Before I Fall vs. A Week of Mondays

Today we’re going back to a high school style of writing: a compare/contrast of two similar books, both of which I happen to quite like: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver and A Week of Mondays by Jessica Brody. Both of these books could be described as the young adult version of Groundhog Day, but they differ in tone, lessons learned, and outcome. I’ll try not to be spoilery, but it’s hard to give nothing away when comparing/contrasting, so . . . you have been warned. :D

First, here are our main characters:

Before I Fall: 17-year-old Samantha (Sam)

A Week of Mondays: 16-year-old Ellison (Ellie)

Now, let’s look at some big-scale similarities between the books:

· Both of them feature a teenaged girl who gets trapped in a pseudo-magical time warp that causes her to relive the same day (for both of them, this will turn out to be seven times)

· Prior to the time warp, both Sam and Ellie experienced a dramatic/traumatic event

· Both girls go through the first few days of being trapped in disbelief, not sure if what they’re experiencing is real

· After being convinced that it is real, both Sam and Ellie go through a few days where they try different things to escape the loop (all attempts fail)

· After a few days of trying, both of them have a rebellious day where they hit rock bottom. They’ve tried to escape the time loop and can’t and now they just don’t care—they do whatever they want because they know there won’t be any consequences for what they do

· Both girls latch onto a particular goal they think will break the time loop: Sam thinks she can break the time loop if she stops Juliet, an unpopular girl from her high school, from committing suicide; Ellie thinks she can end the loop by stopping her boyfriend, Tristan, from breaking up with her (these two different goals obviously contribute to very different tones for the books)

· As a result of the time loop, both girls realize that there are things about their lives and themselves that they need to change, and it’s by putting those changes into action that they escape their time loops

Now just a few fun little similarities:

· Both Sam and Ellie have one sibling, a younger sister

· Both Sam and Ellie have a cute but dorky male just-a-friend who they’ve more (Sam) or less (Ellie) left by the wayside in favor of a popular but douchey and/or insensitive boyfriend

· Both Sam and Ellie are trying to be someone they’re not for their boyfriends

Okay, so those are some ways these books are similar. Next up, the differences. I’ll go a little deeper here.

At the start of Before I Fall, Sam dies. I don’t feel bad spoiling that because it’s on the back cover and literally the first sentence of the book. This is the traumatic event that launches Sam into the time loop, so her aim in getting out of the loop isn’t just to go on with her life as usual, it’s to go on with her life, period. Her goal is to reverse her death.

By contrast, the event that incites Ellie’s time loop is her boyfriend, Tristan, breaking up with her (which happens at the end of a pretty awful Monday). When Ellie goes to sleep that night, she begs the powers that be for a do-over, a chance to try again and “get it right.” Ellie’s stakes are high (for her), but they’re not life or death. That’s not a criticism—A Week of Mondays is lighter than Before I Fall, and the stakes match the more comedic, rom-com-esque tone.

Another major contrast is the role that non-romantic friends play in each girl’s life. Sam has a posse of hot, popular girl friends: queens of the high school. Unfortunately, they treat everyone—even each other at times—pretty badly. That being said, you can still tell how much the girls care about each other, and you come to love them even as you see how screwed up and insecure they are. Over the course of the book, Sam realizes that she needs to love her friends better, set a better example for them, and choose who she’s going to be regardless of what they think of her.

Ellie, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have any close female friends. Her best friend is her dorky guy friend, Owen. Her friendship with him does change over the course of the book, but the change is more along the lines of romantic realization rather than character development via platonic friendship (not spoilery—it’s obvious from the first time we meet him that Owen is into Ellie).

In A Week of Mondays, one of Ellie’s main problems is that she’s overstretched, unable to say no to anything. She’s trying out for the varsity softball team, running for class vice president, trying to promote her boyfriend’s band, etc., but she’s doing all these things for other people and not because she really wants to. Sam, by contrast, has stopped doing things she loved (like horseback riding) because her friends made fun of them. Both girls are allowing other people to run their lives, though in different ways.

Now for some quick contrasts:

· Ellie tells Owen about the time loop and what’s happening to her (and he believes her), while Sam doesn’t tell anyone

· Sam’s little sister is an adorable kid with a lisp; Ellie’s is a moody pre-teen who watches popular high school movies alone in her room

To finish off the conversation, Before I Fall is the more thoughtful story. It’s wrought with ethical dilemmas; not all the questions get answers and it’s made very clear that no one is all good or all bad. You catch yourself judging the characters right before you see yourself in them. The book is poignant, funny, and deep all at the same time.

A Week of Mondays is lighter. More fun. It’s like cotton candy—if cotton candy had some substance and didn’t rot your teeth. The characters are relatable, if not quite as introspective as those in the other book, and the humor is on point throughout. One thing in particular that I noticed about this book was that Ellie’s boyfriend Tristan isn’t a jerk. He isn’t the best fit for her, but he’s not douchey and you can see why she likes him, and that makes this book feel different from a lot of similar novels.

And finally, both books included a twist I didn’t expect. They were different types of twists, but I liked them both. The twists and what leads to them plays a big role in making these seemingly similar books feel very different in the end. I recommend them both! Happy reading!