book review before i fall

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Before i fall.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 14 Reviews
• Kids Say 60 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

By Debra Bogart , based on child development research. How do we rate?

From suicide to bullying, every tough teen topic is present.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the hook of this popular teen novel is that the main character discovers she's dead after a car accident and that she can relive and study the 24 hours before in detail. Just like the movie Groundhog Day , she indulges in some consequence-free behaviors for the fun of it -- drinking…

Why Age 16+?

Sam and her friends drink frequently and take vodka with them to most events; Sa

Frequent naming of brands: Victoria's Secret, Steve Madden, iPod, BMS, Body

Sam, the main character, has decided to have sex with her boyfriend of a few mon

Sam and her friends frequently use mild swear words including "s--t,"

Suicide by gunshot; suicide attempts by walking into traffic; there is a mild fi

Any Positive Content?

Strong storyline about the devastating effects of bullying, how a suicide impact

By the end of the story Sam acknowledges that she wants to be remembered well wh

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Sam and her friends drink frequently and take vodka with them to most events; Sam gets drunk to help her go through with sex for the first time; they attend frequent keggers and it's acknowledged that there is nothing to do at their high school besides drink; her boyfriend gets so drunk he passes out. One girl smokes pot in a school restroom. Sam's best friend Lindsay smokes cigarettes constantly.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Frequent naming of brands: Victoria's Secret, Steve Madden, iPod, BMS, Body Shop, etc.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Sam, the main character, has decided to have sex with her boyfriend of a few months to "get it over with"; some frank discussions with her best friends about what it will be like, if it will be painful, if she should be in love; her friends give her condoms to use for her first time; two of her three best friends are no longer virgins. Sam seduces one of her teachers but stops after kissing and being fondled by him; some kissing between Sam and another boy. Two married teachers are observed making out in a locked room.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sam and her friends frequently use mild swear words including "s--t," "Jesus," "bitch," "pissed," and "hell."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Suicide by gunshot; suicide attempts by walking into traffic; there is a mild fight between some teen girls at a party.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Strong storyline about the devastating effects of bullying, how a suicide impacts everyone, that negative social behavior can have far-reaching consequences, and that teens can change the way they treat one another.

Positive Role Models

By the end of the story Sam acknowledges that she wants to be remembered well when she dies and works to correct some her more damaging actions. Whether she changes her actions for altruistic reasons is never fully clear, but she does attempt to change. Her friend Kent is a strongly positive character who supports and accepts her. Most of the adult characters are negative role models, either teachers with bad behavior or parents who neglect or enable their kids to drink.

Parents need to know that the hook of this popular teen novel is that the main character discovers she's dead after a car accident and that she can relive and study the 24 hours before in detail. Just like the movie Groundhog Day , she indulges in some consequence-free behaviors for the fun of it -- drinking, hooking up with a teacher -- and must go from a very unpleasant person (popular "It" girl everyone secretly hates) to a better person by the end. Teens drink heavily in this novel, the main character contemplates having sex with her boyfriend ("to get it over with") at length, and heavy issues like bullying, suicide, bulimia, anorexia, and abuse are graphically uncovered throughout the story.

Where to Read

Parent and kid reviews.

• Parents say (14)
• Kids say (60)

Based on 14 parent reviews

Deals with important topics, but gets boring

What's the story.

Samantha and her three best friends are the "It" girls at Thomas Jefferson High School. It’s Cupid Day of their senior year, but more importantly, it’s the day Samantha has decided to lose her virginity with her boyfriend, Rob. After a party that night, a fatal car accident interrupts Sam’s plans. It takes a day or two of reliving those same 24 hours before Sam realizes she must be dead, or in limbo of some kind; she notices that she can alter her actions and their repercussions -- but can she save her own life?

Is It Any Good?

Oliver vividly draws a picture of the devastating damage done by bullying, while exploring the ease with which some teens turn a blind eye to such behavior. Watching one's self, or reliving death, is not a new concept in young adult literature, and here the tough issues inherent in the topic are bandied about as often as teens talk keggers and designer duds. But the author does a nice job of exploring the decision to lose one's virginity; and also discovering that all actions have consequences -- although Sam and her friends might be a little old to be making that particular discovery.

The treatment of bullying and its impact, the motivations behind the bullying, and the reasons other kids tacitly accept it is one topic that can't be portrayed too often in books for teens and Oliver gives it a great twist by not trying to make Sam and her friends likable from the start. Her perspective makes the book more realistic and immediate, and makes Sam's ultimate bid for redemption stronger and sadder. The suicide of a classmate is searingly explored and will be the most memorable aspect of the book.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about bullying and the perception that these days, more girls bully than boys. Have you observed that at your school? How is bullying treated by your friends? Have you been bullied?

What advice would you give someone who has been bullied? What do you think your favorite teacher would do if you went to them about being bullied?

Does verbal abuse or taunting do as much damage as physical bullying, or being beat up, would do?

What was the most important thing that Sam learned?

Would you have tried to change something other than Sam if you had the chance to? If you knew it was your last day to live, what would you choose to do?

Book Details

• Author : Lauren Oliver
• Genre : Contemporary Fiction
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : HarperTeen
• Publication date : March 1, 2010
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 14 - 17
• Number of pages : 470
• Last updated : July 12, 2017

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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What to read next.

Thirteen Reasons Why

Lock and Key

Coming-of-age books.

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Book Review

Before i fall.

• Lauren Oliver
• Coming-of-Age

Readability Age Range

• Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
• YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2011; Capitol Choices Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens, 2011

Year Published

This review was created by the editorial staff at Thriving Family magazine

This coming-of-age book by Lauren Oliver is published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Before I Fall is written for kids ages 14 and up. The age range reflects readability and not necessarily content appropriateness.

Plot Summary

Elementary school. Those were the days when you made dandelion rings for pretend marriage ceremonies, when you smeared cafeteria food all over bullies who made fun of your friends and when you wet your sleeping bag at summer camp but blamed somebody else. Does any of it matter in the end? For Samantha (Sam) Kingston, it does.

Sam is a high school senior. She’s clawed her way up from the bottom rung of the social ladder to become one of the most popular girls at Thomas Jefferson High — thanks in large part to Lindsay Edgecombe, the ringleader of her little circle.

Sam’s life revolves around her friends and her boyfriend, Rob Cokran. At home, she just wants to be left alone. But at school, she is the life of the party. She cheats in chemistry, flirts with her calculus teacher and makes stabbing motions whenever Juliet Sykes walks by — even though she’s not sure why Lindsay hates her so much. She also makes plans to lose her virginity to Rob on the weekend and studiously avoids any semblance of social contact with newspaper geek, Kent McFuller, a boy who was the groom in their pretend wedding in elementary school.

It’s the Friday before Valentine’s Day, better known as Cupid Day at Jefferson High. Students send roses with notes to each other. The more roses you have, the more popular you are. Kent is also hosting a party. He’s bought two kegs of beer, so despite his middling social status, anyone who’s anyone is sure to be there. Already tipsy, Sam and Lindsay show up to the party along with two friends, Elody and Ally. Rob arrives at the party. Unexpectedly, so does Juliet Sykes. Juliet proceeds to tell each member of the foursome exactly what she thinks of them. The girls mock Juliet and pour alcohol on her until she runs away.

Sam’s plans with Rob go awry when he gets drunk and angry. The girls leave the party after midnight in Lindsay’s silver Range Rover. They’ve all had too much to drink, and even sober, Lindsay is a bad driver. Sam really shouldn’t have been surprised when Lindsay suddenly screams and swerves into oncoming traffic and then into the woods, killing Sam instantly. Sam experiences a sensation of falling through darkness, but wakes up the next morning. Only it’s not the next morning — it’s Cupid Day all over again.

On the second day (the first day that repeats itself), Sam is in shock. She does few things differently besides trying to convince herself she has déjà vu and drinking more vodka to make the feeling of inevitability disappear. She dies again in the same car crash that killed her the first time.

On the third day, Sam decides not to do anything that might put her life in jeopardy. She feigns sickness, and her mom drives her to school late. She begs the girls to stay home from the party. They have a drunken (but safe) sleepover at Ally’s house instead. In the middle of the night, Ally’s mom wakes them up. Juliet Sykes shot herself tonight, she says. There was no note. The girls are disturbed but relieved. No note means they won’t be called out for bullying Juliet since middle school. Sam doesn’t die, but still wakes up on Cupid Day the next morning.

By the fourth day, Sam has decided that nothing she does matters. She wears especially provocative clothing and insults her friends so badly that Lindsay kicks her out of her car and makes her walk to school. She seduces a teacher and lies on a desk while he gropes her. Because she has no one to eat lunch with, she smokes pot with a former enemy in the washroom. When the girls arrive at Kent’s house, she pulls an already-drunk Rob into a bedroom with the intention of having sex with him. But before their clothes are completely off, Rob falls into a drunken sleep. Sam leaves him, finds an empty room and cries her heart out. Kent finds her, comforts her and puts her to bed in a friendly, gentlemanly way. Sam begins to fall in love with him.

On the fifth day, Sam makes family her top priority. She tells her friends she’s sick and convinces her mom to let her stay home by saying that she broke up with Rob. She also convinces her mother to let Izzy, Sam’s little sister, stay home with her. Sam and Izzy spend quality time together, and the whole family goes out for dinner at their favorite restaurant. At the restaurant, Sam spots Marian — Juliet Sykes’s younger sister. Sam decides to stop Juliet from committing suicide.

After her family goes to sleep, Sam sneaks out of the house and drives to Juliet’s — but she’s already left for Kent’s party. Desperate to intercept Juliet before she shoots herself, Sam follows her. By the time Sam arrives, Juliet has already insulted Sam’s friends and barricaded herself in a bathroom. Terrified that Juliet may have already killed herself, Sam asks Kent to pick the lock, but Juliet escapes through the window. Sam looks for Juliet in the woods surrounding Kent’s house. She finally finds her standing beside a highway. Sam tries to convince Juliet that it’s not too late, that life is still worth living. But before Sam can stop her, Juliet flings herself in front of an oncoming vehicle — Lindsay’s silver Range Rover. She is killed instantly, as is Sam’s friend Elody.

Sam realizes that Juliet’s suicide caused the crash in the first place. Juliet only shot herself on the one night the girls didn’t attend the party. She needed to confront them so she could work up the courage to end everything. When Sam and her friends weren’t there, it took Juliet longer to decide, and she shot herself instead of throwing herself in front of Lindsay’s car. Kent handles the situation calmly, and once again puts a distressed Sam to bed. He tells her that because she stood up for him in elementary school (smearing hot lunch all over a bully who teased him for crying about his grandfather’s death) he vowed to always be her hero. Sam falls head-over-heels in love with him. She also resolves that tomorrow she will save two lives, hers and Juliet’s.

On the sixth day, Sam is relieved that the day repeats itself. She resolves to do everything perfectly. She is polite to her parents and sister. She stops Lindsay from stealing a parking space from a girl who will be kicked off the swim team if she’s late for school. She removes the mocking note and the rose her friends were going to send to Juliet for Cupid Day and replaces it with two-dozen roses and a note that reads, “From your Secret Admirer.” She doesn’t cheat on her quiz. She scrubs defamatory graffiti from bathroom doors. She orders the roast beef for lunch instead of the more socially correct turkey. At the party that night, she tells Rob to strip naked and wait for her in a bedroom — but instead of coming herself, she sends in an amorous young couple looking for some private space. He is humiliated and flees in his boxers. Sam also intercepts Juliet before she has the chance to confront Lindsay and company. In the privacy of the bathroom, Sam apologizes to Juliet for years of bullying. She also learns why Lindsay hates Juliet — in fifth grade, Lindsay wet the bed on a group camping trip and blamed her best friend at the time, Juliet. Juliet never told anyone, even though Lindsay and her gang of friends (including Sam) made her life a living hell for the next seven years.

But Sam’s apology comes too late, and Juliet slips away. After locking the doors to Lindsay’s Range Rover and taking the keys, Sam goes after her. There’s no way she can jump in front of their car tonight. She finds Juliet by the road again. But when Juliet tries to jump in front of a truck, a surprised Sam barely holds her back. Why isn’t she waiting for Lindsay? Juliet tells her the truth: It’s not about revenge, Sam or Lindsay. She isn’t waiting for the silver Range Rover. Any vehicle will do. She runs into the road just as two minivans converge from opposite directions. She dies.

After dealing with the situation (again), Kent drives Sam home. He kisses her. And Sam wakes up on Friday morning. It’s the seventh time she’ll experience Cupid Day.

Sam tells her parents she loves them. She gives Izzy her grandmother’s necklace and hugs her tightly. She cherishes every moment of silliness with her friends. She tries to do her best on the chemistry quiz, tells her calculus teacher to stop hitting on high school girls, and gives her pot-smoking ex-enemy an art book. She flirts with Kent and breaks up with Rob. She drives her friends to the party and then drives the Range Rover all the way back to Lindsay’s house to make sure none of her friends will drive drunk. Kent drives her back to the party — but not before the two exchange passionate kisses. Sam waits for Juliet at the door, but Juliet runs away. Sam chases after her. Kent and Sam’s friends chase after Sam.

Juliet launches herself into the road as the two minivans converge. Sam runs after Juliet and pushes her to safety. Juliet is still alive, but it’s too late for Sam. She is dying for the last time. But this time, she realizes that she’s flying, not falling. And it isn’t dark at all — her eyes had been closed before.

Christian Beliefs

Years ago when Sam’s family went to church on Christmas and Easter, Sam was afraid of the statue of Jesus on the Cross behind the pulpit. She compares Juliet Sykes to Jesus and to an angel. Professing atheist Lindsay confesses that when she’s afraid she recites the well-known prayer that begins: Now I lay me down to sleep. . . . Later, Sam claims it for herself.

A student asks if souls can go from purgatory to hell. The teacher says no, but adds that some Christians believe souls can move from purgatory to heaven. Sam believes this might happen to her if she sacrifices enough and proves that she deserves to move on.

A Catholic girl plans to save herself for marriage. Lindsay makes the sign of the Cross and pretends to pray for protection whenever Juliet is around. Other mock prayers include asking God to bless a doughnut shop. Kent’s newspaper is called The Tribulation .

Other Belief Systems

Sam speculates that her death may mean that she is forced to live the same day over and over forever. She believes that the moments she lives continue to exist somewhere in the universe, even when the day is over and she does things differently the next day. She experiences a sensation of flying and sees bright colors after her final death.

The girls play with a Ouija board and pretend they have contacted the spirits of child molesters. Sam threatens to convert to voodoo. She speculates that it might be OK to lie if it’s for a good cause. Defecating on a Bible is mentioned.

Authority Roles

Sam’s parents are well-meaning but distant. In their attempt to respect their teenage daughter’s growing need for privacy, independence and personal space, they initially fail to meet her needs for love, discipline and protection.

Sam and her friends find it all too easy to break the rules, and it’s not clear whether the parents condone activities such as underage drinking, teenage sex and other misbehaviors — or whether they simply choose to look the other way. Sam’s relationship with her parents begins to change over the week of Fridays. Sam’s parents object to the clothing she is wearing on the grounds that people will get the wrong idea about her. When Sam tells her mom that she broke up with Rob, her mom enters her room for the first time in years and comforts her. Sam begins to appreciate all the little expressions of love her mother showed her when she was younger and regrets the times when she pushed her parents away.

Lindsay’s parents divorced when she was still in elementary school. Her distress over their separation caused her to start wetting the bed. She has very few rules and boundaries and carefully sneaks out of the house even though she has no curfew.

Teachers are regularly treated with disrespect by Sam and her friends. Teachers also engage in sexual activities with each other and with their students. Elody’s mother is an alcoholic. Kent holds his party when his parents are away.

Profanity & Violence

Profanity is frequent and varied and includes the epithets d–n, p—, s—, b–ch , and a– . The names of God and Jesus are misused. Many other crude words and euphemisms are used.

Juliet commits suicide several times, once with a gun. Sam remembers other students at Jefferson High killing themselves. Girls are hit and killed by vehicles.

Sexual Content

Sam, her friends and seemingly everyone else in their social circle (with the possible exception of Kent) are obsessed with sex. Sam and her friends talk of little else. The author includes sexual banter, gestures, thoughts, fantasies, speculations, rumors and encounters in graphic detail that sometimes border on verbal pornography. Teens (and teachers) grope (over and under clothing), grind, kiss, French kiss, hold hands, make out, hook up, lose their virginity (on purpose and accidentally), have intercourse outside of marriage with various partners, cheat on their significant others, dump their love interest and are dumped by them. Among the more significant incidents are the following:

Sam wants to lose her virginity so Lindsay and Elody will stop teasing her. Sam’s calculus teacher lays on top of her, kissing her and groping. Sam tries to have sex with Rob, but he falls into a drunken sleep before they take their clothes off. Rob regularly massages her breasts under her shirt, often tearing her bra in the process. Sam wears a necklace that reads slut .

Lindsay lost her virginity years earlier to a drunken university student she didn’t even know. The girls call Elody a whore because of the one-sided relationship she shares with her boyfriend, Steve. Sam flashes a car full of strange men. Teenage girls dress provocatively and give sexual favors to uncommitted teenage boys. Girls compare their bodies and accuse each other of having contracted various sexually transmitted diseases. Lindsay calls Kent a stalker. Elementary-age children kiss. Child molestation is mentioned.

A boy calls Kent a faggot in elementary school. Later, that same boy is caught sleeping with another boy. The girls regularly kiss each other on the cheek and feign humping motions as they anticipate or remember male-female unions. Acting too mushy is described as lezzing out . Someone speculates that a girl might be a closet lesbian.

Discussion Topics

Additional comments.

Drug and Alcohol Abuse: Teens (including Sam) regularly abuse alcohol and occasionally drugs. Sam enjoys the feeling she gets when she’s high.

This review is brought to you by Focus on the Family, a donor-based ministry. Book reviews cover the content, themes and world-views of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. A book’s inclusion does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

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BEFORE I FALL

by Lauren Oliver ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2010

When your novel’s heroine opens the story as a popular, mean highschooler, the story will be one of two things: a paean to Dolce & Gabbana or a tale of redemption. Sam’s story is of the latter kind: a Groundhog Day –style repeated day she must relive until she gets it right. With each repeat, she changes something in her relationships—to her family, to the cruelty of her queen-bee friends, to her lecherous boyfriend, to the hot math teacher and to the countless nerds, dorks and freaks she’s always abused or ignored. If she can just get it right , Sam thinks, she’ll be freed from her loop and can move on with her life. Within this predictable framework Oliver builds a quietly lyrical story of selfhood and friendship, avoiding the obvious paths out of the time loop. Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day character used his repeated day to learn French; Sam, more valuably, learns that life’s composed of “little gaps and jumps and stutters that can never be reproduced.” Unexpectedly rich. (Fantasy. 12-15)

Pub Date: March 1, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-06-172680-4

Page Count: 480

Publisher: HarperTeen

Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2010

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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More by Lauren Oliver

BOOK REVIEW

by Lauren Oliver ; illustrated by Ethan M. Aldridge

by Lauren Oliver

WHAT THE MOON SAW

by Laura Resau ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2006

When Clara Luna, 14, visits rural Mexico for the summer to visit the paternal grandparents she has never met, she cannot know her trip will involve an emotional and spiritual journey into her family’s past and a deep connection to a rich heritage of which she was barely aware. Long estranged from his parents, Clara’s father had entered the U.S. illegally years before, subsequently becoming a successful business owner who never spoke about what he left behind. Clara’s journey into her grandmother’s history (told in alternating chapters with Clara’s own first-person narrative) and her discovery that she, like her grandmother and ancestors, has a gift for healing, awakens her to the simple, mystical joys of a rural lifestyle she comes to love and wholly embrace. Painfully aware of not fitting into suburban teen life in her native Maryland, Clara awakens to feeling alive in Mexico and realizes a sweet first love with Pedro, a charming goat herder. Beautifully written, this is filled with evocative language that is rich in imagery and nuance and speaks to the connections that bind us all. Add a thrilling adventure and all the makings of an entrancing read are here. (glossaries) (Fiction. 12-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006

ISBN: 0-385-73343-7

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

More by Laura Resau

by Laura Resau

by Patricia Gualinga & Laura Resau ; illustrated by Vanessa Jaramillo

by Neal Shusterman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2006

Death isn’t an easy subject to write about, but Shusterman handles it deftly, as he explores what happens to two children who are “lost” on their way “towards the light.” Nick and Allie have never met, but both are involved in a fatal car accident. They find they are neither living nor spirit; they now exist in Everlost. Learning to cope with their new state of being, they arrive in New York City, where a band of lost children have taken up residence in the Twin Towers, which still stand tall in Everlost. Led by Mary, the Queen of Snot, threatened by the Great McGill and his pirate band, these children have come to accept that this is where they belong and will always be. But Nick and Allie know there must be something—somewhere—else, and they are determined to find out what and where that is. A quirky sense of humor pervades, which helps to lighten what would otherwise be a disturbing concept. But the overall message (that there is existence after life and purpose to that existence and a destination when one is finally ready for it) is one of comfort. For anyone who has lost a friend or loved one at an early age, this is a good read. (Fiction. 12-15)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-689-87237-2

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2006

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT PARANORMAL & SUPERNATURAL | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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by Neal Shusterman , Debra Young & Michelle Knowlden

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Word of Mouth

Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, before i fall.

Samantha Kingston doesn't have the weightiest of matters on her mind the morning of Friday, February 12th, the day she dies. It's the typical concerns of a popular high school senior that preoccupy her: How many roses will she receive today during the popularity contest Cupid Day? Will she and longtime crush (and now boyfriend) Rob actually do the deed tonight as she has promised?

Sam rides to school, discussing these topics with pals Lindsey, Elody and Ally. Lindsey, the leader of the group, is driving erratically and making Sam nervous as usual. Wisecracking Elody is doing what she does best: making everyone laugh with her witty banter. Sam is quite the witty narrator herself. When musing idly on her group's status, she says this about popularity in general: "…you know it when you see it. Like a lazy eye, or porn."

At school Sam begins collecting her roses from the expected Valogram givers, such as Rob and her friends. She also receives one from quirky cartoon artist Kent McFuller, who was once Sam's best friend but whose unique style of dress (including daily blazer and bowler hat combos) and other lone wolf freaky ways mean their paths have long diverged. Sam's day otherwise follows her usual patterns: she cheats from dorky Lauren in chem class, flirts with adorable young teacher Mr. Daimler in trig, and joins her friends in tormenting the classmate they've nicknamed "Psycho."

Sam also ponders the disturbing fact that she often has to tell herself she should be happy to be half of a couple with Rob, while Kent McFreaky seems to have some strange power to disturb her. Kent invites her to a party at his home. Normally she wouldn't consider attending, but her friends decide to go since Kent has promised a keg and a parentless house.

Sam and her group start drinking vodka while they get ready for the party. Although drunk by the time she arrives at Kent's house, Sam can't blame the surreal and dramatic scene that follows on alcohol. She hates to admit it to herself, but she fears that what Kent tells her about herself may actually be correct. And then, Sam's death ends everything for her…

…until the next morning when she awakens to find that it is Friday, February 12th, and Cupid Day all over again. Naturally enough, her first inclination is to believe she has gone insane, but as she relives that day again and again, Sam begins to change in both subtle and enormous ways. She becomes convinced that somehow in some way she can change events during the day so she won't continue to cycle through February 12th forever and ever. Could it be that her purpose is to stop one ugly incident followed by a tragedy in order to fix whatever has gone so weirdly wrong in her world? As Sam grapples with this notion, she wonders what is inevitable in life and what can be changed. How much in her life is she truly responsible for?

Although BEFORE I FALL is getting an incredible amount of attention, the book far surpassed my expectations. I must admit that I was a bit put off at the very beginning by Sam and her friends, who appeared to be the typical popular, beautiful mean girls --- shallow characters who have been featured in way too many books, in my opinion. I was thrilled to be proven wrong quickly. Sam turns out to be a deep thinker as she uncovers layers during her sojourn through seven incarnations of the day of her death, growing and changing with each cycle. She slowly arrives at enlightenment about her family, friends, classmates, teachers and herself. During this process, she gains a new perspective on life itself --- one that may deeply affect how readers view their own lives (I suspect this is part of what has powered the buzz around this book, along with the fact that it's a gripping page-turner).

Words are inadequate to describe how much I admire the inventive and intriguing concept and the brilliant execution of Sam's story, with its brave and perfect conclusion. BEFORE I FALL is a must read.

Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon on March 2, 2010

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

• Publication Date: March 2, 2010
• Genres: Fiction , Young Adult 12+
• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• ISBN-10: 006172680X
• ISBN-13: 9780061726804