Title: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver
Genre: Young-adult fiction, paranormal
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: March 2, 2010
Synopsis: What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?
Samantha Kingston has it all: the world's most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.
Instead, it turns out to be her last. Read more …
Review: So many good things have been said about Lauren Oliver’s debut novel Before I Fall. Maybe I just missed something but I thought it was kind of ‘meh’ and read like a reinterpretation of the film Groundhog Day, for teen girls.
The concept was interesting, but became very repetitive quickly. Additionally Sam was not a very likeable character, therefore, for me, the chapters, or should I say days, stretched on and on. I thought that both Sam, her friends, and the high school experience in general was clichéd and stereotypical. Please let me know if anyone’s high school experience was actually like this, because I always have such a hard time believing this representation of high school, on paper or screen. Seriously, I feel like this high school world exists purely in the fictional world and jeopardized my feelings towards this novel. Obviously this novel does have some touching moments and a semi-profound message and that’s why I detested the fakeness of the Sam character, among other things.
Despite finding the novel being overly clichéd, repetitive, and the main character disagreeable, it was interesting to see Sam begin to understand the reason behind the repetition of her February 12th, and grow as a person. There were touching moments with her interactions with her younger sister and parents, as she began to understand the meaning of her life, and realize her past mistakes.
Additionally, the novel was written in such a structure that as the reader, you were discovering and solving the mystery of the repetition with Sam. Obviously, this is why Oliver made the novel so repetitive – so that the reader could actually experience Sam’s frustration and confusion each morning as time continued to stand still, but it just annoyed this reader.
Overall the novel was okay. I didn’t love it, and could help but be reminded and find direct parallels to the film Groundhog Day, but it wasn’t the worse book I have ever read.
Warning: Repetitive.
You might also enjoy: Matched by Ally Condie or Delirium also by Lauren Oliver
My Rating: 3.0/5.0
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