We have read this before in the newspapers. We heard it from other people. Its a subject of taboo that we do not want to talk about... suicide. There are many reasons that leads to such a choice and its commonly known and read how suicides among teens do happened, of their own private reasons. I had read one such book before reading All the Bright Places, which to me... I wonder then when I first bought it few years back many readers gave good ratings. Of course, not every one gave it that high... and I am one of them.

 

I had issues with this book from the beginning. I had a few more some where in the middle. It was not until I am reading towards the end, I realize this is a story not about Theodore Finch - its about Violet Markey and how they met that one change another's life forever. How Violet copes with lost, and how Finch manage to help her with it. Still, there is some thing I did not like from the beginning. It was superficial, it wasn't realistic and it tries hard to make a realization of the main theme. I had mixed feelings as I read and towards the middle, I never care about the characters any more. I just do not know what I should really care about as I go along. It was until the 3rd act that I had guessed where its headed and how this heading feels... too thin. Every thing is just surface. There's nothing deeper to it and that gave me a reason to push forward to end my reading quick.

 

I can't say its horrible at all, as its not really that bad too. On the one hand, its pretty much straight path. Although trying to keep me guessing (even for other readers), the closure for this was bittersweet. What spoils it was the beginning and middle. I do understand what Jennifer Niven is pointing out and on her notes, its through her experience. Still, it suffers a lot in some ways I just felt what's holding my reading was if I bother to finish it and I did.

 

Overall - I felt a 3.5 out of 5 is a given. It would have been better if the characters are explored and the reasons are properly executed or laid out. What suffers it is what I said from above.

So All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. Stars : 4.5/5.

 

This book nearly made me cry which is why it's lacking half a star. Sometimes if the book was so good that it nearly made me cry, I don't give it the 5 stars that it deserves. I'm weird like that. 

 

This book was written very well. I was hooked from the moment i finished the first chapter. Violet was a character I could partly relate to, Finch not so much. 

 

I recommend this book to those people that are wanting a nice and easy flowing read. You have to keep in mind that this book does contain topics that involve depression. 

 

Overall: A VERY GOOD BOOK! 

This is one of those books that inspires complicated feelings. Is it possible to write a book about teens and suicide that doesn't inspire complicated feelings? I've certainly never read one -- but it's something writers need to keep writing about, and that we need to keep talking about.

My biggest qualm with YA suicide books is that I always fear they run the risk of romanticizing the issue, and that is particularly true when the suicide is contextualized within a romantic relationship as it is here. And so what made me most uncomfortable about this book was that Finch and Violet's suicide attempt in the same place on the same day was essentially reduced to a "meet-cute" (this isn't a spoiler, it's the opening chapter.) And the road-trippy aspects of the story also made the whole thing seem kind of fun and sweet and exciting rather than truly harrowing. The book didn't make me cry, which considering the subject matter seems like a bit of a fail.

At the same time, the things that I can be most critical about in this book can also be interpreted as some of its greatest strengths. Dealing with mental illness does not mean your entire existence is bleak, or that there aren't moments of beauty and adventure and wonder. It doesn't mean that life doesn't continue to unfold around you. I thought that Niven handled Finch's mental illness in a way that was believable and nuanced. I was less impressed by her depiction of Violet. Violet was damaged in her own way, still grieving the loss of her sister, but I kept feeling distracted by the fact that her parents didn't seem to be grieving along with her. In some ways they seemed too "perfect" and "together" for parents who had gone through the tragedy of losing a child, but at the same time it was nice to see some responsible, competent adults in a YA book.

My book club spent a lot of time dissecting how things could have been different if this or that circumstance might have been changed, and although the book loses points for not tugging at my heartstrings the way it maybe should have, it gets those points back again by being the kind of book you keep chewing on for quite a while after the final page has been read.

The story is about a girl learning to live from a boy who intends to die.

Where do I start? For all the reviewers who say this book is a rip-off of The Fault In Our Stars, I can understand the sentiment, but I disagree. It's a book about teenagers dealing with death and finding each other in the midst of their pain. That is where the similarities end to me. The two main characters are intelligent teenagers in the information age, so they can Google quotes and full passages of books. They are not pretentious SAT-vocab-using teenagers. These characters were so much more relatable to me than Hazel and Augustus.

Violet is recovering from the death of her sister, a death she blames herself for since she directed her to the bridge where the accident occurred. She gets out of doing most school work due to the "extenuating circumstances". She appears fragile and is not expected to participate in life until we meet her. Her parents are just now trying to get her to begin to participate again. She is doing so unwillingly until she meets Theodore Finch.

Finch is different, but he doesn't know why. He used to be friends with the bullies, but as you grow up and the differences begin to separate you from the pack, they no longer can relate to him, and what is different must also be wrong. They call him a freak and he lives up to the name. Constantly trying on new identities to see which one fits, Finch focuses on death (suicide in particular) as a means to control his day to day living situation. While Violet's parents are involed (but trying to let her live her own life), Finch's parents were horrible people. He took the brunt of the abuse from his father growing up, and yet still can't get over the fact that his father left his family to create a new one. His mom has shut down and notices nothing around her while his older sister is his parental proxy at school. His younger sister is largely ignored and trying to make sense of the world where it seems like only bad things occur.

These two characters meet at a pivotal moment in their lives. Theo attaches himself to Violet and she can't shake him, despite all her efforts. He knows all too well how she is feeling, and takes responsibility of her rejoining the living. It gets to the point where finally Violet doesn't want to shake him. And then, maybe she starts to have real feelings for him. They begin to "wander" their state together, exploring the interesting and the unusual.

I kept hoping for a happily ever after, where he saves her and she saves him right back, but real life isn't always that neat and pretty. Depression is common in teens, and so many times it is chocked up to hormones and high school. I think the author does a good job in representing the different teenagers found in school, and put even the secondary characters to good use in the story. This is not a book that you can read and remain dry-eyed. It is an important story to tell, and it is geared towards the audience that most needs it.

5 Ultraviolet Stars

"It's not what you take, it's what you leave."

I loved this book soooo much that it hurts. I hateeee Finch but I loved him more. This book is really very beautiful. i had it on my shelf for around an year but i just couldn't read it.. I always thought i should read it soon, but now...when it has been finished, i feel sooo incomplete, so empty that i think may be i could have lingered on that book a bit longer to make it stay with me. To make Finch and Violet stay with me a little longer.
This book make you think about life. About what we are doing with this beautiful thing we've got while someone is fighting for it every minute somewhere in the World. This book is about survival, about seeing the little things in life and cherishing them.

"You are all the colors in one, at full brightness." -Finch

This book will stay with me for ever.
Highly recommended to every single person out there.!