Before I Fall

by Lauren Oliver

Sarah Drew (Narrator)

After she dies in a car crash, teenage Samantha relives the day of her death over and over again until, on the seventh day, she finally discovers a way to save herself.

• ISBN10: 0061938319
• ISBN13: 9780061938313
• Publish Date: 2 March 2010
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (MP3)
• Duration: 12 hours and 26 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: Can't say I cared much for Before I Fall. Picked it up because one of the Popsugar Reading Challenge prompts is to read a book that's been adapted into a movie this year. I think it's safe to say I won't be watching the movie. The overall framework was interesting enough, what with the main character dying and reliving the same day several times over. That gave her several chances to change her actions. Could've been a touching read but not a single character moved me. Most were unlikeable brats.

[Ashley]

Such an interesting book! It took me a little while to get into it because the MC starts out awful. But hang in there, because her character development is pretty fantastic!

[readingwithwrin]

“Here's one of the things I learned that morning: if you cross a line and nothing happens, the line loses meaning. It's like that old riddle about a tree falling in a forest, and whether it makes a sound if there's no one around to hear it.
You keep drawing a line farther and farther away, crossing it every time. That's how people end up stepping off the edge of the earth. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to bust out of orbit, to spin out to a place where no one can touch you. To lose yourself--to get lost.
Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised. Maybe some of you already know."

Please know that suicide and bullying is very prominent in this book. Also drinking, driving happens.

This is a book that I should have loved or at least found to be a guilty pleasure read. Instead the longer I listened the more I got annoyed with the main character and her 'best friends'. Not only were they the typical mean girls of high schools, but they were also extremely careless with their own lives as well, and the fact that they had all made it up until the night of the crash was slightly amazing at times.
While the main character herself was not the head mean girl in charge, she went with everything the leader said, and was afraid to rock the boat in fear of what would happen to her. But even before the night of the crash you could tell Samantha was having trouble doing something of the things they were doing. Sure she still did them, but she was starting to question things, and realizing that there was more than just high school and that they all would be alone soon.
Samantha though also has a bad case of victim blaming instead of realizing that her and her friends were the ones making everything worse by bullying others.
Samantha does start to change and finally grow as time goes on and she keeps reliving the same day and notices things different everyday. You can also tell that she is still somewhat of a mean girl besides the fact that she is trying to change.

This book is very high school, and I think it was fairly realistic with what teenagers think and do. Sure there were times where I feel like the author could have made the characters realize what they were doing wasn't okay, I also feel like if she had then it wouldn't have been realistic. Because lets face it, most of the time none us realize how horrible we were as teenagers until were older and start to see that hey that wasn't okay and wishing we could go back and change certain things.
Having said that though I do wish some smaller little things had happened to the other mean girls and not just Sam. Also the head mean girl in charge was absolutely horrible and really was ruled by fear, but seriously the things she did to her 'best friend' were truly awful and the fact that the ex-bestfriend kept it all hidden just shows how good she really was.
“A good friend keeps your secrets for you. A best friend helps you keep your own secrets.”
Overall while I don't think this story was for me. I do think it is for people in high school to read so they can see that they aren't alone and that we do have the option to change things.


“I guess that's what saying good-bye is always like--like jumping off an edge. The worst part is making the choice to do it. Once you're in the air, there's nothing you can do but let go.”




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[anastasia]

Full Review on my blog!

I was watching the movie trailer for the new Fifty Shades movie and I saw a trailer for Before I fall, I recognized the title and I knew there was a book by Lauren Oliver.

This book was such a amazing surprise. I honestly didn’t think that it would be so good and I was amazed that it was. It was so heart breathtakingly beautiful, it was so thought provoking and powerful. I’ve never read a book like this, where the same day plays over and over again, and its different every time. I’ve seen a ton of movies like this but never really read a book like it, It was different, good different. I really enjoyed it. Even though it had elements of supernatural (being brought back to life and all) but this book is so realistic especially how high school is. The book describes the whole high school atmosphere and being a teenager perfectly.

I didn’t expect it to turn out the way it did, but I’m sure glad it did. So amazing. Lauren Oliver is an amazing writer, and has managed to make Sam’s story come alive in a way that made me unable to put the book down.

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[Bianca]

But before you start pointing fingers, let me ask you: is what I did really so bad? So bad I deserved to die? So bad I deserved to die like that? Is what I did really so much worse than what anybody else does? Is it really so much worse than what you do? Think about it.

*reread*
— How did I not rate this 5 stars the first time around?? It's so beautiful I'm heartbroken.

"Here's another thing to remember: hope keeps you alive. Even when you're dead, it's the only thing that keeps you alive."(Samantha Kingston)

There are three type of books that I always end up enjoying:
1) The type that make me question anything and everything
2) The type that makes me wonder about humanity and how my actions affects others
3) The type that deals with life and death
Before I Fall has all of this and so much more...

Samantha Kingston is a popular mean girl who dies in an accident on 12th February, also known as 'Cupid Day'. She ends up waking up on the 12th of February, her last day, over and over again and has to deal with the changes that come with it along with it while figuring out why it's happening.

Recently, I heard that a movie adaptation was being made of this book. I read this book three years ago and while I could remember loving Before I Fall as well as the plot outline, I couldn't remember the plot twists and the ending. That's why I decided to re-read this Before I Fall and three years later, I feel exactly the same way. Before I Fall is amazing!

Sam, the main character of Before I Fall, starts off as one of those typical mean girls. When I started reading Before I Fall, I hated Sam. She was unfeeling or indifferent towards all the horrible things involving her and happening around her. I felt so much of anger and rage towards her. The funny thing is that as I continued reading I started to understand exactly why Sam acts so indifferent and sympathized with all her flaws and pitfalls. I also saw her grow and develop as a character that I could relate to and cheer on. Her character development is realistic, believable and intensely emotional.

The secondary characters and their relationship with Sam evoked emotions from me raging from intense disgust to extreme love. An example is Lindsay, who was a good friend and a bad friend at the same time; Kent, who I just couldn't help but smile about and Juliet, who broke my heart several times. The most interesting thing was how Sam's perception towards and her relationship with these characters change during the course of reliving her last day.

The most important thing about Before I Fall is the message that I took away from it. Before I Fall managed to teach me so much about life and living it. It shows how the things that we do in life could potentially affect the person sitting next to us and also cause a chain-reaction of consequences. It shows how much our lives can influence, impact and imprint on others. It taught me about death. Last, but definitely not least, it made me realise that life is short and I should live it with goodness, kindness, sacrifice and hope.

[Sam@WLABB]

Reading about Sam's evolution as she re-lived her last day made me want the final outcome to change.

[KitsuneBae]

(For a complete info about my book review for Before I fall, please visit http://pageshaven.blogspot.com/


Plot
I first saw Before I fall in one of our local bookstores while I was looking for the 3rd or 4th book of the Vampire Academy Series. Of course, being fantasy book lover, I am not really hooked into books with covers that depict real life. So I snubbed the book and went on to look for the reason why I’m in the bookstore in the first place. However, days later, after I ran out of books to read, I remembered Before I fall. I don’t know what has gotten into me but I immediately hit my Goodreads account and read some reviews about the book. By golly, I was impressed with the reviews and so I rushed into the bookstore to buy the book.
What I can only say is that the book was worth what I spend. Although it does not belong to my preferred genres, it was surprisingly a good read for me. It was fresh and simply captivating. Though the heroine is your typical bratinella at high school and the scenes were like from the Mean Girls Movie, it was very much different because of how the heroine struggled to correct her mistakes after her death.
It was so sad because the book revolved on the concept that it’s too late but it’s never too late. Yes. Although Sam found her peace at the 7th day of her death but for me it was still life wasted because things could have been different if she realized her mistakes earlier. She could have a longer and a more peaceful life while spending it with her own true love.
And I really like how Lauren wrote the book without making it boring. Can you imagine reading nine chapters of a book and its contents are more or less the same? That would be pretty boring but with Before I Fall, it was never like that. After her death, Sam relived the last day of her life for seven days. Every day, she had different realizations. Every day was like a trial and error for her until on the 7th day, she finally found the answer to gain her soul’s peace.

Characters
What I like about the characters of Before I Fall is that it greatly reminds me of my must-watch movies when I want to relax and just feel good: Mean Girls, Gossip Girl, American Pie, Bring it on. Not only that, Sam and her band of friends really epitomize the typical high school senior brats and you just want to smack them on their face.
And well, I like and hate Sam at the same time. I hate how pretentious she is. I hate how she chose not to do things when she knows deep in her heart that it’s the right thing to do. I hate how she lives up to other’s expectations and not because she likes it, she wants it. I hate how she chose to forget the things that truly made her happy. I hate how she disrespected her mother and how she placed her family second only to her friends, generally.
What I like about is that Sam, no matter how late it is, is that she was able to redeem herself in the end. I guess Lauren Oliver was impressive when she created Samantha Kingston. A bitch with a lot of subtleties. And for that, I salute you, Ms Oliver.
The other characters that I like in the book is Sam’s younger sister, Izzy, whom I think Sam and the IRL bitches could learn from a lot . And of course, there’s Kent McFuller, who stood by Sam even if it was a very difficult path.

Interactions and Dialogues
Having read three books by Lauren Oliver, there’s only one thing I can say about her. She’s a natural born poet. I love how she narrates the story and I love how her words are so rich when Sam is very reflective about herself and about what’s happening in the surrounding.
The interactions of characters especially between Sam and Izzy or Sam and Kent remind me of those good old days. It was kind of bittersweet even. So I kinda like it because every time I read a scene of Sam with any of those two characters, it brings a smile to my face.
Between Sam and her friends, it’s not that much because I don’t know, they’re bitches but with the way they talk, I’m not really convinced. They actually lack the teeth to be REAL bitches. So I guess that’s a minus for Lauren.


Overall impression
Because the book made me cry and I’ve added a significant amount pile of facial tissue on our waste bin, I give this book a score of 4 out of 5. It’s a great book especially for teenagers who are caught in between worlds, who are currently suffering from the usual pressures of high school, and for those who want to establish their own identity the right way.
I am not a teenager anymore and I can say that I’ve already fought my high school battles and won them gracefully. But I still can’t help appreciating the book for the values it conveys to the readers. That life is so short… spend it wisely and spend it without regrets. Unlike Before I Fall, once we breathe our last, we wouldn’t have 7 days to realize our mistakes and redeem ourselves from ourselves and from the people we intentionally or accidentally hurt along the way. IMO, as with Sam Kingston, death is only beautiful if you lived your life with goodness.


Next on review list: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

[Angie]

Sam is one of the worst YA characters I have ever experienced. Not that the author wrote her poorly, just the opposite. She is so real and I can definitely picture her clearly. She's just a bad person. She's mean, shallow, dishonest, and a bully. Her friends aren't any better either. Does this mean she deserved to die? Well, no, of course not, but she is truly awful. However, it does take dying for Sam to realize something has to change.

This could have gotten extremely repetitive since it takes place on the same day multiple times, but each time it's a little different. At first it seems like Sam has gotten a second chance at life, to change the events of that fateful Friday and stay alive. Of course there's a twist, but Sam is so self-absorbed that she thinks this all about her. Sure she had a hand in what happened, but her second chance is not about her own life. It's not even about her equally awful friends' lives. It takes her a few days and numerous questionable decisions to finally realize this.

The author has tackled a very tough subject with Before I Fall and in a very interesting way. She shows just how damaging bullying can be, even if you don't think what you're doing is that bad. We all really need to take a step back and consider how our actions affect others. I don't think this book is preachy at all, but a very realistic portrayal of the effects of bullying. Does Sam magically become an amazing person by the end? No, and I think that's okay. She realized her mistakes and tries to make amends, even if her methods are shallow. But that fits her character, and the ending would be completely unbelievable otherwise.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[clementine]

Wow. Wow. Wow. I downloaded Before I Fall without knowing anything about it or having read any of Lauren Oliver's work before, so the entire premise - and excellent writing style - was a total surprise to me. I was not expecting much out of this one, and I was completely blown away. The writing is really beautiful, and the story is creative, interesting, and poignant.

I really loved the characterization here. At first I disliked Sam and her friends, because I'm not really sympathetic to the whole shallow mean girl thing. But they were all developed really well, sometimes with only a sentence or two altering my perception of them. Sam was a complex, flawed character, but one who I was incredibly sympathetic towards and whose fate I really cared about. Lindsay was, of course, the hardest to like, but she wasn't all bad, especially not when her backstory was revealed. And I felt intense sympathy for Marian, despite the fact that she was far from a central character and barely given any time.

Thematically, this book was so cool. Showing how one choice can make a huge difference, and allowing Sam to explore the nature of her choices over and over again before deciding on a final course of action was really neat, and it made the book incredibly interesting to read. Also, the exploration of high school dynamics was genuine and believable. I loved how every day Sam learned something new - I think my favourite was when she hung out with Anna and saw that the girl who she hated for no reason was actually just another person, and one who she actually had things in common with.

I absolutely adored the way Before I Fall ended. It was what had to happen, and it was bold and emotional and the culmination of the events of the book. (show spoiler)[Sam's death] (hide spoiler) was bittersweet, because (show spoiler)[on one hand, it got her out of the cycle of February 12 she had been living, but on the other, well... she died] (hide spoiler) . This book completely dashed my expectations, challenged me, and made me think. I'm so pleased with the surprise I got with Before I Fall. It's definitely one of the best books I've read this year, and I will have to buy myself a physical copy so that it can have a space on my selective favourites shelf.