All The Bright Places

All The Bright Places is an engrossing and vivid story. It smoothly encounters its readers with difficult topics like depression, suicide, and mental illness. Jennifer Niven has brilliantly crafted the story of two teenagers portraying the complexities in the life of a teenager.

Book Review – All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Outline

All The Bright Places speak aloud the voices of the minds of two teenagers – Theodore Finch and Violet Markey. This phenomenal book conveys the message that sometimes it is impossible to save someone’s life despite your immense love for them. The book has already been named as ‘the next The Fault in Our Stars’ by The Guardian.

Summary

Violet Markey is one of the popular girls of the college who is just counting on the days to end graduation. She was a cheerleader and used to run a successful magazine website with her sister. But, since her sister’s death in a car accident, the only thing she is trying to do is to move on from her haunting past.

Everything has completely changed in Violet’s life post the car accident. She no longer finds meaning in life. She denies riding in a car and feels sad about having fun or enjoying herself. However, when she accidentally meets Theodore Finch – “The  Freak”, on the bell tower of the school, she somehow finds a reason to live.

Theodore Finch is a freak. He is a senior school student with an undiagnosed bipolar disease. All he can think about is Death. He is counting the days when he “woke up” and curious to find ways to suicide. So that he can get control over his life through death.

After his recent recovery from a long-term blackout, he meets a girl at the ledge of the school bell tower where he is trying to attempt suicide again. And, to his surprise, she was also there for the same reason. Finch tries to talk her down and everybody in the school thinks that Violet was the one who bravely saved a boy’s life who was attempting suicide.

Finch and Violet studies in the same geography class. They both were assigned an assignment to explore the unique place of Indiana and make a report. This project gives them a chance to know their home state and each other.

Firstly, Violet was annoyed at Finch for insisting her to be his project partner. But later, she thought of Finch as a highly intelligent person who changes personalities and is absolutely not a nerd. On the other hand, Finch also has a crush on Violet and is keen to show her the joys of life.

Violet and Finch discover their love and hopes for a better life. Now they both had reasons to live. Things were finally settling for them and for the very first they hoped to live. But what happens when Finch’s mental illness overpowers their blooming love? How things turn out for Violet when finally she gets over her past?

What happens next in the story – it’s your part to find out what All The Bright Places actually meant.

In the end, I am pretty sure that you cannot resist yourself from reading this compelling story.

My Thoughts

I am all tears. I simply can’t believe that all this time I was not actually living in the world of Finch and Violet. And, the fact that I couldn’t do anything for them is just killing me.

Every Page of the book and every written word will just make characters more lively to you. You will be astonished to read the ease of words that Niven weaved while writing the complex emotions of Violet and Finch.

Every now and then, the story will convince you that sometimes it is okay to let someone enter to your dark place. As it can help both to believe in the reasons to be alive.

Honestly, I started valuing life after reading All The Bright Places. This book made me accept how uncertain life can be and how delicate every moment is. It is important for us to live in these moments before they are stolen away from us.

For not even a single moment, I felt like putting down this book. These characters and their intriguing story kept me turning page after page. I couldn’t think of any other better way to put mental illness with such comfort for readers. Jennifer Niven has definitely done wonders in her debut.

Soon after reading All The Bright Places, you will be looking for more read-alike. (Just like me!) 

So, read my article for Books Like All The Bright Places and enjoy reading.