Samantha’s best friends are funny, likable, and maddening, but readers will love Samantha best as she hurtles toward an end as brave as it is heartbreaking. “how easy it is to start off down the same road you always take and wind up somewhere new”). , Oliver’s debut novel is raw, emotional, and, at times, beautiful (“It amazes me how easy it is for things to change,” Samantha thinks.

This is the kind of book that I believe a lot of people should read should they have the chance. It plays with different topics and ideas that are relevant today and that I think will remain relevant for a really long time. –style plot, make no mistake: evocative of Jenny Downham’s Before I Die I ended up giving Before I Fall the full five stars and I truly think that it deserves it. If this sounds too much like a Groundhog Day She faces the often tragic consequences of even the smallest acts, awakens to the casual cruelties all around her, and tries to get things right and maybe even redeem herself.

But Samantha is living a nightmare: throughout the book, she relives the day of her death seven times, with some dramatic alterations and revelations depending on her choices-ditching school to spend time with her younger sister or, on a day when life’s rules have all but lost their meaning, seducing a teacher. Let's go hang out with Psycho.' It's not like Juliet will never have the urge to end herself again.Beautiful, popular Samantha and her three best friends are the ruthless queen bees of their high school. It's not like the students will look at Sam's corpse and think, 'wow, this makes me think of the consequences of my actions. And it breaks my heart - for what? Yes, Sam saved Juliet, but it's not like the bullying will stop just because Sam did one kind act. It's subversive for the sake of subversive. That ending leaves me asking, 'what was the point?' What was the point of Sam going through this incredible character arc, learning the truth about Lindsay and Juliet, embracing her feelings for Kent, and devoting her last days to her family if she was going to die anyway? Why learn a lesson when she's never going to use what she learned to make a difference in the world? Sure, there is a line between embracing the little things and letting life go because everyone will die, but that line is two broken pieces of thread held together with old tape.

Before i fall book review