Review: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Cover: 5

Characters: 4

Plot: 4

Setting: 4

Writing: 5

SUMMARY
What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death--and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

REVIEW

This book is absolutely captivating. At first, when I initially got this book, I was thinking "Oh, this is probably going to be just another book that I'll forget about in a few weeks." I didn't think there was going to much of a story behind this, and everything would be drearily repetitive, if you relive your last day seven times. Besides, the story of the dead girl coming back and finding herself is so overrated in movies and books these days, but this book definitely made an impact. While I'm writing about how overrated the idea is, it's actually a really great book.

The beginning was a little slow, but necessary for the rest of the book to build upon. Samantha goes through the almost perfect day, and it ends with a car crash. And she wakes up the next day. Sam starts off snotty and reenacting everything she did previously, but then she slowly starts to notice everything and everyone around her, and just how bad she and her friends have been. 

I really didn't like Sam at first because of her snotty attitude, but she slowly cracked her nasty shell, in my opinion, and became this new girl who started standing up for herself and realizing just what she wanted. As for my worry that there wasn't any romance in it, there was a good enough amount of romance that I was satisfied, but I wasn't feeling tingly and happy, but that wasn't the point anyways.

Sam's really obnoxious and odious boyfriend is Rob, who Sam is still dating for some reason, even though I know even she wouldn't stoop that low, and they're supposed to do "it" the night that she dies, but there's this other guy, Kent, who's had this sort-of crush on her for a long time and is not afraid to flirt. Seriously? SAM, JUST OPEN YOUR EYES ALREADY! Kent's three times the man Rob is, and Sam continues to treat Kent like he's a doormat and worshipping the ground Rob walks on. This annoyed me a bit near the ending.