Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

MY RATING: 4 stars

DESCRIPTION:
What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all—looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12th should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it’s her last. The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. In fact, she re-lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she had ever imagined.

MY REVIEW:
I had such a hard time deciding how I wanted to rate this book. Right after I finished reading it, I wanted to give it 3 stars, at the most, because I was so angry at the book that I just wanted to toss it across the room. But, after sitting here and really thinking about this book, I realize that it deserves more than 3 stars, but I couldn’t bring myself to give it 5.

This book was a powerful, emotional, and riveting story. Samantha was not the kind of person that you want a main character to be. She was one of those popular girls in school who just 'new' that they were better than you, and her best friends weren't any better. They were rude, immodest, and stuck-up girls. That's what we see and everyone else sees (in the story) on the surface. Throughout the book, we dig a little deeper in each of their character.

I am truly amazed how Oliver wrote about teenage life, the fun, the partying, the friendships, the relationships, the pressures, the depression, the disorders, and everything. She squeezed a little bit of it all in this book and she did it perfectly.

Sam wanted to date the popular boy, she admired the ‘hot’ teacher, and she shunned the good guy because he was odd and clumsy – even though, when they were younger, they were the best of friends. She had her chance to figure out which one of these guys were who she really wanted to be with, having to live her last day seven times. She, also, was able to right all of her wrongs; for the way she treated people that didn’t live up to her and her friend’s popularity. They were cruel, but she was able to make up for her mistakes and misgivings in those seven days.

Overall, though I wasn’t completely happy with it, it was a very well written novel that we can all learn a lesson on. How do we treat others? Are we living everyday the way that we should be living it? If we were to die today, are there things that we wish we could have fixed before hand, like saying sorry to someone that you’ve hurt? This was a thought-provoking novel that helps us question our own humanity and they way that we treat others.