Title: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver
I just finished reading that book about an hour ago and WOW it was great! I absolutely adored the ending! I can really picture this book being made into a movie with narrations and a few flashbacks included, everything is described in such detail that the story just unfolds in your mind as a movie!
Before I Fall is about a girl called Sam Kingston (kept making me think of USBs) who is in high school and is part of the popular crowd. She has the kind of cliched life where she used to be a dork and at the bottom rung of the social ladder until the school's most popular girl decided to make her her best friend. This little group of 4 included Lindsay (the girl I was just talking about), Ally, Elody and Sam.
At first, you would think that they were those typical shallow, materialistic, popular girls who only hung out because they needed their own posse and could stab each others' backs without a second thought. However, as you read on, you would realise that these 4 girls really loved each other and thought of each other as family, doing stupid things together that you can only do with your bestest friends in the world.
Basically, Sam dies at the start of the book. This is so not a spoiler because it's clearly stated in the synopsis on the back cover. So how can the main character die in the first chapter? It's because (like the cover states) she dies and wakes up again on the morning of her death, forced to live through her last day alive again.
Pretty soon she realises that she's been given a second chance, a chance to 'get things right'. But not only is there a second chance for Sam, she also has a third and fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh chance! Yes, you read that right, she relives her last day SEVEN times.Wait I'm sorry, Day 1 was the official day she died, which means she relived her last day SIX TIMES. Oh this is just too confusing to explain. In short, she gets seven chances to live her last day right.
She spends her first few chances doing stupid things just 'cause she can. But the story gets more and more meaningful as it goes on. By the seventh day, she has changed into a different person and finally knows what she has to do to move on. I'm not telling you what, you go read the book.
The story is about an average girl who lives a life like many others. It's about how she learns to appreciate the little things in life and about realising how important certain people are to you. It makes you think about your own life and wonder what you would change if you knew this was your last day alive. How would you want to be remembered when you're gone? What memories will you leave behind? What will your last words to your loved ones be? Will you regret the decisions you've made so far and how can you change them? It's about living and sacrifice, learning from your mistakes and most importantly, accepting the repercussions of the choices you've made.
And I have to say, the last sentence of this book gave me chills. Don't skip to the end, read to the end.
Before I Fall comes highly recommended. Prepare a box of tissues if you're the emotional type.
