Review - Before I Fall

Title: Before I fall
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 470 (paperback)
Rating: 5.0
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                        Description: Goodreads

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: the world's most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.Instead, it turns out to be her last.Then she gets a second chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day 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.

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                                 My Review:

First off, I didn't really give this book very much justice. I started reading this book in the spring of this year and am only now finishing it. I'd taken a large break from all reading over the summer and read more books before this one to get back into the swing, but let me tell you that once I was in that swing, I took off like a rocket and I had the last 200 pages of this book I had left read in less than three days. 

Sam, our main character, was somebody who could easily be found annoying in this book, but then you really need to concentrate on the 'whys' for that. She's popular, she has everythign she could wish for, and has an amazing boyfriend; who wouldn't get a little cocky over that? It's just something you have to put up with if it'll easily annoy you becuase it's Sam's journey throughout the book that makes it all worth while. From day one to day seven you see this light just shinning through her as she tries and tries to make things right, and it's finally on that seventh day that things will click together. 

Obviously a journey like the one that Sam is facing is going to be a sad one and is going to be difficult, and I have to admit that I like realistic endings. I like when there's a bit of drama and when you have characters doing stuff that you could actually seen happening in real life around you...but I'm not gonna lie; the ending to this book made me wish that it hadnt' been as realistic as it was and that it had been a fake and overly happy one. It had me cursing at the characters, closing the book and ignoring it for five minutes before just picking it up agian to keep going, but it had my heart aching. Sam truly came out to be the tragic hero of this novel; and thankfully it was executed to be for all the right reasons. 

I'd really have to say that there was only one thing about this book that got to me; and that was the repetitiveness of her living over the same day seven times. Obviously it was something I knew was going to happen before I started to read the book so I was able to jump the hurtle quite easily. The thing that did surprise me about this though was that Oliver did an amazing job of never running out of things to say. Even on the sixth day when Sam was at the same party for the fifth time, she was able to discribe stuff. Thank goodness there were different things happening each day as well, making the reading much much easier when I felt like it was starting to get slow. 

Over all this is a book that I would recommend very easily. Ask me if it's worth the read and I will most definitely say yes!