As the day repeats, not only are aspects of Sam revealed, but her general perception of her classmates changes. In the first run through of the day, everyone has a pretty shallow description due to Sam’s reliance on queen-bee Lindsay to provide opinions on most of their classmates. The best part of this book is the character development. Cliches aside, though, I rather likes how the author took on Sam coming to terms with her situation. All it really needed was an overhead shot of the cafeteria with labels for the jock and nerd tables to be completely cliche at times.

The plot is definitely suited for a young adult audience, however, with the detailed descriptions of party life and aspects of popularity. Each stage brings new aspects to the plot line, allowing Sam to explore different aspects of other characters and herself. However, Sam goes through the stages of grief as the story progresses and she comes to accept her reason for being in the time loop. With the story repeating the same scenario over and over, you’d think the plot aspect would be slightly lagging. I actually looked this up, but the book also likely takes place in 2010, as February 12th fell on a Friday that year. If you combined Mean Girls / The Heathers with Groundhog Day, you kind of get this novel. The book follows Sam, a Senior at Thomas Jefferson High, on Cupid’s Day, again and again and again. The book was originally published in 2010, and looking at the cover, I’m pretty sure I saw this a couple times in the college bookstore. The book takes place in a 24 hour span on February 12th, and it would almost make a good Valentine’s Day read (except for the ending). I decided to go with Before I Fall, which is set in the fictional town of Ridgeview (might be based off of Ridgefield? Maybe?).

There were several choices for Connecticut, including my single selection of Nora Roberts and one of Jodi Picoult’s books.

Before i fall book lauren oliver