Book Review: All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Hi There!

'You are all the colours in one, at full brightness.'

This book for me is definitely a solid 4.5/5   It was a wonderful read for me and definitely made me go through a whirlwind of emotions. There were moments when I wanted to laugh, and then moments when I wanted to cry and I felt like my heart was being ripped out. It has definitely made me want to wander and explore the town that I live in to find some hidden treasures.

So the basic outline of this story. It is written from two different points of view. Firstly, a boy called Theodore Finch who wants to kill himself, and secondly from a girl called Violet Markey who is suffering the after effects of the loss of her sister. They both meet at the top of a clock tower where Violet is debating taking her own life. Finch manages to talk her down and the story goes from there. There are ups and downs in their relationship and as a reader you feel as if you are third wheeling the whole way through as you are experiencing the same feeling as they are. 

The main focus of this story is mental illness, and more specifically on depression. The way that Niven describes the feelings of depression and people who know others who have depression show she has first-hand experience, and she is trying, through her writing, to help others who may be dealing with the same issues. One of the key moments of this book I found was Finch's chapter about 'Quicksand'. In this chapter Finch explains the 8 stages of trying to survive 'Quicksand', and this can be related to trying to survive the drowning feeling that you have when you are tackling an illness like depression. Being able to compare the two circumstances makes it easier to understand how, as a character, Finch is feeling. 

Overall, I would recommend this book to absolutely everyone. Not only does it highlight key issues to do with mental illness, but it has you hooked from the first couple of pages as you want to know what happens between Violet and Finch (and believe me, you need to know what happens!). 

Now everyone, GO AND READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!!

Girl Without a Plan, Making Plans

xoxo

My Extremely Long Catchup...

Hi There!

So I know, I know, it has been an extremely long time since I have posted, but I am still actually running this blog. It has been 43 days since I have posted, and this is definitely way WAY too long!! There isn't really an excuse other than the fact I actually haven't been bothered and I do just want to relax. I have realised however that I do actually have to do things with my days, so now I am going to start blogging. So no more excuses, it's time for a catch up!

The first thing that has happened since that last post is that obviously all of my exams have finished. They were some of the worst exams I have ever had to sit, and along the way, it has made me debate about what university I am actually going to be able to get into. There were tears, there were tantrums, and eventually the burning of absolutely everything. Looking at all of my revision burning away was surprisingly satisfying, and I realised there is nothing I can do about it now, so I might as well attempt to forget about it all till results day. 

Only 1 day after my exams finished I had my leavers prom which was really fun because I go to hang around with all my mates and there was drinking and a photo booth. There unfortunately wasn't enough drinking done by me because me and my friends were off on a flight the next day to Ibiza!

So Ibiza was the next big step, or maybe leap. This was my first holiday abroad without my parents and let me tell you, it was absolutely amazing. The 5 of us were staying in an all inclusive hotel in Cala Llonga, and it was by far one of the most beautiful places. We spent so much time just relaxing by the pool, eating food, drinking slush puppies, and maybe one night we went clubbing. We aren't the clubbing type, so just relaxing and playing drinking games is our idea of fun. There was so much freedom and we could do whatever, I definitely want to go back on holiday with them again. It brought us so much closer together. How about I now make you extremely jealous and show you some pictures of where we stayed...

So after we got back from Ibiza, there was only 1 day to relax until it was our Leavers Dinner, and I have to admit, that wasn't actually as emotional as I thought. It was a lovely evening eating food, hanging out with the year, and ending up in the pub. It was definitely a good send off and a nice goodbye to the school. 

The week after I got to go and see A League of their Own being filmed, which stars James Corden, Jack Whitehall, Freddie Flintoff, and Jamie Rednapp. I love the programme so much and watching it being filmed makes it so much more fun. There was a hell of a queue though to get in but it was definitely worth the wait!!!

A couple of weeks after that I got to see Ed Sheeran at Wembley and OMG it was one of the best things that I have ever witnessed. Ed Sheeran is just a beautiful man playing beautiful music. There is just something about him that makes me feel calm and safe, there is no way to describe it. The way he is able to just have a guitar with him on stage and then have 80,000 people sing back to him just amazes me. Why don't you look at a couple of photos from that as well...

And since that I have been doing my own thing. I mean, mostly I have just been lazing around watching TV, but I am planning to make some interesting memories and go on some amazing adventures. 

I guess for now I will leave you with this and let you get back to your life. I will be posting over the summer, and hopefully it will be stuff you find interesting. Anyway, lots of love,

Girl Without a Plan, Making Plans 

xoxo

My Top 5 Summer Series...

Hi There!

Okay, so during the summer, I don't know about you, but I tend to spend a lot of time indoors. I mean, I go out obviously, but there are days that I do spend just sitting in front of the TV. Normally I will be engrossed in a new series and then I will just binge watch that series until I know everything that happens. I'm sure there are people out there that also do this, I mean, Twitter and Tumblr are just made for fangirls like me. So I've decided that I'm going to share with you some of my favourite series to watch. You may have already watched some of them or you may think you won't like some of them, but hey, you won't know until you try. Okay, so on to the series...

1) Gossip Girl

Now this was a new find for me (Praise Jesus for Netflix!) I know this is a relatively old series but it is still amazing. It is all to do with the 'Upper East Side' and trying to stay off of Gossip Girl's radar. This series is definitely aimed towards teenage girls I believe as one of the main focuses of the series is the romance, specially between the infamous Chuck and Blair, and the fact the boys that are in it are H-O-T. It is definitely a series that you can get involved with and it will have you shouting at the TV for your favourite couples to get together. The main focus (sort of) is trying to find out who Gossip Girl is, and I have to admit, I was rubbish at guessing who it was! Unfortunately, I saw a spoiler and it turned out all my guesses had been wrong, so if you want to watch this series, STAY AWAY FROM WIKIPEDIA!!!!!

2) The 100

This series is rather different from Gossip Girl. For one, it is much more recent, and secondly it is based in the future. It is based on the idea that everyone lives up in space because there was a nucleur bomb on Earth, and to try and save oxygen and see if it is possible for people to live on Earth, the President sends down 100 under 18 convicts. These 100 need to learn how to live off the land and survive in conditions they are not familiar with. I absolutely love this series!! There have only been 2 series so far, but a third has been confirmed to be aired in 2016 which I think is just too far away!! There is not a strong emphasis on romance in this series, but it is there (#BELLARKEFOREVER). It is a series for those who like adventure and a series that will just keep you guessing, because it is a series that you obviously can't compare to real live. I would recommend everyone watches this and falls in love :)

3) Dance Moms

I know this series is very controversial, but that is what makes me love it. I know it gets a lot of criticisim, but until you watch it, I don't think you can really have an opinion. It's quite clear what the series is about just from the title, and if the name Abby Lee Miller means nothing to you where have you been living!! This show is supposedly 'real life' but I think it is extremely dramatised (is that even a word haha?). There are so many arguments between the mums, and the mums and Abby it makes it so funny to watch. Lots of people think that Abby doesn't treat the girls well and it is abuse what she says, but it may be that a lot of what she does/says is for the show and she may be nice in real life, so we can't judge until we know for sure. This is definitely a watch if you want to watch something that is drama filled!!

4) Keeping Up With The Kardashians

Like Dance Moms, I know this is a very love/hate series, but for me it is definitely a love!! Again, the title is rather self-explanatory, and it is basically a reality series following round all of the Kardashians. There are so many series of this it will definitely occupy your summer haha. You get to see so much into their lives it is actually quite interesting because personally, I won't ever live a life like them, so seeing what they live like just amazes me. You may think after 10 series there can't be much left to see and it will get boring, but believe me, it doesn't! Their lives are so up and down it would make anyone sick on a rollercoaster. Definitely a watch if you want to see how the other half live!

5) Pretty Little Liars

This is by far my favourite series ever! I started watching it about 4 years ago (living in the UK meant watching it online so soooooooooo many odd websites!). Unless you have been living in a very, very dark hole, you will know what this series is about because Twitter and everything else goes ape when an episode has been on. This series is based on the fact a girl has gone missing, and then the 4 other girls in her friendship group started receiving threatening and blackmailing messages from a person called A. So far it is nearly half way through series 6 and I AM STILL WAITING FOR SO MANY ANSWERS I'M STARTING TO GO SLIGHTLY NUTS!! SO MUCH FOR SUMMER OF ANSWERS!!! This is a series that will definitely improve your patience as I have now been waiting 4 years for answers, but August 11th I will finally get those answers!! It will be extremely hard to ignore those spoilers so if you want to start watching this series, I suggest you start binge watching it now!

So those are the 5 series that I recommend you watch over the summer. They are series that will have you hooked and will make you want to carry on watching once you have started!!! Now, back to watching Pretty Little Liars, see you later!!

Girl Without a Plan, Making Plans

xoxo