> Before I Fall is about a high school senior named Sam who is popular, mean, loyal, a follower and about to experience something extraordinary. The book opens on Cupid Day and Sam is in the car with her four friends while they head home from a party. Suddenly there’s a car accident and Sam realizes she’s killed in the crash, but she wakes up the next morning and it’s Cupid Day again. Thus begins the last week of Sam’s life, in which she relives one Friday seven times. She tries a different tactic to end this cycle every day, from being as nice as possible to doing whatever she wants throughout the day to spending the entire day with her younger sister. She finally figures out what needs to happen to end the cycle on the seventh day and time finally moves on.

This has obviously been done before, and Sam mentions that it seems like she’s living the movie Groundhog Day. I didn’t like this book for its originality, though. I liked it because of the way Sam handled and reacted to what was happening to her. I enjoyed the way her actions were described and understanding her motivations for the way she acted before and after she started reliving a single day. The book kept me reading and wondering how Sam was going to live the next day and how she was going to stop the cycle from continuing.