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beckeal's review against another edition
4.0
Hunh! Pleasantly surprised by this book. It was unexpectedly layered and sympathetic. I think it could’ve done with a little more diversity to truly drive its point home, but it was written before authors were more conscious of that. That said, it took a number of different character types and made them just a bit more intriguing and complex than normal. Most YA doesn’t slow down long enough to make real people out of the convenient tropes. And it’s done in such an unusual but genuine way, that it makes me wonder why all characters aren’t so naturally and simply human. The main character arc was believable and while you kinda expected a certain outcome, it wasn’t obvious how it would get there or whether it actually would. It still had some cringy bits, as so many YA books do, but over all, well done!
jenmangler's review against another edition
2.0
I know a lot of people really liked this book, that they found it beautiful and haunting. Not me. I had to force myself to keep reading it and only liked the last third, mainly because I just didn't like Sam. At all. I mean, I really, really didn't like her. She wasn't the instigator of the meanness but rather the follower, the joiner-in. And those people really just stick in my craw. I have always found the people who didn't really feel like being mean, but who join in anyway to deflect attention away from themselves or to fit in, to be the worst. And having one of them be the protagonist of this book made it really hard for me to like it. I like the point of the book. I like the growth Sam shows. But the contempt I felt for her through the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book makes it impossible for me to "like" the book.
baranii20's review against another edition
2.0
چرا باید آدمی که خوب شده بمیره و دوستاش که تغییری نکردن زنده بمونن؟ در حالیکه اول فیلم همه اشون تصادف کردن؟
graysshelves's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sophieshelves's review against another edition
5.0
I've read this book three times now and it just dawned on me that I'd never written a review before. I don't know why because this is one of my favourite books of all time.
The first time I read this I had just got a kindle and bought it on there. I went straight into it knowing nothing (I hadn't even read the blurb!) I'm not gong to lie I didn't enjoy it as much as the second, but the second time round I bought the book so maybe that's why. Also, the second time round I got more of an understanding about the book in general and the feelings and thoughts I experienced the first time round heightened.
Anyway onto why I love this book so much.
Okay, to start with, it is so relatable on so many levels, secondly, do not let this book fool you - it is not how it seems at all. Give it a chance! At first I hated Sam, she was just some annoying popular school girl that had everything. We all go/went to school with girls like her right? I hated her probably because she's everything I'm not, but then she started to relive the same day over and over and I realised I had far more in common with Sam than I initially thought. The way she realises she was so mean and tries to change that the next day, I just ended up loving the character I initially thought was a bitch. As her relationship with Kent grew and she started and she started to fall in love, it made the story seem sadder because it wasn't inevitable.
I'm no good at writing reviews so I don't know why I am attempting one for this book as I love it so much, so I guess what I'm trying to get at is, this is nothing as it seems - give it a chance and maybe you will love it as much as me!
Lauren Oliver thank you for this beautiful book which will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life and I will certainly continue to re-read it.
The first time I read this I had just got a kindle and bought it on there. I went straight into it knowing nothing (I hadn't even read the blurb!) I'm not gong to lie I didn't enjoy it as much as the second, but the second time round I bought the book so maybe that's why. Also, the second time round I got more of an understanding about the book in general and the feelings and thoughts I experienced the first time round heightened.
Anyway onto why I love this book so much.
Okay, to start with, it is so relatable on so many levels, secondly, do not let this book fool you - it is not how it seems at all. Give it a chance! At first I hated Sam, she was just some annoying popular school girl that had everything. We all go/went to school with girls like her right? I hated her probably because she's everything I'm not, but then she started to relive the same day over and over and I realised I had far more in common with Sam than I initially thought. The way she realises she was so mean and tries to change that the next day, I just ended up loving the character I initially thought was a bitch. As her relationship with Kent grew and she started and she started to fall in love, it made the story seem sadder because it wasn't inevitable.
I'm no good at writing reviews so I don't know why I am attempting one for this book as I love it so much, so I guess what I'm trying to get at is, this is nothing as it seems - give it a chance and maybe you will love it as much as me!
Lauren Oliver thank you for this beautiful book which will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life and I will certainly continue to re-read it.
salgalruns's review against another edition
3.0
Let me start by saying I love the movie Groundhog Day...just love it. Nothing like a good Bill Murray and "I Got You Babe" on an alarm clock to make you happy. That being said, I couldn't stop making similarities between that fabulous masterpiece with Mean Girls thrown in for good measure.
The storyline is already obvious in the blurb that's given. Samantha "Sam" Kingston is reliving the last day of her life, over and over and over. She has 3 best friends and they are super popular, super snotty, and all around, the "mean girls" that everyone wants to be friends with. Personally, they all drove me nuts. I found them to be vindictive and cruel and seriously wanted to know what was up with their parents that they constantly had booze, skipped classes, and were never home. (Yes, I'm a mom and a school principal - this frustrated the heck out of me)
As Sam relives her last day, she reflects on what makes a person "good," and tries to make things right. The problem is, though, that you can't go from being the senior high school bully to everyone's best friend overnight.
It's high school drama at it's best and gives you pause to wonder what you would change if this were the last day of your life... Perhaps that would lead to a good discussion among friends?
The storyline is already obvious in the blurb that's given. Samantha "Sam" Kingston is reliving the last day of her life, over and over and over. She has 3 best friends and they are super popular, super snotty, and all around, the "mean girls" that everyone wants to be friends with. Personally, they all drove me nuts. I found them to be vindictive and cruel and seriously wanted to know what was up with their parents that they constantly had booze, skipped classes, and were never home. (Yes, I'm a mom and a school principal - this frustrated the heck out of me)
As Sam relives her last day, she reflects on what makes a person "good," and tries to make things right. The problem is, though, that you can't go from being the senior high school bully to everyone's best friend overnight.
It's high school drama at it's best and gives you pause to wonder what you would change if this were the last day of your life... Perhaps that would lead to a good discussion among friends?
carlisajc's review against another edition
4.0
If you could choose which day would be the last day of your life, which would it be? The day you graduated high school? College, perhaps? The day you got married? The day you had your first child?
The thing about life, though, is that you don’t get to choose. You don’t really ever know when something will be your last: your last morning. Your last laugh. Your last kiss. Your last goodbye. Your last day. These are unknown and, therefore, under-appreciated. People subconsciously assume that nothing is going to happen to them, that they’re invincible. Truth is, they’re not. You’re not. And this book brings that message to life.
Sam Kingston is a popular 17-year-old senior. She skips classes, she goes to parties, she has a boyfriend. But all that changes when, on the way home from a party on Friday, February the 12th, she and her friends get in a car crash and she dies. But then, she wakes up…on Friday, February the 12th and lives through this day again. And again. And again. She lives through this day a total of seven times.
Like the popular high school group of girls, they make fun of others around them. What’s interesting about this story, though, is that I feel as if it questions this “bully-victim relationship.” In a typical story like this, the girl realizes that her friends are not-very-nice people and she realizes that she’s better than that and she becomes best friends with the same people that they spent years harassing. That’s not the case in this story and it’s definitely not the case in real life. Without giving away any crucial details, I just wanted to mention a really beautiful point in the story: It’s on the seventh day and she’s just thinking about her group of friends. She names three things that she loves about each of her best friends – Lindsay, Elody, and Ally. This is after Sam has realized the awful things that they’ve done over the years. She still loves them and she still finds beauty in them, and I find beauty in that. It’s just an interesting and unique perspective to find the “bullies” not cast down as the awful, the cruel, and the unforgivable.
So, the negatives: (1) There is talk about sex, though none actually occurs. There is some language, talk of drugs and drinking. So, basically, this is not a book for your middle-schooler. If it was a movie, it would be PG-13, nothing worse than that. (2) I sometimes felt like there was a disconnect between Sam’s thoughts and her voice. Lauren Oliver is a beautiful writer. She knows how to express things with vivid imagery and breathtaking diction, and that is expressed through the though processes of Sam Kingston. But…this book is written in the first person. So, Lauren Oliver’s beautiful and vivid writing is taken as Sam’s thoughts. And, at least in the beginning, there is a major disconnect between Sam’s beautifully-written thought processes and the dialogue that she actually said. For example, in the beginning, her favorite word seems to be the eloquently-stated “Obv.” Despite this, I do think her character develops throughout the story where the disconnect didn’t seem as present at the end. But in the beginning, it’s there and it did kind of annoy me at times.
But, overall, this is a wonderful book that sucked me right in. I read the almost 500 pg. book in three days – a short time for a full-time student and part-time library worker. It’s a good read. It’s a fast read. It’s a read with a beautiful message. I say, read it.
Full review here: http://confessionsofcarlisa.com/2014/11/24/before-i-fall-a-book-review/
The thing about life, though, is that you don’t get to choose. You don’t really ever know when something will be your last: your last morning. Your last laugh. Your last kiss. Your last goodbye. Your last day. These are unknown and, therefore, under-appreciated. People subconsciously assume that nothing is going to happen to them, that they’re invincible. Truth is, they’re not. You’re not. And this book brings that message to life.
Sam Kingston is a popular 17-year-old senior. She skips classes, she goes to parties, she has a boyfriend. But all that changes when, on the way home from a party on Friday, February the 12th, she and her friends get in a car crash and she dies. But then, she wakes up…on Friday, February the 12th and lives through this day again. And again. And again. She lives through this day a total of seven times.
Like the popular high school group of girls, they make fun of others around them. What’s interesting about this story, though, is that I feel as if it questions this “bully-victim relationship.” In a typical story like this, the girl realizes that her friends are not-very-nice people and she realizes that she’s better than that and she becomes best friends with the same people that they spent years harassing. That’s not the case in this story and it’s definitely not the case in real life. Without giving away any crucial details, I just wanted to mention a really beautiful point in the story: It’s on the seventh day and she’s just thinking about her group of friends. She names three things that she loves about each of her best friends – Lindsay, Elody, and Ally. This is after Sam has realized the awful things that they’ve done over the years. She still loves them and she still finds beauty in them, and I find beauty in that. It’s just an interesting and unique perspective to find the “bullies” not cast down as the awful, the cruel, and the unforgivable.
So, the negatives: (1) There is talk about sex, though none actually occurs. There is some language, talk of drugs and drinking. So, basically, this is not a book for your middle-schooler. If it was a movie, it would be PG-13, nothing worse than that. (2) I sometimes felt like there was a disconnect between Sam’s thoughts and her voice. Lauren Oliver is a beautiful writer. She knows how to express things with vivid imagery and breathtaking diction, and that is expressed through the though processes of Sam Kingston. But…this book is written in the first person. So, Lauren Oliver’s beautiful and vivid writing is taken as Sam’s thoughts. And, at least in the beginning, there is a major disconnect between Sam’s beautifully-written thought processes and the dialogue that she actually said. For example, in the beginning, her favorite word seems to be the eloquently-stated “Obv.” Despite this, I do think her character develops throughout the story where the disconnect didn’t seem as present at the end. But in the beginning, it’s there and it did kind of annoy me at times.
But, overall, this is a wonderful book that sucked me right in. I read the almost 500 pg. book in three days – a short time for a full-time student and part-time library worker. It’s a good read. It’s a fast read. It’s a read with a beautiful message. I say, read it.
Full review here: http://confessionsofcarlisa.com/2014/11/24/before-i-fall-a-book-review/
andreea27's review against another edition
3.0
In spatele stilului aparent neglijent si colocvial in care este scrisa aceasta carte, se ascunde totusi un mesaj profund.
Samantha Kingston moare intr-un accident de masina si timp de 7 zile retraieste ultima sa zi inainte de a se stinge din viata. In tot acest timp, scopul ei este sa desluseasca misterul din jurul mortii sale.
Subiectul pe care il trateaza aceasta carte este schimbarea. Proces pe care noi uneori il credem imposibil raportat la persoane. Vedem cum se comporta si presupunem ca asa a fost sa fie. Ca nu pot fi schimbati, ca nu pot deveni persoane mai bune.
Insa aceasta experienta ii demonstreaza Samanthei ca toti oamenii au secrete pe care le pazesc cu indarjire, uneori chiar si cu pretul vietii celor din jurul lor. Si ca, in ciuda aparentelor, oamenii se pot schimba si pot deveni altruisti.
La prima vedere, viata ei pare perfecta. Are 3 prietene foarte bune, impreuna cu care formeaza cel mai popular grup din liceu, si un iubit pe care toate fetele si l-ar dori.
Insa descopera ca, retraind aceeasi zi de 7 ori, a pierdut ocaziile de a face ceva bun din proprie vointa, de a spune cateva cuvinte frumoase persoanelor pe care le iubeste, precum si micile placeri care fac deliciul vietii. A fost oarba si in ceea ce priveste caracaterul total indiferent al iubitului sau, caruia aproape ca nici nu ii pasa de ea la un nivel mai mult decat fizic. S-a abandonat in bratele unei existente superficiale fara ca macar sa isi dea seama.
Observa ca, urmand exemplul prietenelor ei, a batjocorit o colega de liceu, care a ajuns in pragul sinuciderii datorita rautatii fetelor. Ignora singurul baiat indragostit cu adevarat de ea, respingandu-l pe motiv ca nu isi poate permite sa fie vazuta cu un nimeni al societatii adolescentine.
Toate acestea nu le realizeaza decat treptat, odata cu revelatia ca poate sa se indrepte. Poate folosi aceasta bucla temporala pentru a se schimba, dar mai ales pentru a schimba viata celor din jurul ei. Misiunea ei se indeplineste atunci cand, din pur altruism, salveaza in a saptea zi viata fetei care dorea sa se sinucida pentru a scapa de tortura la care era supusa datorita barfelor care circulau pe seama ei.
Lauren Oliver transpune astfel, prin ochii neexperimentati ai unei adolescente, o problema care priveste, de fapt, pe toata lumea: schimbarea care implica salvarea celor din jurul nostru.
Nimeni nu ar trebui sa uite ca totul porneste de la noi insine.
Samantha Kingston moare intr-un accident de masina si timp de 7 zile retraieste ultima sa zi inainte de a se stinge din viata. In tot acest timp, scopul ei este sa desluseasca misterul din jurul mortii sale.
Subiectul pe care il trateaza aceasta carte este schimbarea. Proces pe care noi uneori il credem imposibil raportat la persoane. Vedem cum se comporta si presupunem ca asa a fost sa fie. Ca nu pot fi schimbati, ca nu pot deveni persoane mai bune.
Insa aceasta experienta ii demonstreaza Samanthei ca toti oamenii au secrete pe care le pazesc cu indarjire, uneori chiar si cu pretul vietii celor din jurul lor. Si ca, in ciuda aparentelor, oamenii se pot schimba si pot deveni altruisti.
La prima vedere, viata ei pare perfecta. Are 3 prietene foarte bune, impreuna cu care formeaza cel mai popular grup din liceu, si un iubit pe care toate fetele si l-ar dori.
Insa descopera ca, retraind aceeasi zi de 7 ori, a pierdut ocaziile de a face ceva bun din proprie vointa, de a spune cateva cuvinte frumoase persoanelor pe care le iubeste, precum si micile placeri care fac deliciul vietii. A fost oarba si in ceea ce priveste caracaterul total indiferent al iubitului sau, caruia aproape ca nici nu ii pasa de ea la un nivel mai mult decat fizic. S-a abandonat in bratele unei existente superficiale fara ca macar sa isi dea seama.
Observa ca, urmand exemplul prietenelor ei, a batjocorit o colega de liceu, care a ajuns in pragul sinuciderii datorita rautatii fetelor. Ignora singurul baiat indragostit cu adevarat de ea, respingandu-l pe motiv ca nu isi poate permite sa fie vazuta cu un nimeni al societatii adolescentine.
Toate acestea nu le realizeaza decat treptat, odata cu revelatia ca poate sa se indrepte. Poate folosi aceasta bucla temporala pentru a se schimba, dar mai ales pentru a schimba viata celor din jurul ei. Misiunea ei se indeplineste atunci cand, din pur altruism, salveaza in a saptea zi viata fetei care dorea sa se sinucida pentru a scapa de tortura la care era supusa datorita barfelor care circulau pe seama ei.
Lauren Oliver transpune astfel, prin ochii neexperimentati ai unei adolescente, o problema care priveste, de fapt, pe toata lumea: schimbarea care implica salvarea celor din jurul nostru.
Nimeni nu ar trebui sa uite ca totul porneste de la noi insine.