All The Bright Places

Book name: All the bright Places

Author: Jennifer Niven

Genre: Young Adult- Contemporary 

Standalone/Series: Standalone

Publishing Date: 1 November 2016

My Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Summary:

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning!
 
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.
 
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.
 
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.
 

I read this book at the beginning of the year and it’s really very hard to express what I feel about this book and the place it has in my heart, to put it all into words.

It revolves around 2 main characters- Violet Markey and Theodore Finch. Both of them are seeing counselors for different reason. Violet’s sister and soul mate had died in a car accident and Finch is suffering from Depression and suicidal thoughts.

This book deals with some very serious issues like suicide and depression and the lesson you get from it is that taking one’s life is a very easy but the tough part is coping with the problems and living.

This book is from dual prospective and we get to hear from both Violet and Finch and both of them have so distinct thoughts, their journeys are completely different and so are their endings.

All of it felt so real and genuine, every bit of it, it felt as if it was coming from the author’s heart and in the end I came to know that it really was. Jennifer Niven had also lost someone very dear to her, and I don’t even want imagine how difficult it would have been for her to write this book and this book has soo many heartbreaking moments, that it will move even the hardest of hearts.

I didn’t want to finish the book, I just couldn’t bring myself to read any further because my heart knew that something very bad was going to happen which would crush my heart into pieces, but still I read it, and if you also get the same feeling while reading it, then don’t stop, Finish it and read it until the end!

I really liked both of the main characters, but finch was my favorite. He is so cute, adorable, funny and just everything that the besetestt boy on earth would be, except that he suffers from a mental illness. He is one of my fictional boyfriends and I always looked forward to his chapters. Here’s a very interesting fact about Finch- He sometimes becomes a different version of himself. He is the same finch inside but he acts differently, dresses differently, speaks differently and does things differently. But I loved all his versions, he is just soooo amazing!

And as for violet, I could relate to her. Not completely, but I could. She is a type of girl, who has friends, but still doesn’t. Who is a part of ‘group’ but still feels alone. And then to take her loneliness and cold, comes finch like an angel and brings brightness and spring in her life.

“No more winter at all. Finch, you brought me spring.”

The side characters in the book were also very well portrayed throughout the book. They did not just exist, but had their views and the parents also interfered in their children’s life. In most books the parents are just there but they don’t have a say but in this book they did and that is one of the reasons why it felt so real.

WARNING: this book will break your heart and it will not be able to heal. Ever again! You’ll cry and believe me it will be worth it. Just read it until the very end and it will stay with you always!

Apart from the heart wrenching moments there were many positive parts as well and one of them was of exploration- travel to strange places near you, explore them, document your experience and leave something behind. But the places they visited were not where usually people go on weekends. They were different and a bit quirky and that made me realize that I haven’t explored anything around me. It made me feel that I am so limited and that I need to take a look at things around me, not the big ones, but the small ones!

I recommend this book to everyone because this book will change you and you need that change of perception, how you see things. Everyone in this world is soo judgmental that we don’t show our real self to people, in fear of being judged and being given ‘tags’. We say that the people who commit suicide are cowards, but taking one’s life may be the hardest thing one can do! Is suicide actually suicide by one’s own will or murder by the society?! This book was soo deep and it has the power to change the world and make it a better place to live in!

Just gooo and read it if you haven’t already! And if you have read it then what change did it bring in you? What life lesson did you learn from it? And last but not the least, Do you like reading cry worthy books even when you know they will break your heart?