Sam Kingston is dead. Except she isn't.
On a rainy February night, eighteen-year-old Sam is killed in a horrific car crash. But then the impossible happens: she wakes up in her own bed, on the morning of the day that she died.
Forced to live over and over the last day of her life the drive to school, skipping class, the fateful party she desperately struggles to alter the outcome, but every morning she wakes up on the day of the crash.
This is a story of a girl who dies young, but in the process learns how to live. And who falls in love... a little too late.
BEFORE I FALL is a brave and complex novel about the territory between life and death. As astonishing as The Lovely Bones and as luminous as Jenny Downham s Before I Die, it will make you want to live every day as if it were your last.
Every once in a while you read a book that takes your breath away. You finish the last page and sit staring into space for a few minutes thinking, ‘ Wow’. And then you think about how long an amount of time it would be appropriate to wait before you read it again.
This is what happened between me and Lauren Oliver’s debut novel – Before I Fall.
The book was sent to me for review and, to be honest, I wasn’t that interested. It didn’t really tie-in with what we were already reviewing on Novelicious, plus I had never really read any YA up until that point.
So I had a little leaf through...I didn’t put it down until the next day. Seriously. If you are going to read this novel then don’t plan on getting any sleep, you will NOT be able to put it down.
The concept of Before I Fall has been described as a cross between ‘Groundhog Day’ and ‘Flash-forward’. Sam Kingston dies in a car crash, but wakes up the next morning in her own bed, on the day that she died. She has to live the day that she died over and over again.
This is an excellent premise for keeping the reader hooked. We already know where the character is going to go, what her friends will say, what will happen at lunch – the interesting thing is that we want to know what Sam will change about the day, in order to change the events of her death.
Sam and her friends aren’t, initially, particularly likeable characters, but they are very real. They are cliquey and have flaws. This makes it difficult for the reader to sympathise with what’s happening, which in turn makes the book a whole lot more interesting. It’s not easy to pick a clear cut villain, or hero, but you still care wholeheartedly about what happens to them.
Before I Fall is beautifully written; brave, sincere and very addictive. It captures the essence of high-school brilliantly, and will have you laughing, crying and philosophising.
I wholeheartedly recommend Before I Fall. The best book I’ve read in the last year.
10/10
