Bullying is a major theme of Before I Fall, right from the start. When Sam dies, she imagines the face of someone she helped victimize. She ruminates about her own experiences being bullied—primarily by Lindsay in the fourth grade—and decides, in the prologue and first chapter, that bullying is just something kids must deal with. She decides it’s better to be the one laughing at a victim than to be the victim. 

After she’s exposed to Kent’s kindness and witnesses Juliet’s suicide, Sam begins to draw connections between bullying and potential consequences. Juliet’s suicide forces Sam to question her preconceived notions about bullying and the way the world works, and ultimately, after reliving the same day seven times, Sam becomes kinder. She realizes that kindness makes life worth living, so that when we do die—since we don’t, in most cases, know which moments will be our last—our lives are filled with meaning.

Before I Fall is a story about redemption. While it focuses on Sam’s redemption, from mean girl to self-sacrificing and caring person, other transformations of this nature take place. For example, Lindsay finally starts to confront the secrets and fears she’s been carrying since childhood when