Bookreview - All The Bright Places

All The Bright Places

All the bright places by Jennifer Niven

All the bright places is a book about a love story between two suicidal teens. A love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die. Theodore Finch is thinking day and night of ways to kill himself but there is always something good keeping him from doing it. Violet Markey is one of those things. She had great future plans and big dreams but one day they all get shattered. Her sister dies in a car accident. Finch and Violet meet each other for the first time on a ledge when they both plan on jumping. Finch saves Violet from jumping that day. They pair up on a group project just to have an excuse to meet each other. With Violet Finch can be himself, and she can't understand why everyone calls him Theodore Freak. With Finch Violet can start living her life and not think about the loss of her sister every waking minute. As Violet starts enjoying her life, Finch starts hating his again until one day he can't bare it. He disappears. No one hears a word from him for weeks until one day. He sends a goodbye to everyone he loves and it's up to Violet to find him before it's too late. Unfortunately she doesn't.

Finch is extremely charming and I fell in love with him during the first chapter. He's called Theodore Freak because he is different. He knows he is different but if you're going to die you might as well leave a reputation after you. Violet used to do great in school, be popular and have a boyfriend. All that changes to when her big sister Eleanor dies. Her so called friends stop hanging out with her when she becomes "weird".

I think that Jennifer Niven chose to write her book this way because it shows how the world actually looks. Some people show very much (like Violet) that something is wrong, that she's tired of living. Some people are like Finch. They are funny, charming and look happy. But the people like Finch, who knows when they last slept? Who knows when they last ate? Who knows when they even spoke to their family about anything? The book is written in a way that makes it believable that it's in a nerdy teenagers head. It's not to formal but it's not to sloppy eighter. It's nerdy and natural.

I think this book is for people who can relate to this kind of thing. Feeling sad and tired but don't know how to show it. Expressing it in different ways. It's for teens who don't see a point in anything. In their future or even their lives. But if I would recommend the book to anyone it would be everyone. You don't have to be depressed to read this book, you just have to be understanding. This book touches death, depression and suicide. Teenagers understand pain, loneliness, grief, love problems, identity crises and self-esteem issues. As I said, you don't have to be depressed to relate to this book.

This is one of the most brilliant and heart-ripping stories I've ever read. This book... I cried so much I ran out of breath. The thing about this book is that it doesn't try too hard. It's beautiful but it doesn't force a message down your throat. The story about a girl learning to live from a boy who intends to die. It starts with two people meeting on the edge of a cliff, both considering ending their lives. One out of grief, the other one out of pain. Their journey through those precarious times made me feel more than the last ten books I've read combined. This book captures a variety of emotions. Anger, heartache, hope. It all seems so real. I think this book has potential to be a new classic. It talks about mental illness and suicide which most don't talk about. It's a book with an important message that we need to pay attention to. It made me feel all types of feelings throughout the entire book. At the end of the day that's all we can ask from a book.

"The great thing about this life of ours is that you can be someone different to everybody."

"It's my experience that people are a lot more sympathetic if they can see you hurting, and for the millionth time in my life I wish for measles or smallpox or some other easily understood disease just to make it easier on me and also on them."

"I learned that there is good in this world, if you look hard enough for it. I learned that not everyone is disappointing, including me, and that a 1,257-foot bump in the ground can feel higher than a bell tower if you're standing next to the right person."

I give this a five out of five stars!