All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is a contemporary realistic fiction story about a boy and a girl. They embark on the magical, extraordinary, and dangerous journey of life. Finch sees Violet, and Violet sees Finch. And the fact that they can see each other with open eyes is what brings them together. They wander, and Finch gently coaxes Violet out of her shell so that she can live again. Finch is alive, but he's not sure how long he will, or wants to, be around. Every day for him is a fight to stay on solid ground, to stay awake, alive. They want to live a perfect day, to see the bright places, and remember that time on earth means something. And maybe it's worth more to live every day to the fullest than to have many meaningless ones.
SPOILER ALERT
So I went into this as a person who doesn't usually pick up romance novels. I don't know, they just aren't my thing I suppose, and I feel like a lot of the time they are more cheesy than heartfelt. And I'm going to tell you this was heartfelt. Whew. I had to sort of sit and remember who I was after that one. I'm not lying when I say I was in a bit of a stupor for days. So don't say I didn't warn you.
But this is a beautiful, beautiful, book. It's like pure emotions in words. You really feel it. And it's a wild ride. You're up, your down, hopeful, terrified, broken, excited. It's a rush. And I loved it. Let's talk about the storyline a bit.
Girl meets boy. Typical right? Not when it's Theodore Finch. Finch is this guy who sees the world in an incredibly human, incredibly original way. As in he's looking at it straight on and he sees it for the magically extraordinary dusty place it is. He wants to live it. And life's not easy for Theodore the Freak. He's in and out of his house, his room is his home, but so is the road, the swimming pond, his old, beat up car. And every day he searches for a reason to keep living. To convince himself he's not just filling up empty spaces. He thinks about death, he takes hold of it, examines it. Theodore Finch rejects labels. He is his own person. And he's searching.
Violet is living in a static, fear ridden world after the death of her sister and best friend. She doesn't go places, she has extenuating circumstances. Creative writing, once her passion, her calling in life, is thrown to the back of the closet to gather dust. She associates herself with troubled friends, people she doesn't need, doesn't want. And eventually she finds herself up on a bell tower ledge, shoes in had, staring down at the ground far below, and then up into the face of none other than Theodore Finch.
The newspapers and classmates say it was Violet who coaxed Finch down. Nobody knows it was the other way around.
These characters are AWESOME. I love them. They have so much character building, so much depth, they are so fulfilling to read about, and you don't get to understand everything. The quoting of the Waves in this book is so full of foreshadowing and meaning. The wording was beautiful, it was inspiring, challenging, self reflective. Wonderful.
The middle of the book was everything I could ever want it to be. Until they started getting serious, if you know what I mean. Then, I felt like their relationship was sort of lost. I'm not sure if the author meant it to be that way, but it was a little sad for the reader. Like you just didn't get as much of the actual Finch-Violet interaction.
When Finch ended up throwing himself to the depths of the Blue, I wasn't sure how to even live my life anymore. Violet following his clues left for her was painfully remorseful. The author really got that feeling across, I applaud her so much for this job well done. I felt that melancholy, bittersweet tug on my heart as Violet stepped in Finch's last footsteps, realizing there would be no more.
I wanted the ending to be satisfying, but it wasn't. In fact, it was utterly heart crushing. But that's what a suicide is. And the people who pretended to love Finch when just days before they had been ridiculing him? I can't even say anything about that, it tore my heart in two. I think that the author really dug deep, really reminded us how important it is to help, and love, and care. These are people, just like us. In fact, sometimes they are us. So we need to reach out and extend helping hands and understand.
When you finish this book, you take it with you. It carves itself into your heart, a little doodle of a violet and a bird with a plus sign between them. You find yourself hanging up sticky notes on your walls and quoting books you've read. It's a beautiful thing. This book is truly a Bright Place.
What did you think of All the Bright Places? Comment down below!
