Before I Fall in 2017 Reading Challenge

Feb 07, 2017 Annina | Blattzirkus rated it liked it

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Plot
The story follows Samantha Kingston, a sixteen – soon to be – seventeen year old popular teenager who repeatedly has to life through Valentine’s Day. Or rather, she only realizes that she has to do so after dying in a car accident after a party held by a classmate. After that realization she lives through every repeatedly Valentine’s Day a little bit different, once more loving, once a little bit more obnoxious. By that, she not only finds out a lot abo More reviews on my blog Blattzirkus :)

Plot
The story follows Samantha Kingston, a sixteen – soon to be – seventeen year old popular teenager who repeatedly has to life through Valentine’s Day. Or rather, she only realizes that she has to do so after dying in a car accident after a party held by a classmate. After that realization she lives through every repeatedly Valentine’s Day a little bit different, once more loving, once a little bit more obnoxious. By that, she not only finds out a lot about her friends, classmates and family members but also a great deal of herself and what is really important in life.

My opinion
I guess that repeatedly waking up to the same day concept isn’t exactly new and can be executed equally in a good and in a bad way. Personally I am a bit torn with Before I Fall since I couldn’t stand the main character, Samantha. She was very obnoxious, self-centered and narrow-minded. I guess a typical sixteen year old popular teenager in the best stereotypical way. She has her four best friends who are equally as bad as her and a popular, handsome boyfriend who didn’t really care for her. That was soon very clear.

The good thing about Before I Fall was that there was change in the main character! She learned from herself and became a better, more caring person than at the beginning of the book. She wasn’t as narrow-minded as before and saw the more important things in life: being there for family and friends. Good for her! I really liked that she was going out of her comfort zone talking to people she normally wouldn’t and actually enjoyed doing so.

Also she tries to find out the reason why she was stuck in that time loop. And as we all know (more from ghost stories than from time loops), there is always unfinished business before one can rest. We just have to find out what it is. Therefore I can say that we learned a lot of the people in Samantha’s life. They weren’t just bystanders, but people with emotions and thoughts, not some kind of Extra Number 36 whose purpose only is to fill the empty place in the main character’s far too busy life.

The writing was decent, not too easy and not too hard, a nice Young Adult read. I have read Lauren Oliver before, the whole Delirium series actually, that’s how I discovered Before I Fall. Although I have no idea any longer how Delirium was written, for comparison reasons, but I guess it wasn’t too bad since I finished the whole series. Same with this one, the characters were annoying but the writing kept me going.

Conclusion
I give Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver 3 out of 5 stars because it was decent and a nice read, but that’s been it. I’m excited to see what the movie will make out of this material!

xo Annina ...more

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May 31, 2014 Laura Kump rated it it was amazing

Sam's story was so moving. The plot concept was unique and thought provoking. What if we chose differently? How would it change the outcome? Would be great for book club. I would love to have had discussion. Definitely recommend. ...more

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