Before I Fall

I adored this book, mostly because it touched me and I think many teens and kids should be aware of the horrors of bullying and suicide. Kent is a good guy, and everyone will feel awful for Juliet. Sam made me a little ticked the whole way through, in the way that she always just follows and does what the crowd does and lets herself be pressured, but then again, many teens are like this (unfortunately). The characters are so alive, the issues so real. Lauren Oliver made a teen masterpiece of this, basically. The only problem would be the sex talk (her friends practically encourage Sam to have it, even when it's obvious she's iffy about it) and when she seduces her teacher (she begs him to have it with her with her body language). The students smoke and there's some references to pot (though Sam doesn't take any, though she does smoke). Obviously, there's language, but that's gonna always gonna be in a teen book. What? The author is just being realistic. Get over it. Every teen over 12 should read this and be shown how a dangerous reality looks like (along with the consequences) so they can learn to avoid it. To be honest, the benefits of reading it outweigh the negatives because it can seriously help your child. Just make sure she (or he, though guys don't really read this kind of stuff) is over 12 or maybe younger (make sure they are mature enough mentally/emotionally though). If so, then parents, you really shouldn't be too concerned.

This book is one I hold close to my heart, for sure. My friends have been bullied; I have, too, but less heavily. Lauren Oliver surely stretches the limits of teen fiction, considering there are a few sex scenes that get more graphic than necessary, but they're over quickly and not bad. There's one big part of this book people look over. Yes, it's a poignant stand against bullying. But since I was very, young, I have feared to die. At the begining of the book, so did Samantha. After her adventure, discovering things that everyone should know, she dies. But her description of death doesn't scare me. In fact, it helps quell my fear. She says that people say you watch your whole life happen again before you die, but she sees only her greatest hits. She says that "That's when I realized that time doesn't matter, because some moments go on forever. Even after they're over, even after you're dead and buried, those moments are lasting still, on and on, into infinity." She also says that dying is a "lifting feeling, like laughing." She treats death as a beautiful thing, as if you just spend the rest of forever reliving the best moments of your life. Even though it has big, whimsical chunks, this is a heavy novel with ideas that have been rolling around in my head for months, and probably always will. I strongly reccomend it. To be frank, I wish the bullies at my school would read it. It reminds you that EVERYBODY, no matter how different they are from you, deserves your compassion.

I love this book. It makes you think about life more.

Hi everbody! I'm twelev and am doing a book report on this for school. Yes- i know what you're thinking. But to tell you the truth i don't think you can really place an age like fourteen on this. i mean sure, there the suggestion of sex, heavy drinking, and drugs; but to tell you the truth if your teen or kid ('casue im not a teen ((yet anyway)) knows the dangers and the hard truth reality about this stuff, the less likely they'll be the kids doing these things. It also depends on certain and independant kids maturity levels. im not the kid telling sick sad sex jokes on the bus for shock value. im the straight A student who knows the dangers of drinking and driving (or drinking in general), drugs, haveing early age sex, and i also know the love and caring everybody should deserve. I know that even the little off kid at school deserves kindness. Like my grandfather always used to say "...Remember, from the head of the company to the janitors- everybody deserves respect."