Before I Fall shows the life of a bully, and the effects of her actions around her

By Guntaaz Kaur

On average, there are 44,193 suicides per day. One of the main factors strong
enough to make someone want to take their own life is bullying. New York Times
bestseller Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver is portrayed through the eyes of a high school
bully, Samantha Kingston. February 12th is the best day of her life, celebrating Cupid's
Day and indulging with all the perks at being at the top of the social hierarchy. She ends
the day going to a party hosted by a former best friend. All is perfect in her life, until gets
in a car crash on the way home...and dies. But, she wakes up the next day and
relives the same day again, dying again. This a total of seven times, until Samantha
understands, and does, what's needed. While reliving the same day continuously,
Samantha recognizes how every action she does has an unsuspected conscience.
Author of 13 Reasons Why Jay Asher said youll have no choice but to tear
through this book! This is unbelievably accurate because of the different twists and
turns Oliver has on every page. Oliver explains that her parents were both literature
professors who always encouraged Oliver to use her imagination. From a very early
age, my sister and I were encouraged to make up stories, draw, paint, dance around in
costumes, and essentially spend much of our time living imaginatively, said Oliver.
Because of this skill imbedded in her at a young age, Oliver's creative thinking resulted
in this book being the number one Spring Indie Childrens Pick.
Published in March 2nd 2010, this book won the Goodreads Choice Awards Best
Young Adult Fiction. While reading the book the reader will experience annoyance for
the bullys along with anger and frustration. Slowly these emotions will start to
subconsciously evolve into understanding and pity after learning why each of them act
in such crude ways. They will also experience pity for all the hardships the bullied had to
endure. The main bullied girl was Juliet Sykes, who struggled with abuse at home and
school. Because of this constant torment, she ends up taking her own life with a firearm,
which was the most common suicide method in 2015.
While reading this book, you experience Samantha's character growth firsthand.
You see her first treating everyone like stepping stones. Then slowly she sees the result
of how putting her needs in front of theirs (and making them abide by that) can
negatively impact them immensely. The reader has no choice but to get caught between
the mental struggle of supporting the main character of the story, who is also one of the
antagonists, or cursing her at every turn of the page.
The way Samantha changes the ending for the first sixth day will leave the
reader shocked, especially the very last ending. Lauren Oliver has written an
extraordinary debut novel about what it means to live-or-die, said author Carolyn
Mackler. While reading the book, the reader discovers the lasting impact one
thoughtless action can result in. After setting the book down, this life lesson is wired into
the reader's brain causing them to second guess every decision they make. This book
also gives the reader a stronger sense of the fine line between right and wrong in
bullying someone. Lauren Oliver left no eyes tearless after reading this heartbreaking,
cruelly blunt book that changed young adults over the world.

Sites
 "Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver." FictionDB - Your Guide to Fiction Books. N.p., n.d. Web.

20 Apr. 2017.

Oliver, Lauren. "Lauren Oliver Books, About Lauren." Lauren Oliver Books. N.p., 2014.

Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

"Suicide Statistics AFSP." AFSP. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.