All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven - Book Review
Title: All the Bright Places
Author: Jenniver Niven
Publisher: Ember
Publish Date: January 6, 2015
Rating: 4.2/5
Summary(blurb): Theodore FINCH spends each day thinking of ways he might doe, but every day he also searches for- and manages to find- something to keep him here, and alive, and awake. VIOLET Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her small Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her older sister's death. When Finch and Violet meet on a ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. Soon it's only with Violet that Finch can be himself. And it's only with Finch that Violet learns to start living. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink. A heart-wrenching, unflinching story of two teens who find each other while standing on the edge.
**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.
I picked this book up from the same local secondhand bookstore I bought the Midnight Library (and about twenty other books) from, and I don't really like YA dual-perspective heart-wrenching too-many-to-count books but I do enjoy them. That's the only reason I picked up this book (in addition to this Finch character about to jump off the school bell tower in the beginning).
First of all, the blurb. The blurb identifies this book as a 85% similar book to that of other YA romances like Fault in Our Stars, Never Always Sometimes, Paper Towns, Five Feet Apart, Eleanor and Park, Everything, Everything, Turtles All the Way Down, and so much more. However, it's the 15% difference between each of these books- like world building- that keep me reading this genre (although I'm starting to get a little tired of it).
This book predictably follows the story of Theodore Finch, an eccentric kid who gets into trouble a lot and wants to commit suicide (but keeps not doing it), and Violet Markey, a popular smart girl who is still dealing with the death of her older sister in a car accident about a year ago. At the beginning of the novel Finch and Violet see each other on the bell tower ledge and prevent each other from committing suicide, and this marks the start of their relationship. It is very very very unsubtle and direct, especially in Finch's case. Violet's feelings are less direct but equally clear. It was here- the first chapter- that I began to develop more distaste for this book. Why do the characters have to fall in love in the very first chapter?
However, that may have been the inciting incident but it was not the start of the real relationship. In a geography project where students have to visit and document unusual places in their state (Indiana), Finch announces to the whole class his partner on this project will be Violet Markey. Did that really have to happen? I understand Finch might be a straightforward guy, but I just think the romance development is too quick. Anyways, using the project as an excuse, Finch and Violet share many moments together going to eccentric places in Indiana. Their romance fully develops here and Finch and Violet become very close to each other.
These 'wanderings', as Finch terms their outings to eccentric places, are the parts of the book that I loved most. These have the intimate moments that I love in romances, and the places they visited- two of them in particular- are spectacular and amazing and I really want to have them in real life.
The first location is The Bookmobile Park, a collection of bookmobiles that were bought and parked after the county bookmobile services were discontinued decades ago. I would LOVE to have one of these near me since I've never been in a bookmobile before and the price of the books are A DOLLAR PER BOOK! I've never bought books so cheap, except for when I paid ₩3000 total for three books in a school bazaar. Those books were the only things I bought in that bazaar.
I googled "one dollar bookstore" and apparently there actually is a place called Dollar Book Swap in Dayton, Ohio! I really have to go there sometime, I don't really care about used books and I don't have some of the great books I've read on my bookshelf yet.
I should make a list of wishbooks.
The second location I loved is this unnamed place with a big abandoned factory building where, along one wall, there is a long line of "Before I die I want to _______" with the blanks filled in by different people, all done in chalk on the wall. This is a place to silently announce all the hopes and dreams you have to the world, somewhere you can post your bucket list. I want to visit here, and just look at all the messages people wrote.
As an aside: Google tells me that there do exist these "Before I Die Walls", created by someone called Candy Chang after the death of a loved one. Apparently there's also one in Korea.
Well, Aside from these two locations, there isn't much to say about the book. I thoroughly enjoyed Finch and Violet's wandering moments as well as when they're at home, and it was very predictable throughout. I did like the ending though, when Finch led Violet on a kind of treasure hunt and then disappointed everybody by disappearing. It reminded me of Paper Towns, like the clues were in Finch's room, only thing different is Margo in Paper Towns was found hiding in a home and Finch was in the water.
This book is part of this popular and ubiquitous trope of YA romance- especially the dual perspective one- but its 15% difference from the trope is what makes this book fun to read.
I would recommend this book for grade 6/7 and up, for the content and vocabulary.
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