, or situation seem uncontrived, and flow naturally from what is occurring at the moment. She convincingly and even delightfully captures the, unfortunately, not so uncommon vicious character found in the "I'm-so-much-better-than-you" teenager, how the effects of this viciousness is compounded in a group of like-minded girls, and the damage they are able to inflict on the shy, weak, and not-so-confident. But sometimes it is possible to step outside yourself, see the damage you inflict on others, care, and try to change yourself and the consequences of your bad behavior. This happens to Sam who is telling her story. Because Sam finds herself in a situation where she repeatedly relives an important day in her life, she is able to gain new insights into the real worth of people she and her clique have denigrated and discarded--Betty, the nice and very decent person who is the scorned (especially by Sam's clique) school "slut"; Juliet, the vulnerable, fragile childhood friend of Sam's best friend Lindsay upon whom they have catastrophically pasted the label "Psycho"; and Kent, the "Geek" who has loved Sam since their childhood days--as well as bring to the front of her conscious mind the love she bears her family and friends, flawed as she realizes the latter are. Probably most poignantly depicted is the love that develops (with each rerun of the day) between Sam and Kent as Sam emerges from her self-centered, judgmental teenage self. In this reviewers mind, the one weakness in the book is unfortunately its last chapter. The knowledge Sam has about what this day means with respect to her life is unsubstantiated (and this drives the events), and her final act lacks sufficient motivation. Despite this, the book is a very good read and I congratulate Lauren Oliver on her first novel.

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.

While reading this book I could literally feel the author getting better and better with her writing. In the beginning of the book it felt like I was reading a debut novel but I could sense the author's confidence grow as the pages went on. I was quickly lost in the book. *Semi-spoiler alert* Loved it, ended up liking (most of) the characters, but I gave it three stars because the ending just left me feeling... I don't know. Not confused, because I get it, just sad, because this whole time I thought things would end up working out. The whole "let this story be a lesson for you" feel was somewhat annoying. Overall, I would definitely recommend if you're looking for a quick, good read. ETA: Okay, now that I've had some more time to think about it, the ending makes me even more angry than when I first finished the book. Sam has to die in order to save this girl, Juliet, but why? What is so amazing about this one particular girl that makes Sam have to re-live the same day 7 times in order to save her? I mean, if you think about it, if the whole school tormented this girl Juliet before for wetting her sleeping bag in 5th grade, how are they going to treat her now after she pretty much caused the death of "one of the most popular girls in school"? These kids are going to practically tie the noose for her for when she attempts suicide again, because you know she will. One doesn't go from actually blowing their brains out/leaping into oncoming traffic, to being 100% perfectly mentally stable with the will to live all because some chick sacrificed herself for no good reason. And dude, seriously? If I knew my last day was my last, I'm pretty sure I could suck up my "too cool teenager" attitude and at the very least give my parents a loving embrace and tell them I loved them. She knows she's on her way out and the best she can manage is a bro-hug and "love ya"? I can only hope my own kids never feel like they can't express their love to me when they're older. Yikes. You know what I was hoping for? As Lindsay and crew were searching for Sam (and Juliet) in the woods on that last day, I was hoping they'd all find each other, the truth about the sleeping bag would finally come out, everyone would apologize and cry together, and everything would be tied up in a nice little bow. Lessons learned, no one dies for nothing, voila. Lovely. Instead we got what we got. Boo.

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.

This was definitely a great page-turning book. It reminded me of The Lovely Bones in the complex ideas that Oliver expresses throughout the novel. The idea of reliving a single day in order to get it just right is very creative. Although the idea has been done before in the movies, the premise of doing it in a young-adult novel has not been done before. One of the highlights of this book is when Samantha (main protagonist) realizes that everything is connected. Too often teens don't realize how each action affects another person (positively or negatively). This is why bullying is so detrimental in middle and high school. I also loved the aspect when Samantha tried to do the right thing by sending 2 dozen roses to Juliet only to have it backfire in her original plan. This, too, happens frequently in the lives of teens. This is because the person has lost so much of his/her self-confidence that he/she cannot accept a compliment. This also happens as adults. I, included, have had times where it's hard to accept a compliment because of the years spent hearing negative commentary. As a teacher and author, I believe that Oliver has a great lesson to teach young adults. However, as a parent, I can definitely see the pitfalls with this novel and why it may earn negative criticisms. As a personal preference, I cannot give more than 4 stars because of the use of profanity in the novel. This is something that I have personally strive to work on changing in my own life and writing. I feel that the same effect could have been done without the profanity, thus, showing a better model for teens. This is, however, still a great novel and story. I really do encourage all teens to read it in the hopes that they understand that bullying is everyone's problem - whether you are the aggressor, target, or bystander. The actions you take each day can change someone's life.

I have such a hard time writing this review because I can't seem to find the right words to put together to describe just how much Before I fall had me all messed up. Oh my gosh, what a wonderful, interesting, thought-provoking, realistic, and addictive story. Lauren, I send you tons of smooches. Can you believe I actually HATED Sam with a passion at start. She, along with her friend, Lindsay (and I say Lindsay because it seemed like she was the ringleader and Sam was the main assistant) spoke hurtful things, did hurtful things without considering the consequences of their action and I thought that Sam, more than anyone else should understand the emotional effect of being teased. It sucks that it took her several tries to finally get it right but Lauren gave us the true definition of what character development really is. I mean, at first I wanted to smack her so hard for wasting the opportunities to make a difference, to clean up her act and if possible get her friends to stop but she just kept doing it like a moron. Oddly, though, I couldn't stop reading because it wasn't like I hated Sam's character enough to dislike the story and give the book a DNF. I really liked the fact that she wasn't the average protagonist and she was actually experiencing growth like a normal person. Besides, it wasn't like she could do much to affect anyone around her aside from Juliet. The whole thing with Juliet was quite an eye opener. I was like "ohhhh" once I figured out what really caused the accident and all the twists and loose ends came in to play. The writing was superb. I got so emotional throughout until finally, I started liking Sam. In fact, by the end of the story I LOVED her. She knew what had to be done and she was determined to go through with it. Sam came to the realization that everything isn't always about her, that you have to put self aside and see the beauty in everything and everyone else. There was much more to be learned from the story, and so much I thought about while reading it. Lauren really struck a nerve with me. Once again, smooches. What else can I go on about? I loved the romance, the family aspect, the friendship level and all the bad and good in it. The neverending issue of bullying and its effects. Most of all, I loved how every single character had a purpose. No one was just thrown in or had me asking "why are you here?" They all made sense. What a terrific book. Sucks for me that I'm only now reading it when I love this author and her intriguing writing style. *Slapscheek* Okay, back to reality and more substantial statements. I enjoyed Before I fall. The writing was brilliant; the plot was fascinating. I experienced a feeling like no other, and its definitely a feeling that will haunt me forever.

I hated high school and graduated a year early to get out of town. This is a YA book that shows the horror of high school for everyone, but focuses on a senior named Sam on Cupids Day Feb 12th and how she looses her life in an accident. She feels terrible pain but wakes up to find herself in her bedroom and living Feb 12th over again. Sam worked her way from the bottom of the food chain to the top. Her boyfriend Rob is very popular and blew her off in grade school and now wants to be her first. This is where I have to stop and comment on some of the reviews. I was a child of the 70's and while I didn't date or do anything to wreck my chances of getting out of my small town, I did pay my own bills and lost a child before I was 20 and I did inhale. I was open about my life when my children asked me. I was 32 when my oldest was born and I had given them principles and knowledge. Not talking about sex, any big changes in the family and drug use is silly. There are plenty of people out there to educate them so think about the big picture if you are prone to censoring the things your kids read. Sam does act out like anyone going through the stages of grief. Knowing you are dead and no matter what you do, you will wake up on Feb. 12th again lets Sam grow. There are seven chapters: one for each day she relives. They are long but broken by titles. The writing style is great for young women and all of us who remember high school is hell. Everyone is afraid because it only takes one social mistake and you drop to the middle rung. Sam has 3 BFF's and is at the top of the pecking order but even though she is at the top of the food chain, she realizes that she doesn't have that many friends. At first she is confused, then she tries to prevent her death but even if she doesn't die, her actions and decisions affect other people. Each day brings revelations about the things she never noticed and the day she spends with her family is especially beautiful. The ending of the sixth day gives her the final pieces of what she needs to do to let go and say goodbye. Samantha dies but more important, she really lives the seven days of her death. She is able to right wrongs and feel hope for everyone she leaves behind including her little sister Izzy. Sam's life ends at the beginning of the book and we learn that we all can grow and change and we can all be fixed. One reviewer said they would like to know what happens to the other characters but the author sprinkles that in subtle or major changes that each day brings. In every high school there is that diamond in the rough that girls overlook because they are more interested in being popular than finding love. When they are complaining about all the good guys being married or gay in their 30's, there is always some women who were smart enough to see what was under their noses. There will be times where you will want to scream "What's your damage, Heather!" (Heathers was so much better than Mean Girls!) This book is wicked funny even if I was in the bottom of the middle and did not know where all the best parties were. Some books change your world view and stay with you. "Before I Fall" is one of those books. Save this one: The older you get the more you will understand about the characters and the way the book is written.