Before I Fall

Sam is the main character and narrator. She is a dynamic character in that she changes throughout the course of the story, and it’s her change that drives the story. In the beginning, Sam dies with a final vision of Vicky, a girl she’d helped to bully. But over the course of repeating her death day again and again—some wherein she dies, some wherein others die—Sam learns to find meaning in her life.

This journey is not without occasional missteps. She fights with her friends and family, she breaks as many rules as she can think of, and she tries to save herself by saving someone else all before she discovers that selflessness is the way to give her life meaning. Only by sacrificing herself for others can she make what time she does have result in a positive consequence, instead of a negative one.

Lindsay is Sam’s best friend, and it could be said that she’s the ringleader of the group. Lindsay rarely apologizes for her actions and often behaves in a reckless way that only leads to trouble for herself and others. However, there’s more to Lindsay than meets the eye. Her parents divorced when she was in elementary school, and that’s when she started bullying other children.