Before I Fall

by Lauren Oliver

[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. Sam's death was bittersweet, because on one hand, it got her out of the cycle of February 12 she had been living, but on the other, well... she died. 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.