So many stories have the character turn 180 degrees and while that may be interesting it’s far too clichéd and overused. A transformation does happen, but not quite as much as you might have been expecting – Oliver never proposes the idea that Sam should be forgiven for everything nor become a saint. This means that, in addition to the changes Sam makes, there is plenty to read on for besides the obvious desire to know what will happen at the end.Īt the start Sam isn’t the most attractive character, in fact she and her friends are somewhat loathe-worthy. What Oliver does is reveal that initial day – the day of death – in bits and pieces throughout the course of the book so that you learn new things about it as each repetition rumbles on.

But you come to realise that this was good thinking because it allows Oliver to explore different avenues of “what ifs…” and “maybes” in more detail than she could have had she packed out the day with activity. Nothing big happens except for, of course, the accident. The first thing that’s striking is how average the day that Sam lives over and over is. She was in the passenger seat when the car crashed, but somehow she never experienced the reported flashbacks on her life, instead waking again in bed the next morning only to find it’s actually the morning of yesterday, the day she died. She’d spent the day at school: joking with friends, skipping classes, and at a party where she’d joined with everyone in soaking the social outcast with alcohol. Sam Kingston died in a car crash on a cold night in February. Never the less there are numerous copies to be found – as long as you know where they are.

But it was somewhat more difficult to find in the UK where perhaps we categorise books differently. Lauren Oliver’s debut made the rounds of US book blogs at its release. What happens when you’re dead, but you’re alive, and the world keeps spinning over and over in the same circle?

Before i fall book lauren oliver