yanshi

"Maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know." Before I Fall is a great insight on the life of a pretty and popular high school girl whose name is Samantha Kingston. And just like how teenagers who belong to the popular clique are stereotyped, she is a shallow, snobbish and mean b*tch. But when she dies in a car crash, and lives that day for seven times, she realizes the simple things that are more important than being in the in crowd or wearing the right clothes or saying the right things. This novel was a story about friendship, true love, change, sacrifice, but most of all, the courage to choose the right choice instead of taking the easy way out. Before I Fall managed to deliver these messages: the true meaning of life; and alongside this, the cruel essence of time. It inspires the readers to appreciate life. Because sometimes, life is all about the little moments that make us laugh—make us cry—make us feel alive, and these are the moments that we will forever cherish. It also makes the readers see how powerful change can be if we will ourselves to change for the better. It rouses our consciousness of the power that every person has to instill change in the people around her as well. I like how Sam changed over the course of the story. Slowly, she rediscovered herself again. She got to know herself more, as her restrictions that she made for herself were made void by her death. She realized all the mistakes that she was shallow enough to ignore at first, and as one day passed after another, she learned what she had to do to correct them. The pacing was slow. But I do understand that if the story was set in a breakneck pace, the reader would not have grasped the importance of the seven days wherein the 12th of February repeated over and over for Sam. Still, it doesn’t make me happy with the pace. I hate it when the story kind of drags. I was not satisfied with one of the things that Sam did in the end, though. (view spoiler) Overall, Before I Fall is an appealing debut novel. The scenes were well-depicted, and were made colorful by the touches of poetry that Lauren Oliver whisked over the story.

2022-10-29 03:41