All the Bright Places

“Is today a good day to die?” This is what Theodore Finch, a boy fascinated by death, asks himself each day. He always thinks of ways to kill himself, but something stops him each time.

When he meets Violet Markey - a girl going through the grief of her sister's death, on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. They pair up for a project to discover the natural wonders of their state. This is when they discover that life is after all worth living. Only around Violet, Finch can be himself -a weird, funny, lively guy who is not the freak people call him at school. And it's only with Finch that Violet starts to live instead of counting her days till graduation.

This is a story of a girl who learns to live from a boy who wants to die.

The book captures the theme of mental illness, suicide, & friendship (with a touch of romance). It beautifully describes the feelings of a person suffering with a mental disorder, while not revealing the disorder until later. It is captivating & high on emotions. In fact, there comes a point where you no longer want to read ahead because it just hurts so much. The chemistry between Theodore & Violet, the way they are completely themselves with each other tells you the depth of their bond.

The writing was good to the extent of extracting emotions out of the reader, however I feel it lacked character development. You do not connect with the characters on a personal level, and are left only feeling bad for them superficially. It seems like they are just used as a means to extract your emotions.

The book is usually compared to TFIOS with people calling it the second TFIOS. I'm not sure if I agree with this. The story is similar, to an extent, with all the death & emotional stuff. However, it isn't on par with TFIOS when it comes to character development & plot.