Jyc
Written on Apr 13, 2012
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 0061987492
- ISBN13 9780061987496
- Publish Date 2 March 2010
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Imprint Collins
- Format eBook
- Pages 544
- Language English
Reviews
Briana @ Pages Unbound
Written on Jan 6, 2012
Samantha Kingston is a highly unpleasant person. She is popular, and she is someone’s worst nightmare of a mean girl. She calls people names, starts rumors, flirts with her teacher, sneaks out of school, dresses in clothing that barely covers her body. She parties, smokes, and drinks, and only feels a little bit bad about sending people horrible notes and dumping beer on their heads. In short, I could hardly believe this girl was the protagonist. She is downright nasty, and at the end of the first chapter, she defends it: “Is what I did really so much worse than what anybody else does?” she asks. “Is it really so much worse than what you’d do? Think about it.”
Yes, actually, it is. It is much worse than what I do or ever have done and worse than anything anyone I have ever known has done. Maybe this is supposed to be a thought-provoking moment for teenagers everywhere, maybe it truly makes some readers reconsider their lives. Most people probably just think Sam is crazy and wonder why they are reading about someone who, in the words of many of the characters, is a bitch. (We may take the time here to note this book does contain some unsavory language and a decent amount of talk/jokes about sex.)
Obviously the point of the book is that Sam comes to some sort of great revelation, becomes a better person. Eventually she does. She tries to make fun of people less, tries to understand them more. She never turns around completely. At the end, she is still defending some of her actions and defending those of her friends. Yes, one is an even worse person than Sam is, but this is apparently okay because she is just insecure and she will figure out her life someday. People may suffer from her cruelty in the meantime, but, hey, that’s life. Great messages clearly come from this novel.
On the good side of things, the romance is extremely touching, and I would enjoy reading another book by Oliver just to see what else she can do in the area. There is not much time for a relationship—Sam is dying, after all—but Oliver makes the short moments meaningful. It really is beautiful.
Oliver also deserves kudos for managing to make a story where the same day occurs seven times quite interesting. The second day is the most similar to the first, but readers need not worry all the days are alike. Very different things do happen, with a few unchanging bits as anchors. The plot moves quickly and is almost surprisingly engaging. Sam also becomes easier to deal with, as she begins to consider why she has been given the chance to live her last day repeatedly.
Before I Fall is a cross between chick-lit and science fiction that is intriguing, but will probably sit better with readers who normally enjoy chick-lit. In the end, it is just really catty. The philosophical questions are not exactly hidden behind this, but it can be difficult to sympathize with someone who is really mean and clearly full of herself. Oliver has obvious talents as a writer, and I am still interested in reading her other books because of the questions she raises, her beautiful prose, and her characterization. I just want to be sure her characterization skills are used on people who are little more likeable.
This review was also posted at Pages Unbound Book Reviews.
boghunden
Written on Nov 17, 2011
Misforstå mig ikke. Bogen er okay, men det er nok ikke en, jeg vil læse mere end den her ene gang. Dog kunne jeg godt lide “Dag 6″. Den synes jeg var god. Men resten af bogen, sagde mig faktisk ikke så meget. Jeg følte mig på en eller anden måde bare for gammel til den her bog. Jeg er godt klar over, jeg nok er lidt over målgruppen i forvejen, men der findes rigtig mange gode børne- og ungdomsbøger. Den her var ikke en af dem. Det synes jeg i hvert fald ikke. Men er man de der 14-16 år, så vil man garanteret holde af den og synes den er god.
Amber
Written on Nov 20, 2010
The story is told from the perspective of popular mean girl Samantha “Sam” Kingston. Sam has three best friends who are the most popular girls in school, Elody, Ally and - the ring leader - Lindsay. On the first day, Sam and her friends go to school, receive dozens of roses for Cupid Day, gossip, bitch and talk about the Butterfly Effect (the theory, not the movie). That all seems well and good, and the girls go of to a house party hosted by the not-so-popular Kent, who happens to be an ex-childhood friend of Sam’s. Then, Sam dies. Yes. It’s that sudden. I won’t go into details about how she dies, you’ll just have to read the book!
Sam then wakes up to her alarm clock beeping, and soon realises that something isn’t quite right. Instantly, my mind starts thinking “Oh gosh, GROUNDHOG DAY!” and it turns out I was correct. Sam is living the same day over again. This happens again and again - six times to be exact - and Sam starts to realise that her life at school is far from perfect, and that her and her friends shouldn’t really be the most popular girls in school.
Sam’s personality grows and grows throughout the book, as she lives through Cupid Day again and again. She becomes a lot more mature, and starts to try to correct all of the things that she and her friends did wrong, in just that one day. She soon realises that her actions have a bigger effect on her world than she initially thought. Even little things like taking a parking space before someone else.
The ending was more than satisfying, although I have seen some people complaining. Why are they complaining? I don’t really know.
Lauren Oliver is truly amazing. Her writing - and her book - is sheer brilliance. She captures the personality of a spoilt teen mean girl perfectly, and she is able to show character growth, and the vulnerability of the characters without saying too much. It’s just.. Breathtaking. Truly breathtaking.
In case you hadn’t realised, I’m slightly awestruck at how this book turned out to be. I expected a light, easy read but this turned out to be complex and very thought provoking. I laughed, I cried, and then after I finished I just lay there thinking about the book. This book gets a HIGH recommendation from me, and honestly if you don’t read it, then you’re missing out.
10/10; because I just couldn't give it five.
ladygrey
Written on Oct 16, 2010
Throughout the story I found it to be painful at times, and then affirming, hopeful and reckless. But throughout, Sam's voice is authentic and this lends a poignancy to it. It's not the sort of thing I would normally like, but I really kind of did. and it stayed with me, even after I was finished.
Jo
Written on Aug 25, 2010
Before I Fall is one of these phenomenal books. There really aren't any words to describe how good it is, or how it made me feel. It's completely full of surprises, high moments, incredible lows, tragedy, laughter, craziness, utter bliss, paralysing fear, and deepest sorrow. It has absolutely everything, yet none of those words can even come close to the beauty of the moments I thought of as I wrote them. The plot, the writing, the characters, the small events, the big events... I'm just completely dumbfounded.
Sam Kingston dies at the end of what is a normal day. Except that's not the end. She wakes up again the morning of that day, again and again, having to relive it. Each day something different happens; she'll do, say, be somewhere different, which will lead to her seeing, hearing, knowing something different. As the days pass, she slowly begins to piece together how she dies, but learns about herself, about her friends, and about the life she leads. Will Sam break the circle, or will she continue to live the same day over and over? And if she does, what then?
How fully formed the characters in this novel are is fantastic. Seriously, there are so many different characters that play a part in this book at one point or another, but most are all part of the same popular clique, so it would be very easy for them all to blur into each other and for us to not see much difference, but they all have their own personalities, quirks, histories, secrets, stories. So many layers to if not all, then most of the characters, and you're always learning, always discovering - along with Sam.
Of all the characters in the book, I have to mention Lindsay, Elody, Ally and Kent. The three girls are Sam's best friends, the queen bees of the school and are so loyal, love each other deeply, but then can be the nastiest cows you could possibly imagine to anyone who looks at them the wrong way. It's so bewildering to read, because you want to hate them so much for what they do to people, because they are so absolutely disgusting, but the friendship and camaraderie between the four - they really are each other's best friends, and you can't help but smile over their antics. And Kent! Lovely, geeky, quirky Kent! I want one for myself. He is just the sweetest, most loveliest guy, and he makes me "aww" so much! And I can't say any more that I want to without spoiling the book.
You can't read this book without noticing things around you, and realising what you take for granted. I went out shortly after finishing it, and couldn't help but enjoy listening to the wind in the trees, and the rain on my face. Sam started paying more attention once she knew it was her last day replaying over and over, but we can never do that unless we start now. As the blurb says, you don't get to know when it will happen. It was brilliant to see how Sam reacted to finding out, and then how she chose to live each day, the decisions she would make that would change the outcomes of other things. It was really eye opening, and pretty much just brilliant.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It was unbelievable. I will relish reading this again at some point in the future. You cannot miss out on Before I Fall! I cannot urge you enough to pick up this book! You will not regret it.
From
SilverThistle
Written on May 5, 2010
The lead character isn't likeable. She's hateful, but by the end of the book I was cheering her on to succeed in what she was aiming for. What she is aiming for isn't exactly clear in the beginning (not to her and not to us either) and as things start to unravel and fall into place it makes for uncomfortable reading in some places. She (Sam) goes on a journey of self awareness and by the end I was ripping through the pages to see if she could make amends.
The story spans 7 days and each day has it's own chapter. Each day a little more falls into place and things that made no sense or seemed insignificant the day before take on a much greater meaning when we begin to see the big picture. Sam's seeing the big picture right along with us though and it's bittersweet to see her put things right one day, only to have to start all over again the next day. She takes with her from day to day, the knowledge from the previous day(s) though and it's a steep learning curve for her as she realises that changes need to be made if she's going to get through this.
It wasn't until the very last chapter that I half guessed what her goal was and when the realisation hit me I was desperate for her to succeed and I read into the wee hours just so I could sleep easy as it's impossible not to go over and over and over the events in the book and think how it could turn out differently with different actions....... Which is exactly what Sam is experiencing too and it's wonderful to see her make and re-make the changes that shape each day.
Brilliant book and I highly recommend it. It's the first book in ages that I haven't been able to put down. I just wanted more days and then more days.....poor Sam would have been stuck in a loop forever but I just didn't want it to end......
Leah
Written on Feb 3, 2010
When Hodder and Stoughton sent Chloe and I a bunch of books to review, Before I Fall was one of them. Up until then I had never heard of Lauren Oliver’s debut novel and I added it to my shelf to be read at a later date. However as the months progressed I kept seeing reviews appear about the same book and everyone said more or less the same thing: This was a life-changing book. That really intrigued me and although I approached the book with some skepticism – a book changing lives and being so powerful that everyone raves about it? – I finally decided to sit down and have a read.
The first thing I want to say before I review the book itself is that I want to see this book made into a movie. The movie potential this book has is incredible and I’d be astounded if it wasn’t optioned to be made into a film. Any film studio would have a winner on their hands if they picked this up because believe me, it is a powerful book. The book has been likened to Groundhog Day although I haven’t actually seen it so I can’t compare. I have however looked it up and yes, they sound rather similar which shows that Before I Fall could be a good movie!
I have to say though that at first I didn’t know what to make of the book. For a while it seemed as though I wasn’t going to like it and, even worse, I wasn’t going to like Sam. The Prologue is fantastic and the build up to the crash was suspenseful but I just couldn’t warm to Sam right away. The thing is I think that we’re supposed to not really like Sam at the beginning. She’s popular, has a fantastic boyfriend and her life couldn’t be more perfect but because she was popular she wasn’t exactly very nice. Not at first, anyway. I was very quickly sucked in though and as I got to know Sam more, I began to like her more.
The plot is immensely complex yet so simplistic at the same time: Sam dies but, it seems, she hasn’t really died and has the chance to re-live her last day seven times. The book is broken up into sections for each of the replayed days and although repeating the same day seven times may seem repetitive and dull, it’s not. As Sam re-lives that day again and again more things come to light about what happens the night of the crash and Sam seems to realise just what is important in life. It’s ironic really that the only time Sam took stock of what a cow she was, was when she was dying/dead but I suppose that doesn’t really matter as Sam did finally realise just how mean she could be. The changes as each day progresses and the realisations that come to Sam all happen subtly and slowly and everything that happens that day is unravelled until eventually Sam has the chance to somehow salvage something from such a horrible situation.
Sam is a cliched and typical character when we first meet her but as the book progressed and Sam herself began to change with the realisation that she really was reliving her death again and again I found myself warming to her. The truth is Sam doesn’t go through any major changes from one day to the next – they’re all little changes and realisations rather than one major change – so I don’t know how I went from being lukewarm about her to completely loving her but I did. I put that down to Lauren Oliver’s writing. Sam’s friends Elody, Lindsay and Ally were also incredibly cliched when we first meet them and although they don’t really experience many changes – they don’t know they’re reliving a day seven times – I did find myself warming to them also. It took a long time for me to warm to Lindsay, the ring leader of the four, but I admired her fierce streak throughout. Ally and Elody, although typical characters, were pretty likeable throughout. A favourite character of mine, though, was Kent, a friend of Sam’s. He seemed to be always there for Sam (kind of) and he seemed incredibly nice.
The end of the book was immensely sad. I obviously knew something sad was coming but what Sam did shocked me completely. It all seems to happen so abruptly – even though it’s been building for seven days. I found I was tearing up as we hurtled towards the end. It was definitely hugely emotional and it seemed like, for Sam, it was some kind of redemption. It was a very satisfactory end and how it all panned out was quite clever. Lauren Oliver is a hugely talented author, even if this is only her first book. The fact is she’s managed to create such a web of a plot and manage to unravel it all as well as also keeping me guessing the entire time. The storyline is simple enough but it must have taken a lot to get everything all ironed out and I applaud Lauren Oliver for tackling such a plot. The plot isn’t a happy one yet it never feels depressing; it actually feels uplifting. Sam may have been dead but she still had the chance to redeem herself in some way. The book never felt heavy or overly sad and I again must applaud Lauren Oliver’s writing. Sam narrates the entire book and I could feel all of the emotions she felt. She goes through it all: anger, denial, helplessness and even acceptance and Sam really seemed to mature before the book came to its conclusion.
I really recommend you pick up Before I Fall. I truly believe that every teenager should be given this to read as it would really speak to them about a lot of things. The book may not feel heavy or depressing but it does tackle some difficult issues. I actually believe everyone should read this book because it truly is that fantastic. It’s totally worth persevering with as once it gets going, it really gets going and I struggled to put it down. This is definitely a book I’ll be reading again.