Before I Fall

Sam Kingston, the narrator, begins the prologue by talking about end-of-life moments. She states that she wouldn’t want to revisit the fifth grade because she was forced to wear both glasses and braces during that year. The first day of middle school is out, as are boring family vacations. Algebra class, period cramps, and bad kisses also rank high on her list of moments she wouldn’t want to revisit at the end of her life. 

Moments she would want to revisit at the end of her life include kissing Rob Cokran for the first time at homecoming, her sixteenth birthday, pranking a girl named Clara Seuse, and getting drunk with her three best friends: Lindsay, Elody, and Ally. 

Sam reveals that in her last moment of life, she didn’t think of any of those things. She didn’t see a montage of her entire life. She saw a face—Vicky Hallinan’s face. More specifically, Vicky’s face after Lindsay announced in the fourth grade that Vicky was too fat to play on their gym class dodgeball team. As it happened, Lindsay and Vicky ended up on friendly terms, but it’s that moment, when Sam just stood by and observed before joining in with Lindsay, which revisited her in her last moments.