Before I Fall

472 pages
Published March 2nd 2010 by HarperCollins
Genre: YA Fiction

"What if you had only 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: the world's most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.

Instead, it turns out to be her last.

Then she gets a second chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day 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."

It has been over two months since the site's last review! Gasp! We're awfully sorry, but school has been nipping at our heels. Here's a book I just finished reading a few days ago, and hopefully this review can make up for the lack of any recent ones... and the sparse that are to come until the end of the school year.

Before I Fall! A not so bad read. Telling the story of how a girl lives the same day through an entire week and how she comes to change herself and the people around her, it is an interesting book that is both realistic and relatable to. Samantha Kingston, your vain, simple-minded and bitchy teenage girl who sees the amount of roses you get on Valentine's day as important, suddenly dies on said Valentine day, in a car accident after your generic teen party. The next morning, she wakes up in her bed, on the same exact day. Fun stuff!

In Before I Fall, Oliver makes her protagonist go through the same day seven times, causing her to evolve into a better, nicer person as she realizes that popularity, sex and social power aren't the only things that matter, and that there are better things to concentrate upon. For a novel of 472 pages, there's enough space to clearly witness Samantha's evolution and for the reader to end up liking her. The story itself is gripping and holds some jolting twists at the end. It was my personal pleasure to see the story and mystery behind Sam's death and quest unfold so well.

The same day, seven times? Might be a bit repetitive. It was, on day 3 or 4, but the events vary. Even if I did approach the ending of the book with certain relief and impatience, Before I Fall offers many versions of the same day, and doesn't drag on the details that were already presented earlier. Character-wise, I think the cast is very realistic. All of Samantha's friends are the type of girls that one can classify as 'classical school bitch', and are presented such as that; bitching, being mean and vile, horny and self-centered. Lauren Oliver does, though, show their better side, a deepness to them that the reader doesn't realize at first. The character development is drastic and entirely believable.

Before I Fall captures the narcissistic emotions and feelings of high school very well. I think a lot of people can relate to the book and it's characters, and even if sometimes the repetition threatened to be overwhelming, the book satisfied me. The writing is engaging and flowing. A book I recommend.

-Beryl

Originality: 9
Plot: 8,5
Characters: 9
Writing: 8
Cliffhangers: 7,5

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Rating: 8,4/10

Thirteen Reasons Why

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.

Thirteen Reasons Why is told by the recorded voice of Hannah Baker who, through the faces of seven cassettes, tells the story of how she came to be suicidal and eventually took her own life. Alternating with her tale is Clay Jensen, one of the thirteen people featured on her list. He spends an entire night listening to what she has to say and briefing the reader on his own vision of Hannah when she was still alive and on the few moments they spent together.

Minus the flaws I will speak of later on, this book can be considered as relatively good. I had spotted it long time ago on the shelves of Indigo and heard it was very appreciated throughout the main stream. It was indeed plastered with genuinely good critiques almost everywhere. I nevertheless differ from the main stream opinion, and think that whilst this book can be appreciated for many reasons, it lacks too many things to be considered as strong and true.

With Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher illustrates how the often cruel behaviour of teens leads to unconscious repercussions on others. In this book, it is Hannah who is the punching bag of the many nasty girls and boys that dwell in her school (the classical morons that you as well as I have probably already met once in our life) and who unable her from making friends that she can trust. With his debut novel, Asher tries to portrait how little cruelties piled up can do much harm.

While I agree that high school can be hell for a lot of people I somehow thought it forgot to show and describe how Hannah suffered, and instead we learned it through her narrative, which didn't give the same effect, but I'll get to it later. First of all, the characters.

My opinion on this book can be summarized with this simple statement: I loved what Hannah had to say. I wish I could have said the same about Clay.

Clay was a total gary stu. It is unbelievable how amazingly annoying he was, to the point I started skipping his narrative towards the end of the book. Long story short, he is the adorable, kind and shy but understanding guy that would have been Hanna's 'the one' if he hadn't stepped forward so late. When he receives the cassettes and listens to the first one, he panics, terrorized like a little rabbit and shedding tears every few minutes. Asher gave him a quite important role in the book: he offers the reader a view of Hannah seen by the eyes of an outsider who has no clue why he's on Hannah's list. It is needless to say that Clay fails delivering such a view. All he does is nourish dialogs with Hannah in his head, even though she is dead. Every once in a while the reader has something going around the line of "Why did you do this Hannah?" "Why did you go there? You knew it was dangerous!" "Oh Hannah, what did I do, tell me what I did to you!"

This pitiful whining is not needed to explain Clay's distraught mood, especially since he spends more time saying these lines over and over again instead of really focusing on how he remembers Hannah. Most of the time he simply repeats what she tells in her recordings, but by altering the information with his own words. It is incredibly frustrating and this is why I didn't appreciate the book as much as I could have.

Hannah's character and personality are pretty clear from the beginning: she's an outgoing, smart and mature girl who easily falls in love with poetry. She's slightly rebellious and imaginative, but eventually looses herself as the nagging from the kids all around her becomes constant, and as those she considers friends slowly backstab her. Hannah’s narrative is interesting, since she’s a dead girl getting her revenge. The idea of getting her due back by recording people’s actions on tape and making them listen to them is ingenious and quite chilling. It is truly a good way of shoving the truth into the faces of those who don’t realize how much they hurt people. That is why I was intrigued by what Hannah had to say, and why I could have easily skipped Clay’s narrative.

One of the only issues with this book is that it lacked emotions. Clay failed in giving us the picture of the gradually evolving Hannah, and Hannah's narrative concentrated on describing the events that led her to change, but not how she changed. Asher concentrated too much on making Clay feel sorry for himself and on Hannah describing everything. He forgot about the emotions that needed to come along, and as a reader, I didn’t see Hannah change. Never once in the book did I relate to her. Clay was also so over emotional it seems the author forgot who the suffering victim in his book was.

Lastly, during the reader, I felt disconnected to Hannah’s motives, and constantly felt like they were surrealistic. I know and do understand how few years of bad high school life can destroy and be painful, especially since teenagers are in their full growth and development. The list of misfortunes that Hannah has to endure is clear, and I do agree that most of it is nasty and all, but somehow I am not persuaded. To me Hannah seems like a very strong character, mentality speaking. She has the smarts to rise above the level of teen stupidity and ignore it, but somehow she always gets caught up with it, and chooses to be affected by it, too. Even when she meets Clay and discovers he can be her life-saving boat she chooses to kill herself. High school can be bad, but it doesn't last.

Thirteen Reasons Why will touch some readers. It is a reminder that even when we think we are alone, there is always someone out there that truly cares for us and who is just waiting to help out. I nevertheless met with too many flaws to appreciate this book. It's a good read for Young Adults, and entertaining enough when you ignore Clay's inner monologue. It brings its point across and is highly original, but somehow slipps when it comes to the feelings of the characters. I still encourage teenagers to read this, since it's good for the consciousness of some.

-Beryl

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Rating: 8/10

If I Stay

In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon roa...more A gorgeous boyfriend who was madly in love with you?
Quirky hip parents who totally got you?
A musical talent that could take you anywhere?
What if your biggest problem in life was choosing which path to take?
Follow your first love--music-- to New York City?
Or stay with your boyfriend, friends, and family?

What if one day, you went out for a drive...

And in an instant everything changed?

What if suddenly all the other choices were gone?

Except for one--the only one that truly mattered?

What would you do?

In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...

This was a good book, technically. Well written, with a good, realistic love relationship between two characters and a dramatic subject to break everything apart. It was a quick, enjoyable and easy read, but this book lacked one thing. It didn't stir enough emotions in me.

I can't say it was... badly written or something, but it didn't have the WOW factor. Usually, when a book is amazing and has swept me off my feet, I hug it and let out a long sigh. Then I rethink of all the great passages and my mind is in a state of awe for the next 12 hours. Here, I acknowledged the fact it was sad, true, hard, yada and yada, and then I put it back onto my shelf.

Don't get me wrong. It's a great book, with great, strong characters. The story is divided with Mia's memories of happy, sad, decisive moments in her life and the next 48 hours after her accident where she watches everything happen in a ghost-like state.

I just can't say it blew me away.

Now I'd like to analyze a part of the book. This is what most of my reviews consist of; it's a lot of opinions and thinking mainly.

Mia has lost all her family. Her brother, her mother, her father. When she recalls her memories, we see how much of a happy family they were, how supportive, understanding and awesome her parents were (It might sound cliche to say that her family was almost perfect, but I think the author did that just to underline how much Mia lost after the accident, so I won't get into that). I agree that loosing her entire family is no little deal, and that perhaps one wouldn't want to stay alive because of that, but I felt as if the big question of the book; "Would you stay if you lost everything?" isn't much of a challenge.

Personally, I think that if Mia would have come out from all this paralyzed, somehow handicapped, if there would have been something hindering her life except the loss of her family the question could have had more pressure. I'd say that even if her family survived, but she woke up to not be able to play cello anymore, or walk, there would have been more of an issue. "Should I keep on living even if I can't walk/play/whatever anymore?" I mean, for me, becoming blind due to an accident would be a huge deal, and I would really have to think about staying or not, and so there would be a dilemma. I didn't feel any dilemma in If I Stay.

I think that the theme of "all the reasons you have to live for" weren't really explored too deeply. Sure, friends, boyfriend, other family, celo, but I still feel as if something was missing. So, really, I would have liked there to be more to the big question. Of course, there is no indication of Mia getting out 100% fine afterward, but neither any indication of something else coming her way.

One, last thing. This is the major rant part, but not about the book. On the cover it said 'Will appeal to fans of Stephenie Meyer's TWILIGHT".

I am OUTRAGED and sincerely DISGUSTED that there had to be this label. Because this is a love story that will appeal to teenagers DOESN'T mean it is IN ANY WAY similar to Twilight. If publishers need to label their products "REMINISCENT OF TWILIGHT" just to sell, then I tell them to go to hell and see if they have Twicrap there. If I Stay has nothing to do with Twilight, and I will rephrase that label. It will appeal to fans of "The Lovely Bones", seeing as it is similar in concept of a girl watching people deal with her loss and shares the theme of death and such. Gosh, the world can be so idiotic sometimes.

That is all. Go search for If I Stay, it's a fun and good book to read. (But The Lovely Bones is better, ha ha. It has the WOW factor)

-Beryl

If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Rating: 8,3/10

Deadline

Ben Wolf has big things planned for his senior year. Had big things planned. Now what he has is some very bad news and only one year left to make his mark on the world.

How can a pint-sized, smart-ass eighteen-year-old do anything significant in the nowheresville of Trout, Idaho?
First, Ben makes sure that no one else knows what is going on—not his superstar quarterback brother, Cody, not his parents, not his coach, no one. Next, he decides to become the best 127-pound football player Trout High has ever seen; to give his close-minded civics teacher a daily migraine; and to help the local drunk clean up his act.

And then there's Dallas Suzuki. Amazingly perfect, fascinating Dallas Suzuki, who may or may not give Ben the time of day. Really, she's first on the list. Living with a secret isn't easy, though, and Ben's resolve begins to crumble . . . especially when he realizes that he isn't the only person in Trout with secrets.

Apparently, I’ve laid my hands on a lot of really cute books this month. Deadline, though I’m pretty certain the author tried to make it sad or something, was yet another adorable and funny book. The problem is, it’s a novel about a teen dying.

Ben Wolf is dying, and he decided to ditch the treatment and live the best year he can. He always had a witty remark to everything that was said, always. Even though I’m glad he wasn’t constantly moping around, I think knowing the fact you’re dying would probably rouse a little more emotion than what was portrayed in this book.

There was also a rather lame attempt at spiritualism, in the person of Hey-Soos. Hey-Soos, which is, by the way, the Spanish pronunciation of Jesus, is Ben’s mental hallucination. He sees him in his dreams, and Hey-Soos gives him advice similar to that given by a psychiatrist. Whenever this ‘spiritual guide’ came up, I groaned. His dream land really bothered me. It broke the pace and didn’t really add anything relevant to the story. I definitely could’ve gone without it. Sure, Ben seems to be so thankful to Hey-Soos in the end, and Hey-Soos is really good at asking the right questions. But I would’ve preferred staying out of the more spiritual aspects of death.

I really loved Ben’s reading list, though, and I added a bunch of books to my pile after finishing Deadline. The characters were deep, for the amount of development they had. Since the book was rather short, considering it was only 300 pages and covered a whole entire school year, there wasn’t much space for lengthy descriptions of the characters.

The different subplots were so numerous that they all kind of ended short and undeveloped; I think it could’ve been good for the novel to have less happen, but develop everything a tad more. This book could’ve been so much longer and there is so much space for more information that I kind of felt stranded at the end.

All in all, this book was overloaded with a bunch of partly developed stories and themes ranging from death at a young age to football, with a little bit of incest, teen pregnancy and pedophiles. It was good, but I would’ve preferred a book with more development in a single theme instead of in twenty. If you like short books that pretend to be dramatic and sad but actually aren’t really, then this one is for you.

-Aithen

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

Rating: 8,1/10