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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
oh my god! oh my god! i wasn't expecting that, although i kind of liked that ending. i'm also super upset about it because HOW COULD IT END UP LIKE THAT??? what about kent? I NEED MooOoOoRE!
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Alcohol
BEWARE! THERE ARE SPOILERS IN MY REVIEW! DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT THE BOOK SPOILED FOR YOU!
I have mixed feelings about this book. I realize that the depiction of these teenagers, cussing, being flirtatious and sexual, and bullies portrays what some high school students are really like, but I still didn't enjoy that depiction of them. Real high school you may experience being the bully or being bullied, so in that way I believe most people could relate to this book.
I believe what the author's intentions with this book was to tell everyone that we need to be careful, thoughtful, and kind with our words and our actions because words are powerful. We can either build someone up or tear them down. Whether we realize it or not, maybe one negative thing we say to someone would still have an impact on someone later on. Maybe your one comment won't lead them to suicide alone, but if it were combined with 1 comment from 100 other people each's ugly comment then maybe they would break, be depressed, possibly kill themselves or have a psychotic break and do a mass shooting/murder. Maybe your one comment was number 101 and was the comment that broke the camel's back so to speak. Could you imagine if each of those 101 people had said more than one mean thing to this one person more than one time, and how much more damage that would have done to this person's spirit and feelings?
Well, that's what Sam and her friends were, the mean girls. Though, other students were mean too. Juliette, killing herself resulted in the death of another person (Sam). The ironic thing is that as Sam lived this day over and over for a total of 7 days, trying to save their lives, she believed that Juliette purposefully chose the vehicle Lindsey was driving and that Sam was riding in to jump in front of because they were the people who were the meanest to Juliette and this was Juliette's revenge against them. But Juliette chose a vehicle at random.
What I don't understand at the end is that Sam no longer believed that it was her own life she needed to save but that she needed to save Juliette. If it was Juliette's decision to die even though it was of the consequences of Sam and her friends' actions, then if Juliette lived, shouldn't Sam also live? After all, Sam would've still been alive if Juliette didn't run in front of that moving vehicle. If she saved Juliette's life, then she should've automatically saved her own life. I was hoping that even though Sam ended up getting hit by a vehicle that Sam would've ended up miraculously in the hospital and recovered. But at the same time, after Sam having lived that day over and over for 7 days, she had come to terms with her dying and did her best to tell all her family that she loved and cared about them, and make amends with everyone else, and lastly, save a girls life physically, the same girl who she once helped to destroy her life emotionally.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I realize that the depiction of these teenagers, cussing, being flirtatious and sexual, and bullies portrays what some high school students are really like, but I still didn't enjoy that depiction of them. Real high school you may experience being the bully or being bullied, so in that way I believe most people could relate to this book.
I believe what the author's intentions with this book was to tell everyone that we need to be careful, thoughtful, and kind with our words and our actions because words are powerful. We can either build someone up or tear them down. Whether we realize it or not, maybe one negative thing we say to someone would still have an impact on someone later on. Maybe your one comment won't lead them to suicide alone, but if it were combined with 1 comment from 100 other people each's ugly comment then maybe they would break, be depressed, possibly kill themselves or have a psychotic break and do a mass shooting/murder. Maybe your one comment was number 101 and was the comment that broke the camel's back so to speak. Could you imagine if each of those 101 people had said more than one mean thing to this one person more than one time, and how much more damage that would have done to this person's spirit and feelings?
Well, that's what Sam and her friends were, the mean girls. Though, other students were mean too. Juliette, killing herself resulted in the death of another person (Sam). The ironic thing is that as Sam lived this day over and over for a total of 7 days, trying to save their lives, she believed that Juliette purposefully chose the vehicle Lindsey was driving and that Sam was riding in to jump in front of because they were the people who were the meanest to Juliette and this was Juliette's revenge against them. But Juliette chose a vehicle at random.
What I don't understand at the end is that Sam no longer believed that it was her own life she needed to save but that she needed to save Juliette. If it was Juliette's decision to die even though it was of the consequences of Sam and her friends' actions, then if Juliette lived, shouldn't Sam also live? After all, Sam would've still been alive if Juliette didn't run in front of that moving vehicle. If she saved Juliette's life, then she should've automatically saved her own life. I was hoping that even though Sam ended up getting hit by a vehicle that Sam would've ended up miraculously in the hospital and recovered. But at the same time, after Sam having lived that day over and over for 7 days, she had come to terms with her dying and did her best to tell all her family that she loved and cared about them, and make amends with everyone else, and lastly, save a girls life physically, the same girl who she once helped to destroy her life emotionally.
Lauren Oliver's poetic writing never fails to impress me.
If you ARE or EVER WERE an outcast or a nerd you will NOT like this book. I've been an outcast my whole life and I hated the main character, but perhaps we were supposed to. It got really interested after 100 pages so I decided to finish it, though I didn't end up liking the ending
I know there were a lot of people who didn’t love this book. But I absolutely did! The author made it in such a way that the first time Sam died, I didn’t care. Because of her inner dialogue and ideas about saying goodbye however, by the last time I was actually sad. I loved the way this book made me think about the end. About how any little action could effect anyone. About how any one thing that you do could be the last time you do that thing. Like, treasure each time you laugh, or eat ice cream, or hug someone. For all you know, it could be the last time you get to.
emotional
Wow, wow ..., wow. I don't have have the words to start writing a review. It was so emotionally intense. I have to let a day go in order to collect my thoughts.
EDIT:
First of all, I noticed that by reading this novel I have fallen into a very extinct minority on Goodreads - a male that read Before i fall ^^
But I loved it. You should read it and I bet you will love it too.
It is about a 16 year old girl who died and re-experiences her last day alive, the 12th of February, over and over and over again, while being fully conscious what has happened during the previous 12th of February days. The story felt very mysterious and I was very intrigued. The book was an absolute page flipper and I was reading it every time I had a free minute - launch at work, while cooking, in the bathroom, in bed while I suppose to be sleeping and sometimes when I suppose to be working.
Originally I picked this book accidently and I am very glad I did it. It is interesting to observe how by knowing that you are technically dead dramatically changes your behavior and the decisions one takes. One small step, which at the time seems meaningless, can flip the direction of the whole future upside down. It made me to remember countless of episodes from my own life, where even the moments, which always felt like the worst things that have happened in life, in the long run still led to amazing lifetime experiences. Something, that never would have happened if not a chain of thousands of tiny moments leading from one to another. Moments, which mean nothing on its own. They are your DNA shaping you from within. One missing piece could have led you to a completely different direction and have made you a person, which you couldn't even recognize as you today. Most of the time you don't even know why things are the way they are and it is perfectly fine. Sometimes you do something good and bad things happen. Sometimes you do something bad and good things happen. Sometimes you don't do anything at all and everything explodes. You never really know until you take a look at the whole chain and the result it produced, which is yourself.
"It amazes me how easy it is for things to change, how easy it is to start off down the same road you always take and wind up somewhere new. Just one false step, one pause, one detour, and you end up with new friends or a bad reputation or a boyfriend or a breakup. It's never occurred to me before; I've never been able to see it. And it makes me feel, weirdly, like maybe all of these different possibilities exist at the same time, like each moment we live has a thousand other moments layered underneath it that look different."
This goes straight to my favorites shelf.
EDIT:
First of all, I noticed that by reading this novel I have fallen into a very extinct minority on Goodreads - a male that read Before i fall ^^
But I loved it. You should read it and I bet you will love it too.
It is about a 16 year old girl who died and re-experiences her last day alive, the 12th of February, over and over and over again, while being fully conscious what has happened during the previous 12th of February days. The story felt very mysterious and I was very intrigued. The book was an absolute page flipper and I was reading it every time I had a free minute - launch at work, while cooking, in the bathroom, in bed while I suppose to be sleeping and sometimes when I suppose to be working.
Originally I picked this book accidently and I am very glad I did it. It is interesting to observe how by knowing that you are technically dead dramatically changes your behavior and the decisions one takes. One small step, which at the time seems meaningless, can flip the direction of the whole future upside down. It made me to remember countless of episodes from my own life, where even the moments, which always felt like the worst things that have happened in life, in the long run still led to amazing lifetime experiences. Something, that never would have happened if not a chain of thousands of tiny moments leading from one to another. Moments, which mean nothing on its own. They are your DNA shaping you from within. One missing piece could have led you to a completely different direction and have made you a person, which you couldn't even recognize as you today. Most of the time you don't even know why things are the way they are and it is perfectly fine. Sometimes you do something good and bad things happen. Sometimes you do something bad and good things happen. Sometimes you don't do anything at all and everything explodes. You never really know until you take a look at the whole chain and the result it produced, which is yourself.
"It amazes me how easy it is for things to change, how easy it is to start off down the same road you always take and wind up somewhere new. Just one false step, one pause, one detour, and you end up with new friends or a bad reputation or a boyfriend or a breakup. It's never occurred to me before; I've never been able to see it. And it makes me feel, weirdly, like maybe all of these different possibilities exist at the same time, like each moment we live has a thousand other moments layered underneath it that look different."
This goes straight to my favorites shelf.
When I started reading this book, I didn't like ANY of the characters. And then as I read, I came to really like the ones that I was supposed to like and had an even deeper dislike for the ones I was supposed to dislike. The plot device is one that will always appeal to me and it certainly did in this case. I was surprised by how much I ended up liking this book.