Goodreads Exclusive Prelude: If you have not read this, or given it at least four-and-a-half stars, you have no soul.

Oh . . . Oh, my God . . .

Five stars. Five billion stars. Five quadrillion stars. Five infinity stars.

I don't think I'll ever read a book that'll touch me in quite the same way.

A lot of Goodreadsers didn't like Before I Fall because they couldn't relate to it at all and the characters didn't relate to them. Before I Fall did relate to me because the main character, Samantha Kingston, reminded me a lot of my best friend. I know, I know, that sounds bad, but I am in high school, and the things the people do in this book are scarily accurate to what I've come to know is high school over the past year and a half.

(view spoiler)[Even the teacher-lust thing. Two teachers got arrested last year for having relations with students. Creepy, huh? And I go to a really good school! (hide spoiler)]

I never knew Before I Fall would have such an impact on my life. I saw it at Walmart about two years ago, and I kind of wish I would've gotten it then, because the book is indescribable in mere words. I don't even think any songs could describe it.

The teen voice in the novel is perfect. Oliver says things like I spot Amy Weiss -- probably the biggest gossip in the entire school -- making out with Oren Talmadge in the doorway like she's starving and his mouth is filled with Cheetos, and silly, corny stuff like that that only a high-schooler could say without sounding contrived. The book had some beautiful quotes, too, like Time and space recede and blast away like a universe expanding outward, leaving only darkness and the two of us on its periphery, darkness and breathing and touch.

Oliver wrote a truly beautiful novel that's touched me in more than one dimension. This novel shines through from the core, vulnerable, beautiful, transcendent. Before I Fall is a classic of this generation. It may not be 100 years old, but it has the emotional poignancy that deserves heavy praise. Please, people, if you only read one book in your entire life, let it be this one.