Summary? After she dies in a car crash, teenage Samantha relives the day of her death over and over again until, on the seventh day, she finally discovers a way to save herself.
Why Did I Listen to It? It was a pick for the 2011 Maricopa County Mock Printz discussion. If you want to discuss, you read everything on the list! :)
What I thought...
I have mixed feelings about this book. For the most part, I really enjoyed it - not in the 'this is so FUN' way, but in the 'losing track of time while listening' way. The book opens with Samantha's death in a car accident after a boozy party with her friends, and then she begins reliving that day, over and over, until she can get it right.
Yes, we've seen this before, but Oliver does a great job unveiling teen relationships - friendships and "love" - and bullying, as well as the effects one's actions, thoughtless or no, can carry so much weight.
Sam and two other friends rotate around Lindsay, an alpha mean girl, and as Sam tells her story, it's clear that they are all willing participants to Lindsay's bullying - rumors, name-calling and scrawled messages on bathroom walls included. In the beginning, Sam is seemingly unaware of how hurtful hers and her friends' actions are: she has a very, "We're popular, and this is what popular people do" attitude that is very off-putting. However, as she relives that final day, making different choices each day and discovering how those little changes affect others around her, she begins to notice what she and her friends - most especially Lindsay - have been doing for years. Sam's growing up is a nice thing to see.
There's tons of drinking in this book - Sam's day ends after a wild party at a childhood friend's (abandoned when she met Lindsay) house, and much time is spent talking about drinking, doing shots, keg stands, etc. Very little is mentioned of drug use (though one of Sam's classmates is rumored to be a drug dealer and Sam shares a joint during one of her days), but there's a lot of talk about sex. Sam was supposed to lose her virginity to her crap boyfriend the night of the party, and she spends a lot of time wondering if she really wants to go through with it. Her more experienced friends make plenty of jokes about it, as well...
My reservations about this book: Mainly, I have problems with Sam's friends and her feelings for them. Bullying is a subject that really hits home for me, and Lindsay's behavior (as well as that of Sam's and the other two friends) is reprehensible. She's an evil tyrant, ruling through fear (even Sam admits to being afraid of her), and she drives another student to attempted suicide through years of unrelenting torment. Sam sees this, through her seven days of do-overs, witnesses the fallout of Lindsay's actions, and yet still professes to love her friend. It really sickened me.
My other problem had to do with the audiobook reader. I've found, in a couple of instances, that readers of teen books make a really condescending choice to try to sound too young, and end up coming off sounding childish and whiny. To make believe that all teenagers sound stupid and selfish is pretty rude, and this reader, while she doesn't do Sam's voice such a discredit, gives practically every other teen character a nasal, snotty and/or stoned voice. It's set in present-day Connecticut, but for some reason the she's made all of the unappealing characters, male and female, sound like Jeff Spicoli...
Those problems aside, I found this incredibly engrossing - teens will gobble this like candy!
Highly recommended.
YA Reading Challenge Count: 2
*Disclosure: I read Before I Fall early in January, but I am posting it and others read in early 2011 - I simply didn't have a blog back when I read and reviewed before!
Sounds like a terrific book(:
ReplyDeleteCant wait to purchase it myself:D
lisa