Before I fall
Lauren Oliver
About the author
Lauren grew up in Chappaqua, a small town in Westchester, New York. (The setting in before I fall.)She was/is extremley melodramatic and creative. Her parents are very cultural enthusiastics when she was younger her house was full of art,books, and music. She doesn't specifically remember when she wanted to become a writer. Her father is a writer and she grew up watching him write everyday. So for her writing is just something you do. She remembers finishing her first novel when she was in forth grade. She says that it was like 30 hand-written pages and she worked on it for like a month. She says when she writes she thinks of the characters first. She says plots are difficult for her, she really has to struggle to generate workable, viable plots. And titles are next to imposible for her. She says that she almost always titles the books after there completed.Her first book that was published is Before I fall. Which after she has written and published Delirium, Pandemonium (Delirium #2), Requiem (Delirium #3), Annabel (Delirium story), Hana (Delirium story), Raven (Delirium story), The spindlers, and Liesl and Po.
Main character(s)
Samantha Kingston is the main character of the book. In the beginning of the book she is all about her friends, herself and her boyfriend whom she believes is the love of her life. After she dies she decides to change it all. Living the same day over and over again she wants to know why and try to move on to the next day. Throughout the book she finds unlikely friends and someone she thought she could never love.
Conflict that drives the book / Compelling plot teaser
Samantha Kingston is living the same day waking up and doing the same things. After she dies she changes. She wants to figure out why it was her and what she has to do to get out. She does things that no one ever thought she would do. Lose friends, make friends, love people, dump people. But in the end is it worth it?
Short passage
In my dream I know i am falling though there is no up or down, no walls or sides or ceilings, just the sensation of cold, and darkness everywhere. I am so scared I could scream, but when I open my mouth nothing happens, and I wonder if you fall forever and ever and never touch down, is it really still falling?
I think I will fall forever.
A noise punctuates the silence, a thin bleating growing louder and louder until it is like a scythe of metal slicing the air, slicing into me-
Then I wake up.
My phone chimes, making me jump. I reach over and flip it open. There's a new text from Lindsay.
I am outside. Where r u?
I snap my phone shut quickly but not before I see the date blinking up at me: Friday, February 12.
Yesterday.
Explanation of why I chose this passage
I chose this passage because it is the day after Sam dies and her first second chance. In this part of the book Sam doesn't know where she is until she looks over and sees her alarm clock blaring for her to wake up. She thinks it is saturday. The day after the big party. But she is wrong. Her best friend Lindsay messages her and then Sam finds out she is living in the day before. A lot happens in this chapter of the book she is afraid to tell her friends and she thinks that it is all just a dream but its not.
Audience
The kind of reader that might enjoy this book is a person that likes to wait and see what happens next. The book is kinda slow in the beginning but by the end of the book it is hard to put down. This book is good for people who like complications with love and with life. How to save people you love and how to try and save your own life. This book is for adults and teens. That are popular or have a hard time in high school. This book opens up your eyes to things around you that you may never know unless you look.
Did I like the book?
No i didn't like the book. I loved the book. There is so much that happens throughout it that makes it really hard not to tell a future reader. I can really see how she changes throughout the book from a rude bitch to a person who cares about not just saving her own life but saving peoples lives around her.