Published by: Harper Collins
Genre: Contemporary & Fantasy (YA)
Attention! Simply Brilliant.
Wow! Before I fall was such an unexpected read. I had purposely avoided reading any reviews
and didn’t read the entire synopsis and somehow thought it was about something
entirely different. On seeing that I had
marked it as a book I was currently reading, several of my Goodreads friends
had made contact with me about the book to say how much they loved it, which
made me more curious and, to some extent, raised my expectations.
The first thing we learn is that the protagonist, Sam
Kingston, is dead. She is talking to us
from somewhere in the afterlife. The
realisation of her demise has hit her and she is full of sorrow and
regret. She ponders on the last thing
that came into her head before she died and how unexpected that thing turned
out to be (an event that occurred when she was a child when she took part in a
joke at another girl’s expense). Then she
tells us what happened on her last day, Friday 12th February –
Cupid’s Day (a school celebration) – from the moment she woke up to the sound
of her alarm clock to the events that occurred at school, the after school
house party she attended and finally the accident where she was killed. At that point we come to the end of the first
chapter and I thought, Okay, what else is there?
Chapter 2 – in the afterlife - Sam is alerted to a noise that
turns out to be her alarm clock. She
opens her eyes and finds herself in her bedroom. She wonders how she got there after the
accident. She soon discovers that she
has woken up yesterday, Friday 12 February – Cupid’s day…
If this sounds vaguely familiar you are probably thinking of
that movie Groundhog Day, which does get a mention – clearly Sam saw it too. With each chapter Sam wakes up on the same
day, the day she died, and relives it, trying to make small changes to alter
the outcome – with a negative outcome each time. It would appear that Sam is trapped (in
purgatory) and she needs to discover what to do to be set free – that is, if
she can be set free. What we learn about
Sam throughout the novel is that she does not appear to be nice person. She is part of a group of popular and mean
girls.
Before I fall is very well written and I admire Lauren
Oliver for writing about a lead protagonist who is unsympathetic, but at the
same time writing a story that is so engaging and thought-provoking that it
leaves you hooked. I felt completely
tied to this novel from start to end. It
was not an easy read. In fact, at times it
was an uncomfortable read, but also quite brilliant.
At one point Sam justifies her behaviour by saying the sorts
of things she and her friends did happen in every high school in America, and
probably every high school everywhere. I
am inclined to agree with her. There is always the popular crowd and the invisible crowd.
Within the popular crowd there is always a ringleader who is
hero-worshiped like a messiah and the loyal followers who behave like disciples,
and they will insist on amusing themselves by picking on the easy targets. Sam and her friends, Ally and Elody, are
disciples to Lindsay.
Unlike her friends Sam did not belong in the popular group –
right up to middle school she was invisible herself. She knew what it was like to be mocked and
sneered at, but when the opportunity came for her to join the popular group she
didn’t hesitate – supposedly faking it at first before fitting right in. In a way that makes her behaviour worse. That
said, although she is not easy to like, I admired Sam for being consistent
throughout – she doesn’t easily see the error of her ways and become a ‘good
girl’ all of a sudden – it takes a while.
Even when she realises the extent to which she was culpable, her primary
motive for acceptance is selfish – she wants out of purgatory. She does learn a very important lesson but, for
me, she remains unsympathetic throughout.
However, I said Sam does not appear to be a good person, but
she is not a bad person. The last thing
she thinks of before she dies tells us this, and she genuinely does want to put
things right (eventually). When the
revelation of the truth about Lindsay comes, the person she has looked up to,
hero-worshipped and followed blindly for so long, she becomes angry with
her, but also sympathetic and understanding.
She continues to love her friend throughout – despite her major flaws
(which I think was a good thing).
The point Sam tries to make is that they may have behaved
badly but their intentions weren’t to cause the amount of harm they actually did. Looking back at my own high school years I
can see this is true. Although I was neither
a leader nor a follower, they existed in my year and I was an onlooker. I
stood by and watched them torment the easy target (there was one of those too) and
didn’t step in to defend her. I may even
have laughed at times – because it seemed harmless at the time. Also, whenever I remember my high school
years I think about the easy target in my class with regret – wishing I
understood then what I understand now – and wonder what became of her.
There is a wonderfully written (albeit tragic) love story in there too. Spoiler alert: Sam did nothing but criticise and find fault with Kent when she was alive, despite his devotion to her since early childhood. In death Sam's true feelings for Kent creep up on her slowly, and when it hits her it comes crashing like the falling of a ton of bricks.
I can’t wait to read more of Lauren Oliver’s work. If I were
to draw parallels it would be with Sarah Dessen, whose novel Just Listen
reminded me of this one – not the story but the style. I can see Oliver becoming
one of my favourite YA fiction authors.
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