All the Bright Places

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Synopsis

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.

Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.

This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.

Synopses source: StoryGraph

Review

Genre(s): Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Mental Health
HB&W Rating: 5 stars
View on StoryGraph, Goodreads
Buy on Barnes & Noble, Amazon

This was such an evocative and beautiful novel. I don’t typically go for this type of book. I find them emotionally manipulative for no other purpose than to be emotionally manipulative. But this book drew me in, made me fall in love with these characters, and made me cry. It broke my heart even as it put it back together.

This book touches on so many things from bullying to depression, but more than anything, it’s a portrait of grief, mental illness, and suicide. With the specter of death hovering throughout in one form or another, it could have been a very dark book, but instead it was hopeful and healing and really did bring a light into the dark. It was never going to end any other way, I think most would agree with that from the get-go, but the journey was so lovingly and beautifully written.

Some reviews I’ve read disliked the quirkiness of the characters. I have to assume they specifically mean Theodore but I found his different “identities” charming and to be congruent with the self-identity struggles teens face. His almost theatrical nature and way of speaking was a clever way to break through the fog of grief Violet was experiencing, to get through to her and get her to start living again. It was his quirkiness that drew her to him, it was his kindness that saved her.

This one really hit me in the feels. I cried through the last 12% of the book but ended it feeling that old adage that it’s better to have lived and lost than to never have loved at all.

Until next time,

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