Random Review: Before I Fall

I know a lot of people loved this book, found it deep and profound and moving. Or whatever. So I’ll be brief.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Sam Kingston is a former-inviso-girl turned 2nd-tier-Queen-Bee. She has finally caught her prize meathead’s eye, she gets wasted at all the right parties, and she has effectively strong-armed an acceptable number of people into sending her status-symbol roses on Cupid Day. Life is everything she plowed under her personality hoping to achieve, until the night she dies in a fiery car wreck. Or does she die? Sam relives the same day seven times until she finds a way to give her squandered existence some small significance.

This book is well-written. All of the characters are well-rounded, and the plot is engaging enough. I thought I felt nothing about it but now I think I don’t like it. It’s a big ol’ nothing. A writing exercise in how the same miserable, shitty, rudderless girl can re-live the same day in different ways. And it’s nearly five hundred pages long. What, exactly, is the point Ms. Oliver? The novel is written as though Sam is obviously an everygirl, but I suspect you were exorcizing some of your own demons.

I’m sure some girls relate to this book. I’m sure some find it cathartic. I found it pointless and kind of depressing.

Chair Rating:

Pointless, embarrassing, kind of depressing, something only a teenage girl could love.