Author: Lauren Oliver
Oh my goodness. Where to begin? Before I Fall is amazing. So, I have to confess, for the first few chapters of the book, I didn't like it at all. I hated the main characters (except Kent, who the main characters hate), and I expected the constant talk of sex, drugs, alcohol, and obsessive popularity to get really old really fast. I was prepared to hate the book.
I was wrong. Yes, at the beginning of the novel, Samantha ("Sam") Kingston and her friends, Lindsay, Ally, and Elody, are - there's no other word for it - bitchy. They're mean to everyone, they're bullies just because they can be, they can get away with anything and do whatever they want. They talk about sex a lot, and they drink a lot just because they can, and they smoke and cut class and all that other stuff that gives teenagers a bad reputation.
But then Sam dies. And after her nightmarish last day, she wakes up again the same morning. She relives her last day seven times over. During this miraculous final week, she changes. Sam starts to understand things about the world around her, and about herself. The question is, will one day be enough to change everything?
By the end of the novel, I didn't hate Sam or her friends at all. I sympathized with Sam, I wanted to just give her a big hug and make things okay, and I will confess that there were a couple of parts near the end that almost made me cry. I sat down and read the entire second half in one afternoon. It was fantastic. Lauren Oliver has some kind of magic with storytelling, to be able to create a character so real and to change the reader's attitude toward her so completely. It is absolutely worth the first couple of chapters (although the prologue may be compelling enough on its own; very well set up) to get to the rest of the story. READ IT. Please. It took me a little longer than I liked to get into it, but once I did, it was absolutely fantastic. Definitely, definitely check this one out.
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