So this is the first time I have ever done a book review but considering how much I read I don't know why I have never done one before. The book in question is Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. Now I have about fifty books in a box that I bought this summer that I am slowly trying to work my way through but when my friend brought in a book for me to borrow on Friday and I read the back cover I knew I had to start it immediately and it is now on my list of must by books.
The novel is about this girl who dies but then relives the last day of her life over again, and over again, and over again. I remember thinking that this is a depressed version of Groundhog Day and then on the next page the book actually made a reference the the movie.
At the start of this book I actually hated the main character, Samantha, so much so that by the time we had worked our way up to her death I thought, that's what ya get. Bad, I know. At first she is portrayed as a stuck-up popular high school bitch but as she relives her last day over again, as each day progresses she gets more desperate and you start to feel pity for her as she changes. By the end of the book she has become a likeable character but I didn't find myself 'clinging to a box of Kleenex' as Now's review predicted. Usually anything in a book can make me cry, happy days and sad days. I cried at the end of The Help just because I had grown so attached to the characters and didn't want the book to end. This was not the case for this book. I did find myself tearing up at the end just because it was so sad and the main character had done a 180 but I find most of my pity lies with Kent, a secondary character. If you read the book you will understand why.
This book was 339 pages long but I finished mine in one night, I am a fast reader but the book really did draw me in and I found myself wanted to know what would happen on the next day. Parts of the book made me want to scream at the main character but other parts made me smile and I will admit the odd, awww did escape me.
One aspect I really did enjoy was that you learn more about the minor characters personalties during each day she relives her last. At the start she looks down upon them all and has her own selfish, mean conclusions about their personalties but each day she spends time with one of them or another and you find out their hobbies and what the are really like, not just the way they dress. The character I mentioned before, Kent, changed the most in Sam's eyes though, the two of them used to be best friends but as Sam got popular she stopped hanging out with him. During the first day, she calls him a dork, insults most of what he does and makes fun of him but by day seven, well he turns out to be more then a battered blazer, funny hat and checked sneakers.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book and personally I did enjoy it. I will be checking out Derlirium by Lauren Oliver the next time I am in a bookstore to see if it is as good.
And that has been what has inspired me during my last weekend being fifteen, a book. Well that's no surprise. I also started working on a Christmas FF because I left my notebook with my other Christmas story at school...
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