Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Title: Before I Fall

Author: Lauren Oliver

Age Group: Teens

# of Pages: 470

My Rating: 5/5

What happens when you die? Do you go to heaven? Or hell? Do you linger on Earth as a ghost? Well, Samantha Kingston knows.

Samantha has everything a girl could ask for. She has her BFFs, popularity, and a great boyfriend. So Cupid's Day, February 12th, is just another day for her in her senior year. Except it's not.

She died in a car crash but is able to relive the same day before her death for a week. Samantha is able to experience her life in a whole new perspective. She must find out the purpose of her reliving February 12th for seven days.

Alright, so if you are a frequent YA book blogger or someone who follows YA book reviews often, you likely will know that Before I Fall is a novel that everyone is raving about. I didn't want to really read the novel because it's almost 500 pages. I'm not a big fan of thick novels. However, many people requested for me to review it so I guessed why not? I didn't really want to jump into the bandwagon so I tried not to get sucked into it. But as much as I tried to resist, I ended up loving it.

Samantha is a character that most girls can relate to. In the beginning, she wanted to lose her virginity to her boyfriend and her behaviour was very teen like, more or less. After she died and she relived the same day over and over again, she started to experiment with her personality and the things she did. One point, she became really rebellious and did things she regretted. If you were in her shoes, you would understand why her decisions were the way they were. Unlike "popular" girls in books, Samantha had depth and was not shown just as some prissy, materialistic bitch. And I was glad for that. I was getting tired of seeing popular girls being put down in every YA novel. In this book, the author showed the best and the worst of Samantha and her friends.

The ending was sad but I loved it so much. I think it was honestly the best part of the novel. I re-read the last three pages and just cried my eyes out. I did not realize how much I loved Samantha until the very end.

Before I Fall is a beautiful and emotional rollercoaster that takes you on the journey of the last day of a girl's life. It will make you mad, it will make you sad, but most of all, it will make you love it to no end. This book must be picked up immediately!

Review copy provided by HarperCollins Canada.