I think I wanted to read BEFORE I FALL since the moment I heard about its existence -- which was in some random magazine at some random time ... the details of which I can no longer remember. I'm not sure I even knew the premise of the story as much as I just thought the cover was beautiful and the title was intriguing. Of course, once I actually read about the storyline, I was even more intent on reading the book and I bought it right away and put it at the very top of my intimidating To-Be-Read stack. As with all highly anticipated novels, I somehow managed to shove it away for -- well -- over a year .. for no good reason, of course. 
 Now, every year I like to start the year with a book that I'm positive will be AWESOME and I like to end the year in the same way. I already have my first book of 2012 chosen, so I decided to make BEFORE I FALL my last book of 2011. There's NO way this could be anything less than 5 stars, right? Right?!? RIGHT?! 
 Alas. 
 I'm not sure what happened. I mean, don't get me wrong -- it's not bad. I guess it just felt a little --- ahhh, I hate to say it --- BORING. 
 So, this snobby, catty, bitchy "mean girl" is going about her every day life with her snobby, catty, bitchy popular friends, and somehow in the course of a party (after making sure to alienate and humiliate as many teenagers as possible beforehand, of course), she gets in a car accident after a party and (view spoiler)[ dies (hide spoiler)]. Okay, if you've read any portion of the description of the book, that's not a spoiler, but just in case you're so inclined to read reviews without any such aforementioned knowledge, I spoiler tagged it for you. Good for me. 
 Okay, for the next six (painstaking) days, she relives this exact same day over and over and OVER again, trying to figure out how to save herself or someone else or learn something or do whatever she must in order to stop the horrendous cycle. 
 I give Oliver props for the idea --- I mean, sure, it's been done before, but it still doesn't detract from the fact that it's a great idea for a YA fiction novel. There's a huge possibility here to explore a plethora of concepts that would appeal to the teenage (or older) mind, all while telling a great story. So, why not? 
 I think my biggest problems were that: 
 a) the main character NEVER became likeable to me. She was just a catty, snotty brat in a variety of different situations, varying in the degree of self-serving and self-righteous attitude 
 and 
 b) the author tended to give too much of the exact same details over and over and over again. We realize after the first day, for example, that Juliet's little sister has white hair and looks glowy like a weird, freaky angel. But, we continued to get the same explanation over and over, just like we got the same explanation of how eeriely pretty Juliet seemed with her hair pulled back at the party. Boring. Move on. 
 I would STILL recommend this book, as I'm not positive I'm not just reading this in a crappy mood -- and the overwhelming majority of readers around me seemed to be vastly less bored by the novel that I ended up being, I guess. I definitely liked Oliver's DELIRIUM *much* better though, and I look forward to reading that series more than I'd look forward to torturing myself through something like this again!