Before I Fall

I had the privilege of reviewing an advanced copy of the novel before i fall by Lauren Oliver for the Barnes and Noble First Look Book Club.  This book is written for teens, but I really related to some of the themes in this book -- despite more than 20 years between me and the last of my teenage years.  


The novel is about a stereotypical popular teen named Sam and what her life is like on the day she dies.  It's a novel about serious topics:  sex, underage drinking, drinking and driving, bullying, bulimia and death, to name a few.  However, it is also a novel about understanding others, the drama of the "ideal" high school life, the goofy perspectives of teens in high school and just finding one's place in the greater scheme of things.


During the course of this novel, Sam re-lives her last day on earth 6 times.  It's a little bit like the movie "Groundhog Day" in that respect.  Sam lives a full day over and over again, while trying out different behaviors and actions with sometimes surprising outcomes.


This is a first novel by Lauren Oliver.  Lauren did a fabulous job weaving a tale where as a reader, I changed my opinion about the main character (and a few of the other key characters in the story) during the course of the book.  Sam is a horror at the beginning of the book -- in so many ways.  As an adult reading the story, I couldn't decide if the horror was about the self-centered, down right mean behavior of the "popular" girls, or about the situations they were creating and putting themselves into.  Either way, I was relieved to have a change of heart about Sam as she worked her way through February 12th ... for 7 days in a row.


I loved how Lauren Oliver changed Sam's heart and actions just a little bit at a time, in slightly different ways and from different motivational places (denial, fear, concern for others, etc.) throughout the book.  It felt like the novel was a micro-view of a real life change of heart.  Unlike the slow process of change we experience in our every day life, Lauren Oliver was able to construct a scenario where time itself was set and the process of change could be more rapid.  The context of the story allowed Sam to try out different behaviors and actions to understand their consequences in rapid succession, so as readers, we could understand the growth/change process after only 7 days.


I would recommend the novel to readers of any age teen or above.  While the story is told through the viewpoint of a teenage girl and her friends, the lessons are applicable to all of us regardless of age.


Peace.