Before i fall how many pages

If I fail, which is more than likely, please do not hold it against the book--it isn't the book's fault I'm not a talented writer. So without further ado Popular girl Samantha Kingston thinks a lot about the what she's done throughout her seventeen years of life as she relives her last day over and over again. In all, Samantha is given seven chances to figure out what went wrong, what chain of events brought about her death.

Seven opportunities to change and make things right. Seven days to save herself. At first glance, Samantha--Sam--doesn't come across as anything special. Sure, she's popular but other than her superior social standing she's basically your average teenager. Her biggest concern is her virginity, which she will be losing to her boyfriend that night--she's freaked out but feels it's time to get it over with. Other than that she's wondering how many roses she'll have by the end of Cupid Day and if she looks okay considering she didn't get to shower that morning.

However, it doesn't take long before we're given a better, more accurate picture of the type of person Samantha Kingston truly is. Over the course of the day she cheats on a test, flirts shamelessly with her calculus teacher, cuts class, gets pretty drunk and treats her classmates like garbage--Sam and her friends are especially cruel to one girl in particular.

All in all it's an average school day for Samantha Kingston. Clearly I didn't like Samantha Kingston at the beginning of this novel. She's a horrible self-absorbed teenager.

What's worse is the fact that she thinks so highly of herself and her friends, saying: "I'm not going to lie, though. It's nice that everything's easy for us.

It's a good feeling knowing you can basically do whatever you want and there won't be any consequences. So bad I deserved to die?

So bad I deserved to die like that? Is what I did really so much worse than what anybody else does? Is it really so much worse than what you do? Think about it. And like most everyone else I haaaaated those girls. Who wants to read a story about a bunch of horrible teenagers?

No one. But you know what? Turns out when I was seventeen I was not that much better than Samantha Kingston. Sure I wasn't a total A-hole, but the truth is I gossiped, lied, cheated, cut class--the works.

And I treated a lot of people badly--peers and adults. But I haven't really spent too much time thinking about the person I was in high school. Not until Sam asks us, the readers, if what she did is so much worse than what we do. That's why I kept reading.

As Sam relives February 12 we see her grow and change. At first her attempts at being a better person are so half-hearted, or ill-concieved you wonder if she's actually trying. And yeah, as the reader I got frustrated with Sam. I wanted to see her change right away, and she didn't. Then I remembered she's a spoiled teenager that hasn't been made to work for anything in her life.

Remember, it was Sam herself who admitted: "It's nice that everything's easy for us. However, not many February 12ths pass when a horrifying turn of events forces Sam to acknowledge the ugly truth.

Sam takes a good look at herself, at her friends, and what she sees drives her to an all-time low--when Sam hits bottom she really hits bottom. Sam needs that low point, the chance to spiral out of control, even if it's just for one day because it is only after she's humbled we see her make any significant changes. She starts to look at all she has or rather, had and be grateful for it.

She looks at her family in a whole new light, and realizes just how much she truly loves them. She looks at her little sister specifically--a sweet little seven-year-old who is proud of who she is--and realizes she admires her little sister because she embraces the things that make her different from all her peers.

There were many times I stopped to reread passages, and even consider them for a bit. Example: "Maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around in it, let it slide like coins through your fingers.

So much time you can waste it. But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know. And no, Sam still doesn't get things right away. She still struggles, but the important part is she's really trying, really working. She learns from her mistakes and makes corrections. Sam realizes, despite her belief that she can't be fixed, it's never too late to change.

Some of Sam's changes don't come about until the 11th hour, but they do come. And yes, I love how this book ends. I know there are many people who simply didn't like this book because of how it ends, and for the life of me I cannot understand why.

Any other ending would have been a complete cop-out think about it. Plus, view spoiler [I happen to like ambiguous endings because they give me the opportunity to think about what I just read--I can draw my own conclusions. I'm not going to say anything more about the ending, I don't want to spoil it for anyone. I haven't been able to stop thinking about this book since I finished reading it two weeks ago, and because of that it will always have a home on my bookshelf.

By the way, I've spent an embarrassingly long amount of time trying to cobble together a semi-decent review of this book. Now go purchase a copy of Before I Fall, stat, you won't be sorry. Update April 4, my husband, who typically doesn't like any of the books I like, just stayed up all night reading Before I Fall.

When he finished it he woke me up to thank me for all but shoving this book down his throat and he wasn't being ironic. Believe me, I checked.

He sincerely likes this book. More than anything he loves the way Lauren Oliver writes, but overall he likes the story quite a bit. It was nice talking to him about it this morning, we had a very pleasant discussion. Mar 16, Bonnie rated it really liked it Shelves: books , young-adult.

Warning: Major Spoilers below including the very ending. And foul language. MUCH foul language La la la, spoilers. Still spoilers. And language to make your grandmother blush.

Fuck you book. I want to drop this book to two stars for that goddamn ending. So it gets dropped one star. I knew the ending was coming. This is the problem with reading the ending first well, near the beginning.

But no. She stays dead. I get your point, Oliver. You know what? Her little sister? Her parents? Do you know what the divorce rate is for parents who have lost a child?!?!? So their last memories of her will be a wholly inadequate moment before Sam ran off to school and was nice and not a brat.

Not a whole day together, not a dinner out, nothing big or something to hold onto. He gets to see the girl he loves—who has just stopped being a bitch and admitted she likes him—die. How horrible. Scratch that, the two most sympathetic characters in your book adorable little sister Izzy and adorable, amazing Kent!?!?! We want to see him ride off into the sunset with Andie Macdowell, both happier and better. The book started out slowly, and Sam is a right proper bitch to begin with. Although the complete fucking breakdown of day four was glorious.

And I especially love it when they are comforted by adorable, awesome love interests like Kent. Although set-up Sam was annoying though realistic, ouch , when Sam developed and stopped being so shallow and self-absorbed I loved her.

And I loved her even more for knowing how horrid she had been. There was so much development, and it all rang true. You know what, Oliver?

Maybe by then you will have learned a lesson and not written such, terrible, terrible endings to what otherwise could be a five star-level book. The main character dies. She spent her entire afterlife knowing that she would never have to live with the consequences of her actions. It was most obvious in the utter breakdown of day four, but it was present every single day.

Dealing with that every single day and knowing she had to live with the ramifications of her actions would be a true test of character for Sam. Could she do it? Could she stand up to the constant social pressure?

Could she stand up to her friends? To Lindsay? Could she be nice to people and defend them and not let her friends be cruel? Could she risk being unpopular? A better ending would have Sam not be able to return to normal until she stands up for Juliet at the party.

Not try to talk Juliet out of suicide in private. Not avoid future consequences by dying. And then to wake up the next day and go to school and deal with the fallout of that.

And actually befriend Juliet and deal with whatever the social consequences are. A less shocking ending, yeah. But a more satisfying one. View all 69 comments. The main character, a popular and catty high school girl named Sam, dies and is forced to relive that day several times. I was absolutely in love with the story for the first couple of days, but then it felt tedious having Sam wake up and relive February 12th time and time again.

I totally understand why it's many people's favorite book, I just wish it was shorter. Because of this, I 3. Because of this, I do think it will make a fabulous movie and I can't wait to see it when it hits theaters!

View all 15 comments. I'd heard from quite a few people that this book was pretty good And 'Pretty good' certainly doesn't account for the fact that, once I finished the final page, I literally threw t I'd heard from quite a few people that this book was pretty good And 'Pretty good' certainly doesn't account for the fact that, once I finished the final page, I literally threw the book at my husband and demanded he re-write the final chapter.

But aside from the infuriating conclusion, this book was out-effing-standing. So no, pretty good doesn't exactly cover it. But why take my word for it? Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around it, let it slide like coins through your fingers. It almost got that final 5th star. In fact, let's give it a grand total of four-and-three-quarters stars and call it a day.

View all 21 comments. Jul 31, Karolina rated it it was ok Shelves: ya. I had high expectations for this book for 2 reasons: 1. I loved Delirium, it's one of my favorite series and 2. I couldn't disagree more. At the beginning I couldn't get into the story, it was a bit repetitive, so I had to put it down and read something else in the meantime. In the end I was getting a bit frustrated as I couldn't understand the whole idea of the book.

Having finished it yesterday I've been thinkin I had high expectations for this book for 2 reasons: 1. Having finished it yesterday I've been thinking about it since and I still don't get it.

Let me explain why The whole story is focused on Sam's last day and her death in a car accident. Afterwards she keeps reliving it, no matter what she does when she wakes up it's still Friday the The main thing I have a problem with is the dimension she is in, first I was hoping it's kind of coma and she will come back to life, but no she or her soul?

Final conclusion of the book is that she had to learn to sacrifice her life remember she's already dead in order to move on, where? She just dies one last time and that's it.

And even tho she does change during the whole journey, and also learns all the awful things her fiend did including driving someone to suicide she still loves her because she's her friend, really? I understand Oliver tried to write a book about cruel reality of teenage life and high school, wanted to pass a message of values more important than money or popularity.

That I understand, everything else not so much. The book is well written, and if you don't focus too much no the metaphysical dimension of it you might enjoy it. I think that was my problem, I put too much thought into it. Unfortunately I was not affected by it and didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. View all 50 comments. I cringed and raged through most of the book. The worse was Lindsay to me.

The only reason I have the book 2 stars is because Sam redeemed herself after all of the days she relived. She went back and did all of the right things. Whether it was all a dream or something, I don't know but she did good in the end. The very end was bittersweet in it's own way. But, going through the books and hearing all of the things the girls did to other people, because they were bullies, was just sick. I hate bullies so freaking much and the book has to blow my mind in order for me to love a book with them in it.

This one just didn't. I'm not going to go on and on about it. The moment of death is full of sound and warmth and light, so much light it fills me up, absorbs me: a tunnel of light shooting away, arcing up and up and up, and if singing were a feeling it would be this, this light, this lifting, like laughing.

The rest you have to find out for yourself. View all 14 comments. Mar 19, Annalisa rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: mild language, sexual content, and drug use. Recommended to Annalisa by: Penny. Shelves: character , cover , favorites , young-adult , voice , speculative. Reading through Sam's last day of life, I was transported back to high school with those girls who were shallow, self-centered, and unaware and thought they were cool and better than everyone else because they were shallow, self-centered, and unaware.

I felt emotions I had not experienced in years, emotions I had long forgotten. Oliver captures that teenage-centric narcissism so vividly, so much more intently than I ever understood in high school, that I couldn't help but hate Sam and feel some Reading through Sam's last day of life, I was transported back to high school with those girls who were shallow, self-centered, and unaware and thought they were cool and better than everyone else because they were shallow, self-centered, and unaware.

Oliver captures that teenage-centric narcissism so vividly, so much more intently than I ever understood in high school, that I couldn't help but hate Sam and feel some level of vindictive justice. As she starts the same day over again, just as full of herself, I doubted Sam could grow enough to satisfy me. But she did. It was slow and painstaking at times; sometimes I wanted Sam to just get it and be fixed, but that wouldn't have been realistic.

She needed to figure it out on her own and at her own pace. Oliver does an excellent job showing us that gradual shift from spoiled teenager to thoughtful person, realizing that there were consequences to her actions, that the universe did not revolve around her, that maybe popularity wasn't worth the price she'd paid for it. While I don't think Sam reached perfect self-actualization, I don't think I wanted her to.

She had a long way to come and I believed a character that was aware but still a little bit selfish. Oliver is an amazing writer, so unobtrusive and descriptive.

I didn't so much read this book as experience it. She manages to keep a day that is lived over and over again from being repetitive and gives us enough events in that day to give Sam plenty of chances to both mess up and unmess other people's lives. She manages to take a story that doesn't sound very original Mean Girls vs.

Groundhog Day and own it. She manages to make me care about a girl that I couldn't stand, that represents very real girls that I couldn't stand but not Lindsay; I never liked her. Not for Sam, who learned to fall or fly , but for everyone else. Especially Kent.

I think you can interpret the last day two ways: either Sam learned what she needed to learn to move on, or the final day was the way that day was fated to be and Sam needed to get to a point where she could make that sacrifice. It makes no difference to her, but it makes a difference to everyone else. Which day do they remember? If it's the first, that's too bad for Sam and the mess she left. If it's the last, she left a lot of people with unanswered questions.

I get that she couldn't focus on Kent, but she teased him and gave him too little. Even though the day wasn't about him, I still wanted Sam to leave him with an apology and a goodbye. I think Sam believed the last day only happened in her memory and a perfect day included a goodbye kiss to Kent, but then she bothered to give Anna that book and Izzy her necklace and save Juliet. I think a part of her still wanted to leave a legacy.

I wanted to believe that last day for Sam and Juliet and Kent and maybe even a little bit for Lindsay. Maybe I didn't hate her so much after all. I keep going back and forth on what day is the real day. Sometimes I think the first one is an obvious choice, but then there are things about the last day that make me think that maybe that one was real. Especially with Juliet.

It's like Sam was being told "you're dead anyway. You can be selfish and claim that day, or you can use it to save someone's life. Getting drunk and killing your best friend would have messed her up. I think I believe the last day. At least I hope it. I love the ambiguity of it, but that it doesn't feel ambiguous.

When you close the book, you know what happened, even though it could be interpreted on different levels. Either way, Sam took seven days to grow into the person she needed to be. For as sad as the ending is, there is so much redemption in. And that's what it's about, Sam's redemption, not Juliet's or Lindsey's or anyone else's. As hard as she tried, there was nothing she could do to affect change in anyone else. Lindsey can take the wake up call of her friend's death to change into a better person; Juliet can take Sam's sacrifice to get her through high school; or they can keep going on their set paths.

Their redemption is up to them; all Sam could do was take what little she could in one day to encourage change in a lot of people. I can see this having an affect on teenage girls who might be caught up in their own lives and learn these lessons along with Sam. I'm an adult and I'll be thinking about this one for awhile. There's something amazing in Sam's growth and for that she gets five stars.

View all 12 comments. One of my most favourite books to this day. Thank you for your support. Our ratings are based on child development best practices. We display the minimum age for which content is developmentally appropriate. The star rating reflects overall quality. Learn how we rate. Parents' Ultimate Guide to Support our work!

Corona Column 3 Use these free activities to help kids explore our planet, learn about global challenges, think of solutions, and take action. Before I Fall. Parents recommend Popular with kids. From suicide to bullying, every tough teen topic is present. Lauren Oliver Contemporary Fiction Rate book.

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See our privacy policy. A lot or a little? The parents' guide to what's in this movie. Educational Value. Positive Messages. Positive Role Models. What parents need to know Parents need to know that the hook of this popular teen novel is that the main character discovers she's dead after a car accident and that she can relive and study the 24 hours before in detail.

Continue reading Show less. Stay up to date on new reviews. Get full reviews, ratings, and advice delivered weekly to your inbox. User Reviews Parents say Kids say. Parent of a 11 and year-old Written by BibliophileMadness July 6, Samantha's attempts to save her life and right the wrongs she has caused are precisely what will draw readers into this complex story and keep them turning pages until Sam succeeds in living her last day the right way.

Listen to Me Say Things! For Adults. For Young Adults. Vanishing Girls. Before I Fall. Delirium Stories.