Book 3/30.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
High school senior Samantha Kingston is excited to see how many roses she gets at school on Cupid Day, because as one of the prettiest and most popular girls at school, it’s usually a lot. What’s meant to be a romantic day for her takes a turn when her boyfriend wants to go to a party instead of a quiet dinner, and the night ends in a tragedy. Even worse is that the next morning, Samantha is forced to relive the same day over again. Stuck in this world of reliving her worst nightmare, Samantha makes some changes to her day, and subsequently her life, taking back the power that she relinquished long ago.
This was exceedingly unputdownable and I was dyyyiiiiiiinnngggg (pun intended 🥴) to find out how the story ends once Samantha’s miraculous week was over. Has she been given a chance to make things right? To solve the mystery? To prevent her death? Those questions made it difficult to put this book down as the novel’s strength is both in the overarching story and its outcome, and also in the details. I found this book super sad as so many characters are affected by Samantha’s actions and they become more and more developed and complex as Samantha learns to really see them. The character development of all the characters was amazing, and the character growth, drastic though it may be, was entirely believable.
Before I Fall is a multi-layered story on the dangers of bullying and how careless actions can have a huge negative impact on someone’s life. The author also tries to make a case for the bullies by shedding some light on their whys, but I was still unable to drum up any sympathy for the mean girls by the end of the book 😒
View all my reviews
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 