Review: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Title: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver
Release Date: October 25th 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: What if you only had 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 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death--and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

Detailed Review: I confess that the book was quite boring at first, but after that, things started to build up into one big and amazing ending. When Samantha Kingston realize what really the purpose was for reliving her last day again, I almost cried. ALMOST. I am definitely not a crybaby.

   Day one: Sam is nervous and excited because it's Cupid day and it's going to be her BIG day. She and her boyfriend Rob Crokan are going to do it that night. But before that, she has to go to a party which her ex-best friend and the boy who has a major crush on her, Kent Mcfuller has held. It was there that Sam and her friends met Juliet Sykes, whom they nicknamed Psycho, for some unknown reason. She tells them that they're bitches and Lindsay, Sam's friend shoves Juliet and a game of push-and-wet-the-victim-with-beer starts. Sam is the last to push Juliet and she felt strange when the girl had come towards her. After that, Juliet ran out of the doorway. In the end, Sam and her friends got winded up in a car accident after they left the party. Everything went black.

   Day two: Pretty much the same happens like the day one. Sam realized that she's reliving her last day again. I got bored at this part.

   Day three: Here, everything started to change. This time, she wants to save her own life and her friends' life. So they didn't go to Kent's party and ended up having a sleepover in one of Sam's best friends, Ally's house. As Sam waited for the time that would supposedly mark her death, she feels a sense of loss of time and then it passes. It was past the time when she and her friends had the accident two nights before. But this didn't mean that everything was ok again, because a phone call came bringing news of-you wouldn't believe it- Juliet Sykes dead, who'd commited suicide. After that, Sam, occupied with her own questions and also with a sense of dread. In a basement, Sam finds out that Lindsay and Juliet used to be best friends. The day ends a few minutes later.

   Day four: Sam has a fight with Lindsay. That pretty much sums it all. Oh and she and Rob tried to do IT in Kent's bedroom in the party. Yes she went to the party again. And she ends up sleeping in Kent's bedroom with the owner beside her. Sweet.

   Day five: Everything's normal again. But Sam doesn't go to school. Instead, she brings her little sister Izzy to one place she'd been to when she was small and had run away, Goose Point. After that, Sam has dinner with her family in a restaurant and coincidentally Sam saw Juliet's little sister in the restaurant with her friends. After, when they went home, Sam creeped out of her house and went to find Juliet, for some unknown reason. When Juliet's not at home, she decided to go to the party to find her. She finds Juliet outside Kent's house and you wouldn't believe it. Juliet flung herself at the car which turned out to be Lindsay's and she DIED. Elody was also the same, who was seated at the passenger seat and had gotten the most damage, the seat which Sam was supposed to occupy. Sam ends up with Kent and he kissed her! The end.

   Day six: A bouquet of roses to Juliet Sykes with a note, saying 'FROM YOUR SECRET ADMIRER'. This was from Sam. But somehow Juliet had gotten the wrong gist of it and accused Sam and her friends for taunting her. In a bathroom in Kent's party, Juliet tells the story of how she Lindsay had been best friends and why Lindsay had suddenly left her. In the end though, Juliet still died. Surprise. But she wasn't killed by Lindsay's car, but by two passing vans. In the end, Sam's in Kent's room again and they ended up kissing each other. Nice.

   Day seven, the ultimatum: A rose to Juliet saying 'It's never too late'. Hooray! This time Juliet's not angry anymore but hopeful. Sam meets Juliet outside and this time she does what's right. Read this:

In that split second she's launched herself into the road, but she looks back, startled, recognition lighting up her eyes. Then I'm hurtling out behind her. I slam into her back and she goes shooting forward, rolling toward the opposite shoulder, just as two vans converge, about to pass each other.There's a furious high whine and someone- more that one person?- and screams my name and a feeling of heat all through my body and the sensation of being lifted, thrown,, by a huge hand, a giant's hand; the earth revolves, turns upside down and sideways and then a fog of darkness eats up the edges of the earth, turning everything to dream. 

Sad isn't it? That's the reason why you should read it.

Brief Review: 'This book was not a disappointment in the end. This book gives you a view when a perfect life converges into an imperfect one. And when fate  decides to twine the most unexpected people together. Lauren Oliver delivers a good debut that would touch one's inner soul.'

Final rating: 4/5 'Really liked it'

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