Before I Fall

I was just thinking yesterday as I wrote about feng shui and all that. I was thinking about how I started this blog off with a purpose. That purpose being to highlight my musings on literature and what not. And I think I'm sort of losing sight of that. I mean sure, I can write about other topics because it is my blog and so it is up to me to decide how I want to use it. That being said, I think a little more musing on books is in order.

So I read this in January - one of my fave reads this year so far. Well, actually I've had a number of those, but this book is particularly well done. But, as a fair warning to my conservative lovies, it is not without it's sex, drugs and rock n' roll. So reader be ware!

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'm sort of at a loss right now. I can't give this book less than five stars. It's brilliantly written. The prose is beautiful...genius really. I dream of writing prose like this. The story is redemptive and hopeful. But that's the way it ends. It starts out on an entirely different note.



In fact, at first I hated it. I appreciated the writing, but I did NOT like the main character. I did NOT like her friends. I did NOT like the things they were doing, and I could not possibly see how it could end well. For anyone. I even toyed with the idea of putting it down for good - but I was morbidly curious as to how it would end. I will say that for my conservative reading friends, you won't want to read it. Drinking, sex, drugs...all up close and personal, and for some it will be too personal. The author makes little comment on the activities of an out of control group of queen bee drama queens in a small Connecticut high school. And so at first the tone feels very amoral. Thus I marked it as both adult and young adult fiction. I'm honestly not sure I think many high school students are mature enough to understand why the amoral tone of the first half is so key to understanding the characters. Thus it may come off as an endorsement of bad behavior, which it is not.



And then things switch as the main character realizes that unless she figures herself out, she is going to relive this day in her life into forever. Through one mistake after another - trial and error really - Sam Kingston, Queen Bee extraordinaire, figures out what it means to have some sense of compassion for another human being. She realizes the blessings of a day - just one day - of family, of friends, of love. And in the end you actually feel her loss.



And that is the brilliance of Lauren Oliver's skill. She doesn't force you to see things as Sam sees them. She lets you live it without a lot of moral commentary. So when Sam starts to see it, you as the reader start to see it. Rarely does a book explore the popular girl's perspective in a way that is honest. Usually that girl (or those girls), the "it" girls, are stereotypes instead of fleshed out human beings. Don't get me wrong. These are some mean girls...Mean with a capital M. But they are more than that. Seriously brilliant book.



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