Before I Fall Review

Book Review #12: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver 

Overall Rating: 8.8/10Plot: 8/10
Writing: 10/10
Characters: 9/10
Originality: 7/10
Purpose (A.K.A. Theme): 10/10 

Sample Passage: I once saw this old movie with Lindsay; in it the main character was talking about how sad it is that the last time you have sex you don’t know it’s the last time.  Since I’ve never even had a first time, I’m not exactly an expert, but I’m guessing it’s like that for most things in life—the last kiss, the last laugh, the last cup of coffee, the last sunset, the last time you jump through a sprinkler or eat an ice-cream cone, or stick your tongue out to catch a snowflake.  You just don’t know.  But I think that’s a good thing, really, because if you did know it would be almost impossible to let go.  When you do know, it’s like being asked to step off the edge of a cliff: all you want to do is get down on your hands and knees and kiss the solid ground, smell it, hold on to it.  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.

Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Ages: 16 and up

Number of Pages: 496 | Hardback Edition
Published: February 2010 by HarperCollins 

Summary: Samantha Kingston has it all, the cutest guy in school as her boyfriend, a great group of friends, and best of all, she’s mega popular and can get away with almost anything—like making fun of “psycho” Juliet Skyes.  One night she goes to a super cool senior party, and at first it’s like every other of the billion ones she’s been to this year: drugs, alcohol, and scandals that everyone will be talking about the next day.  But then Juliet Skyes shows up with one message for Samantha and each of her friends.  That night Samantha gets in a car accident but doesn’t die, instead she lives that same day over and over.  Samantha will have to find out how to change everything to save herself, but not in the way she expects.

Review: I love this book.  I actually first read it a long, long time ago right after I read Delirium.  I thought, “hey, this is by Lauren Oliver, I’ll give it a try!”  Even though the plot sounds completely cliche and unoriginal, especially from my poorly-written summary, it really stood out to me.  It also never fails to make me tear up at the end. Here’s why:

The plot is very simple, there’s basically one external conflict and a bunch of internal conflicts.  Me being very interested in psychology myself, I love that part about this book.  You get to see inside Sam’s head so much, it’s like you’re actually being her and living in her.  Also there are so many things in the story that interconnect, it’s like a web of possibilities that you can see happening.  Also it’s so wonderful and interesting to see things change over the course of just a week.

The bad thing about the plot is she lives the same day over and over again seven times.  That can get pretty boring, especially day 6, because you just want to see what happens on the last day.  If you’re not like me, and you’re not a fan of psychological aspects in books, then you might be disappointed.  There isn’t a lot of action.  Some find that a lot of unnecessary inappropriate things were put in there.  Some think it’s just been done before, too many times.  Also some say that a lot of the situations seemed to be just thrown in there, and they didn’t make a whole lot of sense.  But I think that it’s a great story about a teen realizing that her behavior is wrong, and she really truly grows up in the end.

For some reason I like the characters in this book.  The main character, Sam, can be annoying at first with the way that she carries herself.  She wasn’t popular at first, so she knows how the unpopular girls feel, yet she chooses to make fun of them anyways.  Also she doesn’t even seem to care about academics, and she doesn’t treat her family very well.  Starting at Day 5, however, she becomes a very likable person all the way to the very end.  

Character development is pretty good, especially for the main character and Juliet, but I wish there was a little more character development for Sam’s friends.  Elody and Ally, two of her friends, don’t really have any detailed parts or backstories, and I would have appreciated that a little more.  I also think that some of her friends should’ve learned their lesson too, because they were also making poor decisions like that.  

The writing in this book is absolutely amazing. Lauren Oliver can describe things so well, and like I said, I feel like I was in Sam’s mind for most of it.  Also she has a way of putting things we’ve all felt but didn’t know how to say in words.  Oliver has this fantastic way with words that makes part of the whole story just like a poem, and it just touches me.  You’ll know what’s happening throughout the entire story, which is really important for me.

Like I said before, some say the plot isn’t very original, and truth is, it isn’t.  However, with the characters and the writing, it becomes a lot more real.  The purpose of the book is basically people can change, and you’re life is short, so you have to make sure you do a lot of good things along the way.  I felt like I could reflect on this book for hours after I finished it.  It definitely had a sound purpose that was emphasized just the right amount throughout the whole book.

Overall: I really enjoyed this book, and for anyone who likes Dessen’s work, this would definitely be a book for you.  So go get it at your library or buy it before it’s too late and some other idiot who won’t appreciate it picks it up!

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Coming Up Next: Legend by Marie Lu