This post contains affiliate links. More and more, I find myself reading young adult books. Not only are many of them good, but PB & J Girl and I like discussing them after she reads them. For instance, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is a young adult book, yet I was captivated by the story. Fans of The Fault in Our Stars will enjoy this story.
About All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
This story centers around two high school kids in a small Indiana town. Finch is the high school weirdo who is suicidal. Violet is the pretty, popular girl who lived through a tragedy and is also suicidal. The two meet when they both stand on the ledge of the school bell tower and contemplate jumping.
Thanks to Finch’s persistence, Violet teams up with him for a school project visiting some Indiana tourist destinations. In just a few weeks, the two begin to influence and change each other as their relationship deepens.
My Thoughts on the Book
I enjoy Finch & Violet’s relationship and how they both tried to heal one another. I compulsively read this book and finished it in two days.
However, I had a few problems with the story. First, I couldn’t believe that a parent would be as clueless and uninvolved as Finch’s mother was. He painted his entire room blue, yet his mother had no idea he had done so. Finch was always gone in the middle of the night and would disappear for days, yet his family just shrugged and said that’s what Finch does.
While the guidance counselor Finch sees tells Finch he may be bipolar, I didn’t feel that the story adequately reflected this. I have family members who are bipolar, and without medication, their behavior can be extreme. Yes, Finch had some of that behavior, such as staying up all night, but I didn’t see Finch exhibit bipolar behavior clearly enough in the story.
For those reasons, I give All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven 4 out of 5 stars even though it kept me engaged.
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