All the Bright Places
Jennifer Niven
They say that opposites attract, so what happens when social outcast Finch and popular girl Violet meet on the top of the bell tower at school? Will they help each other grow from their traumas or will they only make things harder for each other?
All the Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven, is about two high school students trying to navigate their lives and is told through the perspective of two different people, Violet Markey and Theodore Finch. Violet is seen as a normal girl with a normal life. But, at the beginning of the book, Violet is struggling to cope with the death of her sister, who died in a car crash - a tragic accident that Violet blames herself for. She wears her sister’s old glasses to feel close to her and thinks to herself, “But maybe, if I wear the glasses long enough, I can be like her. I can see what she saw. I can be both of us at once so no one will have to miss her, most of all me” (23-24). Violet struggles to deal with this loss while attempting to continue on with other aspects of her life such as school and her social life. Finch, on the other hand, is seen as an outcast. Throughout the book, he deals with many difficulties, including a struggle with the way that he is perceived by many of his peers. Finch also has difficulty navigating his troublesome family situation. Violet and Finch become friends when they begin to work on a school project together. Their task is to travel around their home state and explore different interesting places. As they work on this project, they grow closer and begin to open up to each other. Finch helps Violet get over her fear of riding in cars and tries to help her feel more like herself again, and as their friendship becomes stronger, Violet becomes a source of light and happiness in Finch’s otherwise dreary life.
Based off of what I have read so far, I don’t think that this is a bad book. However, I did not particularly enjoy reading it, and I would not recommend this book to someone who is looking for a light and fun read. The book focuses on a serious topic- that of mental health- which makes it more serious and heavy than expected. Even though it is not a fun topic, it is an important one to think about due to the prevalence of mental health issues in society. Through the perspective of Finch, the book shines a light on some of the struggles that people dealing with mental health issues may face. He recalls, “I want to get away from the stigma that they all clearly feel just because they have an illness of the mind as opposed to, say, an illness of the lungs or blood” (284). While talking with Violet, Finch also exclaims, “Oh, there he goes again in one of his moods. Moody Finch. Angry Finch. Unpredictable Finch. Crazy Finch. But I’m not a compilation of symptoms. Not a casualty of shitty parents and an even shittier chemical makeup. Not a problem. Not a diagnosis. Not an illness. Not something to be rescued. I’m a person” (307). Finch struggles with his mental health throughout the whole book and Niven does a good job of displaying this struggle. While these are all very significant ideas, they do not make for a very fun or light read. They, in fact, make for a very heavy and serious read, which is not really what I was looking for in this book; I prefer books that are more lighthearted as opposed to serious, so I was not really a fan of this book. Because of its heavy topics, All the Bright Places is not a book that I would recommend for someone looking for a simple and entertaining read but may recommend for someone who is looking for a more serious book.
Check out this article if you are interested in reading more about this book.
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