Before I Fall

You know the phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover?"  Yea, well I kind of did that...in a way.  I started reading Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall because I noticed that several of my female students were also reading it.  And at first, I (sorry in advance) thought it was not so good.  It was cheesy and unrealistic and the main character, Sam, was very unlikeable.  She was superficial, arrogant, and cruel.  Basically a mean girl. 

At the very beginning of the book, she is in a car accident and "dies" after a night out drinking with the rest of the senior class from her high school.  The first chapter took us through her entire last day and basically shared example after example of how superficial she was.  For example, her and her friends think they rule the school and basically cut another girl off for a parking spot (the other girl was there first, but not as cool, so they stole the spot).  The author shows Sam cutting class to sneak off to "The Country's Best Yogurt," and playing a cruel prank on the school "loser," Juliet Sykes.  She and her friends send Juliet a single rose with the note, "Maybe next year."  It is Cupid day at the school, where freshmen and sophomore girls deliver roses to the students.  It is basically a popularity contest to see who gets the most roses.

After her "death," she wakes up the next morning and it is still Cupid day.  Sam gets the chance to relive the day over.  And over.  And over.  I think right now I'm on the 4th do-over of Cupid day and I am finally starting to like Sam.  At first, she used her do-over days to be a complete snob, overspend with her parents' credit card at the mall, seduce a teacher (yes, that really happened).  But then she realizes how stuck-up she is and actually starts to change.  One of her days she tells her mom she is sick and spends the entire day hanging out with her  younger sister.  And the next she realizes she has to help Juliet change the path of her life to prevent her from committing suicide.  And you know what...she becomes a likeable character, a girl I would respect and maybe even be friends with.  This book reminds me of Groundhog Day, a movie from the 90s where the main character keeps waking up and reliving the same day.  Here's a trailer for that movie.  Most of you have probably not seen it:

Both the book and this movie show how characters and their decisions are really able to change plot events and influence other people. I love this line from the book: "It amazes me how easy it is for things to change, how easy it is to start off down the same road you always take and wind up somewhere new.  Just one false step, one pause, one detour, and you end up with new friends or a bad reputation or a boyfriend or a breakup.  It's never occurred to me before; I've never been able to see it.  And it makes me feel, weirdly, like maybe all of these different possibilities exist at the same time, like each moment we live has a thousand other moments layered underneath it that look different."  I couldn't have said it better myself!