All the Bright Places

That is the best word I can use to describe this book. It, in no way, ended how I thought or hoped it would. I am a 45 year old man and I found myself in tears as I struggled to get through the last few chapters. Having dealt, and still dealing, with mental health issues, this book touched my heart in a way few books have. To the author, all I can say is thank you.

There are many things I liked about this book. It is compulsively readable, well-written, has characters you root for, evokes strong emotions and brings awareness and thought to important topics. However, I walked away really unsettled… angry and in a bad mood for days unsettled. The book is told from two teenagers points of view. For a book in first person I walked away feeling like I couldnt understand one of the characters, including his choices, thoughts and emotions, and this is not good when its told from his perspective. When it matters most we dont even hear his POV. This was intentional by the author (and arguably fitting and effective) but really bothered me and partially what made me so angry. I dont mind sad or bittersweet endings if they fit with the story and what I know about the characters. I liked these characters but their actions felt unjustified because I couldnt see their side. I also felt like one piece was irresponsibly handled and makes me fear how those who know someone struggling with suicidal thoughts may act.

I do not think this book is for everyone. There are some big triggers. I do not think this is a book for those struggling with suicidal thoughts. It may be a book for those who know someone who committed suicide, but I question that too. There is nothing here that would make me say a teenager shouldnt read it, but conversations should be had around it. There is light and love in this book but my my more overwhelming emotion was darkness and anger.

Ultimately, Im glad I read it and I enjoyed the book, as much as one can with this difficult topic, but a few things hold me back from loving it.

First let me start by saying that though I try to do spoiler free reviews I dont know if I can do that with this one, so read this review at your own risk. People may not like my review of this book, and thats okay. To be honest I dont really like my review of this book, but its how I feel and I cant change that. I desperately wanted to love these characters, but I didnt. So, lets start with what I did like
I loved the premise of the story. I loved the feels that the circumstances the characters dealt with gave me. But thats about it
For me, the characters were flat. They didnt show enough emotion given the situations that they dealt with in their lives. Violet doesnt show much emotion around the death of her sister, the death of Finch, the way her family doesnt talk about Elenore, the way her friends treat her or Finch. Finch is just as bad, he doesnt show much emotion over the demise of his family, or the way his dad treats him, and not about the fact that his mom is just a shell who drinks wine and doesnt care about her children. They bottle it up and that leaves the reader with nothing to relate to, or feel. Feelings your characters have is a way for you to reach out to your reader and pull them in. Make them want more. Essentially, youre their feels dealer and you must give them the first hit to pull them in and keep them coming back for more. In order for you to do that you have to have some emotion for the reader.
There is so much going on with these characters and I dont feel like the author even touches it. I understand that teen suicide is the main focus of the story, but there is more to it than that. The bipolar disorder, and anxiety, depression, they are just mentioned almost as a way to explain how the characters may have gotten to that point. The book just kind of ends and there is no epilogue to tie up how the characters are doing. Finches parents, where did Violet go to school, did her online magazine take off. There was so much I was left wondering.
I was told by several people that this book was a must read and that I would love it. I guess my over-all thoughts were that for me this book was lacking. I expected and wanted so much more from this book and these characters, and at the end of the day it just didnt do it for me. So, Im giving this a 3 star rating. This is a subject that should be read about and should more prevalent. There needs to be an awareness amongst teens about suicide. They need to be told about the signs and what to do if you think someone you know is contemplating suicide.

Most importantly remember if youre ever in crisis and you need someone to talk to just text 741741 which is the number for the Crisis Text Line. You will be able to speak with a trained Crisis Counselor.

This one wasnt much for me. I feel this trope has been done over and over. The author did a well job of making me care for the characters but thats all they could manage to do. For starters it was glaringly obvious from the outset that the whole point of this book was to make you cry, make you mad these kids werent helped and play on your emotions to make you angry so the book can say see, this happens all the time in real life, real kids have problems, and people ignore them and some slip thru the cracks and commit suicide,, so the book must be amazing if it made you cry right? No, not to me. to me thats a cheap shot. They attempted to write about two characters with a mental illness but they focused so much on their illnesses that they forgot to round out their characters personalities and the tellings of the illness Finch was going through didnt work for me, it didnt depict a good enough description of this particular illness. This felt like another book where they make the teenagers out to be super intelligent and witty and of course they fall in love super fast too! Im just tired of the death and illness of teens as a plot for so called great literature. Its not awful but theres just nothing great here. If this is someone else favorite book then thats wonderful and I hope it gave you what you needed when you needed it, but for me it was just another in a long line of books in the same vein

This book is so beautiful. I fell in love with the characters Finch and Violet, two teenagers suffering with their own issues and sadness who find each other and fall in love. Niven has done an amazing job writing such realistic, multi-layered, interesting characters. The story keeps a good pace and the pages turned quickly. The language, the conversations, the motifs (water, Virginia Woolf, suicide facts) are all beautifully written and placed.

It deals with difficult issues of loss and surviving and left me in a puddle of tears, but I would recommend this book to anyone, it gives hope to those who have suffered loss.

I read lots of books but this had such an impact I think I’ll have to have a few days of mourning before picking up another.

Thank you for sharing this beautiful story Jennifer Niven.