Review - All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Title:- All The Bright Places

Author:- Jennifer Niven

Pages:- 388 pages, Paperback

Published:- 8th January, 2015

Publisher:- Penguin

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.

**Contains Spoilers**

The main reason I started to read this book was because it's been sitting on my shelf since I brought it and it seemed to be calling to me. "Read Me!" I was captivated by the sentence on the cover. "The story of a girl who learns to live from a boy who wants to die." I mean, how can you not be captivated by that?!

This seems to be the second book this month I've read that involved one of the main character in a car crash. Luckily she lived, but her older sister died in the crash. Ever since then she's been hiding in her shell, not truly living. Then this boy comes along and shakes her world up which pushes her out of her shell.

I could not put this book down. I was hooked from the very first page. The story begins in such an interesting way that you can't help but read on. This may sound a little ironic but I felt like Finch and Violet's characters had a lot of life to them. They felt real and whole. Jennifer Niven built them up so well in the first few paragraphs that I could actually feel their pain. 

The structure of the book is well thought out. When the book begins it's mostly told from Finch's point of view with only a few pages from Violet. It shows Finch's "awakeness" and the way he's trying to keep himself aware of the world around him, compared to Violet trying to hide away from everyone. During the middle each of their point of views are shown equally. It shows that Finch has helped Violet out of her shell and their characters have developed. By the end of the book, we only see Violet's point of view as Finch's has been slowly filtered out. 

This book is like a firework, soaring onto the air and then exploding, sending sparks everywhere! I could feel the tension building throughout the book towards an explosive ending and I wasn't disappointed, the ending was heart wrenching and a little bittersweet.

After reading the author's note, I was sad to find out that Jennifer Niven herself had experienced someone close to her who had committed suicide. "For a long time, it was too painful to even think about, much less talk about, but it is important to talk about what happened." This is quite evident from the way she's wrote this book. I do wonder if Finch's slow silence reflects the way the author felt about those suicides, like she felt her loved ones slowly shut down and blocked her out.

I can vouch, as someone who has had a loved one commit suicide, that this was written in a rather heartfelt way with care and respect. I, too, tortured myself thinking about whether or not there was anything I could've done differently. I'm grateful for the way this issue was handled within this book by showing the stigma attached but also giving it dignity. Mental illnesses are nothing to be ashamed of. 

Rating :- ★★★★★

Happy Reading

:)

xx