“Before I Fall” is Lauren Oliver's debut novel. It is narrated by a first-person narrator and is set in Connecticut.

The book deals with many issues that were put under taboo, just like eating disorders, bullying, hierarchies in society as well as social exclusion. It has got a beautific drought that is caused by philosophical elements along with identifying with the characters. There is no conspicuous linguistic style. According to the particular happenings the length of the sentences varies. In conversations there is sometimes made use of colloquial language. There is one thing that makes the book different from other ones, from time to time the narrator talks personally to the reader.

In the beginning, the reader is overwhelmed by the high number of characters appearing in the novel. However, by continuing reading you always find that the different characters are connected in a way you never would have guessed at the beginning.

All the characters are described in a very detailed way, each of them has got his or her own “idiosyncrasies” and personality. As a result of getting to know numerous facts from the characters' past, the book seems very authentic. Additionally, the reader is able to insight the characters' feelings. The attempt to empathize really hurts, because “offenders” and “victims” cannot be blamed for their doings.

Samantha „Sam“ Emily Kingston is the first-person narrator and central character of the novel. She already reached (almost) everything you can reach as a 17-year old, 12th grader at a highschool. Samantha has got a boyfriend, is beautiful, popular, sits at one of the best tables in the lunch break and has got three best friends: Ally, Elody, and Lindsay „Lindz“ Edgecombe. At the beginning it is very difficult to like the four of them. The girls bully others, cut school lessons, leave the school's campus without permission, smoke, drink alcohol, and drive a car drunk.
Lindsay and Juliet Sykes were friends until something awkward happened to Lindsay in grade five and she blamed Juliet for it. Everybody starts to hate, bully, and exclude this day. She was also given a nickname, “Psycho”.

Another maverick is Kent McFuller, he is also called „McFreaky“. Kent is one of Samantha's childhood friends and the first boy she kissed. For the moment he is very shy, and sparing of words, but later on, this changes.

Rob is Samantha's boyfriend and belongs to the “cool ones”. In the end it turns out that he never was really interested in a real relationship and that the only thing he wanted was sex.

The book is based on a simple and brilliant idea: Samantha dies and relives the day of her death over and over again.

The day the book is set in is Friday, 12th February. This day the Valentine roses are distributed at Thomas-Jefferson-High School, except that, the day is not different from any others in Samantha's life.

Indeed, she dies in the evening due to a car accident.

The “next” morning she wakes up, but it is not the 13th February, it's the 12th again. In the end Samantha experiences the day 7 times. First she asks herself whether she gets freaky or if she is insane, but she comes to the point where she accepts the proceedings as real. The seven days are more or less structured, on the first, she does not know that she will die, later on she tries everything to escape death but as she realizes that it is impossible, she fancies that nothing has got any consequences and starts doing strange things. Like kissing her mathematics’s teacher and stealing her mother's cash card. Any time she begins to realize that there has to be a reason why she constantly wakes up on the same day. Thereupon she tries to use this knowledge for doing things, she always wanted to do, and for correcting her mistakes. On the seventh day, she understands that she pursued the wrong goal all the time, with her last chance she changes everything.

There are many positive things about the book, but what I liked best is that throughout the book there are clues that help you guessing the ending.

For me it got a little boring to read Samantha's just barley changing daily routine again and again.

The book contains several words of wisdom:
- Time changes everything, you, and the people you love. It simply does, and it does not mind whether it hurts you, or not.
- You might lose things you thought about that they were shatterproof in less than a second, everything is precious,fading, and
rare.

I recommend this book for women and girls. You should be interested in philosophy and enjoy deep literature with background.

The book makes you realize that death is nearer than you think, and it forces you to think about questions you cannot answer. Through capturing taboo-themes, your point of view about them changes. After reading the book, you will be a lot more mature in your thinking.