all the bright places – jennifer niven

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Standalone
Published January 6th 2015 by Knopf
Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance, mental illness

links: Goodreads | Book Depository

rating: ★★★★★

summary:

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.

ꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥ

it’s been a while since i sobbed like a baby while reading a book. spent the better part of the second half crying my heart out and reading the words through tears. i definitely ugly cried. it deals with grief and heavy topics on mental illness. i just couldn’t deal with anything by the end of it all because it felt as if my heart was getting ripped out and trampled on. not fun, but a beautiful book.

all the bright places was everything. i went into the book not knowing anything, and so, it hit me really hard when i started to realise where things were going and i was immediately a mess. it has successfully reached to my list of books that i’ll forever remember, rave about and it has definitely became a favorite book of mine.

finch is so precious. people call him a freak in school because he’s different. nobody knew the real him, not even the people he’s closest to. with everything that he went through, he kept everything to himself. it’s what he does to protect himself against the mean girls of the world. however, he is still uniquely his own person which made him far more interesting than anybody else in the book. he’s misunderstood by many people that it hurts my heart whenever i think about him. finch is so good with his words.

He leans forward over the handlebars, eyes on me. “I’d go to Hoosier Hill with a beautiful girl.”

after the accident which cost her sister’s death, violet was never the same anymore. she’s no longer smiling like she means it and she’s just going through everyday feeling guilty about her sister’s passing because she was the lucky one. not only that, she’s suffering from ptsd. everyone’s telling her that she got lucky that she’s alive, lucky that she survived. nobody gets her anymore, until she met theodore finch.

i loved the both of them, i loved their wanderings. jennifer niven did such a fantastic job with all the bright places. she wrote it in a way that absolutely gripped my heart. it showed me hope, love, pain and sadness. and i will definitely remember violet and theodore’s story forever.

"It's not your fault. And sorry wastes time. You have to love your life like you'll never be sorry. It's easier just to do the right thing from the start so there's nothing to apologise for."