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