Book Review | Before I Fall
Title: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Pages: 470
Genres: YA, Contemporary
Published by: HarperCollins (Mar. 2, 2010)
Summary
With this stunning debut novel, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver emerged as one of today’s foremost authors of young adult fiction. Like Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why and Gayle Forman’s If I Stay, Before I Fall raises thought-provoking questions about love, death, and how one person’s life can affect so many others.
For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—”Cupid Day”—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night.
However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.
What I Thought
I’m a huge Lauren Oliver fan. I’ve wanted to read Before I Fall for years now, but always ended up putting it off. After finding out about the movie though, I knew it was time!
First of all, I just have to talk about the writing! I love, love, love Lauren Oliver’s writing style. I think she just has such an incredible way with words. She makes the simplest of sentences sound so beautiful. Before I Fall was her debut novel, and I especially loved reading her early writing style, and seeing how it was still so good!!
Now, for the characters. Honestly, aside from Kent, I didn’t love them. I get that they were supposed to be mean girls, so I think Lauren Oliver actually wrote the characters how they were supposed to be, but I, personally, just couldn’t relate. I did grow to love Samantha though. Aside from the beautiful writing, her character growth was probably my favorite thing about this novel.
One other thing I really loved about Before I Fall was its message. It conveys such a meaningful message on how deeply our words and actions affect people. This book was a great reminder on how important it is to think before you act and to live each day as if it were your last.
This book was going to be a solid 4 star read, but then there was the ending. I am not going to spoil anything, but I wanted more! I felt like the book was building into this big ending, and for me it just let me down. Because of that, it lost a star.
Overall though, aside from the ending, it was a highly enjoyable book. It’s very thought provoking, and I would recommend it to fans of contemporary YA. Warning: It’s a tearjerker!
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Sometimes an ending ruins things and it ends up being the only thing I remember from a book so I lower my rating, no matter how good the rest was. Nice review 🙂
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Exactly!! Thank you! 😊
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