All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, has a little bit of everything. It has sadness, romance, and even education about mental illness. This book was published in 2015 by Knopf Publishing Group and is a New York Times bestselling Young Adult book. It may be the perfect book for you. It isn’t part of a series but it was released as a movie on February 28, 2020. The book is 378 pages long and it’s written from both main characters’ point of view in the first person.
This book is about a boy (Theodore Finch) who goes through manic and depressive episodes with undiagnosed bipolar disorder and a girl (Violet Markey) going through the grief of losing her sister to a car accident. They are very different socially; Violet was a popular high school cheerleader and Finch was the “freak” of the school. They meet on the ledge of a bell tower, both contemplating suicide. “I’m so high up, I’m practically part of the sky. I look down at the pavement below, and the world tilts. I close my eyes, enjoying the way everything spins. Maybe this time I’ll do it – let the air carry me away” (page three).
Finch and Violet begin getting closer due to a project in which they have to wander to cool and interesting places in their town of Indiana together and Finch helps Violet get over her fear of riding in a car. He continues to try to heal Violet as the book follows their romance. Although Finch never really speaks about his own issues and only focuses on how Violet is feeling, Finch talks a lot about death. He also talks a lot about ways other people died or even killed themselves.
My favourite part of the book is when Finch and Violet go on their “wanderings” because it’s cool to visualize the places they go and all of the places (except one) are real places that you can go to. Although the author’s theme might seem like it is all about romance and a high school love story, the main themes are suicide, death, grief and the mood varies throughout the book.
The ending of the book made me sad and very frustrated because although the ending was somewhat expected it still took me by surprise. One of the things I liked the most about this book is that it was written from both of the main characters’ points of view because you get to read and understand both their thoughts and experiences. In one part of the book, Violet goes to this place with a big tree with hundreds of shoes hanging from the branches and she describes her shoes, and a pair of her sister’s and Finch’s, and I could visualize it perfectly. It felt like I was actually there. “Trees stand at all four corners, their branches filled with shoes. Hundreds and hundreds of shoes. Most are draped across the limbs by the laces like oversized Christmas ornaments” (page 355).
The author of All the Bright Places is Jennifer Niven, born May 14, 1968 in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is a New York Times and international best-selling author. She has written other books, including Holding Up the Universe, Breathless, American Blond, and many more, but she is best known for All the Bright Places. Niven says she hopes this book will get people talking about mental health issues and mental illness.
“If people feel like there’s help out there and know that they’re not alone, that will be such a good thing,” she said.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and I think it was definitely better than the movie because the movie left out a bunch of parts of the book that should’ve been in it. It was really interesting to read from the perspective of someone living with an undiagnosed mental illness and to see how it might be for someone with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. It’s nothing like any other book I’ve ever read and it was cool to read something different from what I would typically read. I would definitely recommend this book to someone interested in mental health or just anyone that wants a good read.
To conclude, I’d give All the Bright Places a 4.5 out of 5.