A review by jenmangler
Before I Fall Enhanced by Lauren Oliver

2.0

I know a lot of people really liked this book, that they found it beautiful and haunting. Not me. I had to force myself to keep reading it and only liked the last third, mainly because I just didn't like Sam. At all. I mean, I really, really didn't like her. She wasn't the instigator of the meanness but rather the follower, the joiner-in. And those people really just stick in my craw. I have always found the people who didn't really feel like being mean, but who join in anyway to deflect attention away from themselves or to fit in, to be the worst. And having one of them be the protagonist of this book made it really hard for me to like it. I like the point of the book. I like the growth Sam shows. But the contempt I felt for her through the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book makes it impossible for me to "like" the book.