Review: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (March 2, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 006172680X
• Source: Publisher

Samantha Kingston has it all: the perfect boyfriend, the right friends, seemingly everything. It’s February 12, Cupid Day, and her only thoughts are of how many roses she’s going to receive by the end of the day.  But by the end of the day, Sam is dead.

Normally, a person only gets to relive their last day once.  Sam relives the last day of her life seven times.  She’s been given a week to see just how much power she has to influence the lives and futures of others. Each day, Sam struggles to understand the impact of decisions she used to take so lightly.  She’s given a gift that people normally don’t have: the chance to right the wrongs one has created in life.

Before I Fall is Lauren Oliver’s debut novel. It is a very blunt, no-holds-barred look at high school peer pressure and the impact of social circles. The characters Oliver creates are not likeable, not in the least bit.  Sam and her friends are a bunch of insensitive snobs who don’t think twice about verbally harassing and berating students  who are below them on the social food chain. I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that Sam and her friends are a spoiled, vain bitches!

Each day Sam relives, she sees the impact of her actions literally affecting the lives of others. It is invigorating to see the transformation Sam takes from the first day to the seventh. Each day is a new step, a different action Sam takes in hopes of changing the futures of those around her.  She truly becomes a new person by the end of this journey. I don’t recall ever reading a transformation of a main character that is as extreme as Samantha’s.

To be honest, when I started reading Before I Fall I thought I was going to be the only person who didn’t enjoy it.  Reliving the same day, over and over again? How dull is that?  IT’S NOT!  Oliver does an outstanding job providing suspense through the entire book.  Not once did I wonder when the book was going to end or when something exciting was going to happen.  Her writing is so emotional, so heartbreaking, so powerful.  It left me with tears streaming down my cheecks and my body covered in goosebumps. At the beginning I was cursing Samantha, but by the end I was begging for her redemption. Before I Fall has earned a spot on my Top Reads of 2010! I can’t wait to read more from this author.