Before I Fall

I mentioned at the beginning of the month that I was starting on Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver and that I'd been led to believe I'd either love it or hate it. I loved it. It seems weird to call a book that is clearly not set in reality as we know it realistic, but that's the best descriptor for it that I can come up with. It was really real. For all that it was about a girl stuck in the worst Groundhog Day loop ever, it somehow rang true for me.

Before I Fall is the redemptive afterlife story of a mean girl. Sam has a great life as one of her high school's most popular girls. The thing is, she's not a very nice person. She's shallow and bitchy and way too concerned with what people might think vs. what she really wants. All that changes when she's killed in a car accident. That's when she starts living the last day of her life over and over (and over) again.

Sam starts to realize that she hasn't always been the nicest girl and that her actions have had consequences. She begins trying to live each repeated day as a better version of herself, partly because she wants to find a way out of the loop and partly because she seems to finally want to be a better person. Sam is a deeply flawed character who is simultaneously likable and unbearable because of those flaws.

I'd recommend this one for anyone who was a mean girl, was victimized by mean girls or who just likes well-written young adult fiction.