AUTHOR: Lauren Oliver
RELEASE DATE: March 2010
PUBLISHER: HarperCollins
PAGES: 353 pages
GENRE: Fantasy, Chick Lit
OVERALL RATING: 2/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades 9-12
SUMMARY: Samantha Kingston is the typical "popular girl" with her Mean Girl gang of three friends: Lindsay, Ally, and Elody. They wear matching slutty outfits and compete over who gets the most roses on Cupid Day. After school, there is a huge party, lots of drinking, and Sam plans how she is finally going to lose her virginity to her boyfriend, Rob. That is, until it all ends abruptly with a deadly car crash. Or does it? Sam wakes up to find herself repeating the same day over and over.
WHAT I LIKED: I've tried reading other "Groundhog Day" style books before to find it repetitive (duh!) and boring. But in Before I Fall, Sam makes enough changes each day that it seems like a new day. At the beginning of the book, I really hated the character of Sam and her Mean Girl clique. But throughout Sam's last "days", she begins to see all this, and make some changes to not only make herself a better person, but to really help those around her.
READALIKES: Everyday by David Levithan
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: I felt that the smoking behind the school, cutting class, and getting high in the school bathroom were completely unbelievable. Who, outside of TV Dramas, really does that? Maybe, I'm just totally naive, but that that was not my high school! Getting caught smoking on school grounds is worth three after school detentions? Seriously?!
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