Grade: D+
Not recommended.
Another book that I had really high hopes for. The buzz about Before I Fall is generally good and it's been on my radar for some time. YA books are still some of my favorites and I'll get to the good ones in a wee bit.
Before I Fall is the story of Sam Kingston, a high school girl who dies in a car accident. She gets to relive her last day over and over again, each time playing out a little differently . Sam and her group of friends are the popular girls, and very much like the characters in the Mean Girls movie. Sam and her bitch posse make Mean Girls look like saints and that is no exaggeration. The book is a little bit Mean Girls and Groundhog Day combined.
One beef with the book is that it's long. There were parts that could have easily been omitted seeing as they didn't add much to the story. Another beef is that the girls are truly hideous characters. They are realistic and just beyond horrible. Those girls stirred up some previously dormant emotions in me from my high school years. They were the girls who were truly awful at my school. Sam relives her last day to see if she can get it right. I never quite believed any of her actions to be genuine. The only time she seemed genuine was when she was being a snotty, conniving brat.
Lauren Oliver is a good enough writer. She hit the nail on the head with the bitch posse, perfectly capturing the awfulness that popular teenage girls embody. I think the book could have been much better with some better editing. I will still in all likelihood read another Lauren Oliver title. Delirium is another one that's been on my obscenely large to read list.
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