All the Bright Places
Ratings251
Average rating4
Maybe I shouldn't read too much cryfest books. This got me good. It was so sad. 😩😩
4.3
Wow... I have no exact words for this book. The story is so devastating and beautiful, and it's rare for a book to make me tear up. Violet and Finch are such lovable characters. Their everyday interactions are so real and natural. As soon as you become invested in these two amazing young teenagers, prepare to get your heart wrecked. That ending almost killed me. It hurts so much. It's depressing beyond belief because most of the issues in this book are so accurate, especially amongst adolescents and young adults. I couldn't recommend this book enough. Prepare the tissues while you read this :(
Goddammit.
There were a lot of problems with this book. It's so easy to sloppily romanticise depression and mental illness that writers probably don't even realise they're doing it. Readers don't notice. These books make some readers angry because they believe tragedy and trauma are being used as cheap plot devices but others find it relatable and it helps them cope.
This one has a lot of sicklit tropes. It's a tearjerker. I hate that Finch's depression and death was used as fodder for Violet's post-traumatic growth, even though seasoned readers could probably see the suicide coming from a mile away. (I was hoping against hope it wouldn't happen.) This book made me cry (I cried through the last 50 pages) because it made suicide look beautiful but it isn't, goddammit, so stop making me feel like it is. Stop doing this to me, writers. Now that the bubble's burst, I hate this book for emotionally manipulating me by making a character so relatable I was identifying myself and my loved ones in them. I feel sad because the writer meant well and wrote from personal experience and this book must have been her coping with her own grief and loss...
This book got to me, badly.
az egycsillagos értékelésekből azt a konzekvenciát sikerült levonnom, hogy sokan nem képesek fölfogni, hogy bizony a mentális betegségek mellett rengetegen legyintve mennek el, még ha éppenséggel szülők, akkor is. és ez most gecire fölbosszantott.
finch rohadt jó karakter volt, remek bipoláris ábrázolással (és ugyanezek az egycsillagosok nem értik, hogy a mániákus időszakában miért nem a béka segge alatt van lelkileg. nem kifejezetten tudok mit mondani erre), de violet szemszögét kicsit fölöslegesnek éreztem, bár a végén nyilván szükség volt rá. szerintem elég lett volna csak ott előszedni, talán még ütősebb is lett volna.
jó volt, tetszett, csak a fellengzős-tudálékos virginia woolf idézgetést untam kicsit. (pedig ennyi idősen én is ilyen voltam, szóval nem lehetne egy rossz szavam se, ennek ellenére mégis zavart.)
Primera vez: Sencillamente espectacular.
Jennifer Niven con esta historia logró hacerme sentir que me iba rompiendo poco a poco,hasta llegar al desenlace y notar que ya estaba hecho pedazos.
Segunda vez: En esta segunda oportunidad, me di un poco más de tiempo para leerlo, y lo disfruté incluso más que la primera vez. Una historia cargada de cientos de cosas muy diferentes con las que se experimentan un sin fin de emociones.
Lo que hizo Jennifer Niven, para mi, es una joya.
Spoiler abajo:
En esta segunda oportunidad, pensé que el conocer la historia lograria que esta fuera menos impactante, pero sucedió exactamente lo mismo que la primera vez cuando llegó el desenlace estaba hecho pedazos. Y esto no es solo porque uno siente como Finch se termina de romper, sino porque el inicio es revitalizante y te da esperanzas.
MY HEART HAS EXPLODED INTO A MILLION PIECES . IM TOTALLY HAPPY ! .
I COULDN'T HAVE WANTED A BOOK THAT WAS ANY DIFFRENT TO FILL MY RANDOM “ INSERT HEART HURTING CONTEMPORARY HERE “ HOLE IN MY HEART !!!!!
so . good !
characters !:
Theodore (Finch )- totally the cutest cinnamon roll on earth right now . minus(ing) what happened to hiM . he is so beautifully broken ? ( not a phrase but now is . ) and amazingly talented ( he sings !) and all sorts of cute too . and he has dark hair and drives and runs , as well . spirit animal alert ! .
Violet Markey (Ultraviolet )- she'S so sweet and kind and everything i could have wanted in a female protagonist in the book ? meeting a guy on a ledge ? and having the guts to step down and live life after the accident ? it takes someone to be able to do that ( given the horrid happenings) . I'm proud . and a little teared up too .
the book as whole opened up my eyes to a world that isn't always what someone would love it to be and trying to change it can ultimately be hard . I flew threw this in a couple nights and can i say every second was worth it . the plot twists , as sad as they may sometimes be , the dialogue :
FINCH WAS PRETENDING TO BE BRITISH . I . LOVE . BRITISH FINCH . AND BAD ASS FINCH AND ALL AMERICAN FINCH . I LOVE ALL FINCH.
it has food +++ families too which is always a massive plus ;
ALWAYS IN MY HEART : ALL OF THE BRIGHT PLACES !
basically it , for now about this one * rambles on about it forever *. but beware:
this book shall compromise your emotional beings peoples . ye have been warned .
love ,
bookishwolf
Heartbreakingly beautiful
I couldn't put it down once I started and LOVED Theodore!
I loved the characters and charm of this novel. It had me from page one and it was nearly impossible to put down. I did not like the ending as much as I wanted too, though I honestly can't tell you exactly why. There was just something that did not have the same emotional strength as the rest of the story.
I loved the characterization, and the fun of traveling Indiana. Who knew this book would make me want to visit Indiana! I always enjoy books where the characters get to travel.
I also thought this was an excellent depiction of bipolar disorder and handled the topic of suicidal thoughts brilliantly.
This hit home. I relate so much to his depressive days. Great, but emotional read. Not best for those of us who connect... but I guess we will see how I handle this in the next few days.
Wow, this is one of the better books about teen mental health I've seen. It brings up good information about depression, and suicide. It's a good read but sometimes it was hard for me to hang in there and finish it.
My last book of 2015 and it was worth it. Poignant, intelligent, a real tearjerker. It reminded me of [b:The Fault in Our Stars 11870085 The Fault in Our Stars John Green https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360206420s/11870085.jpg 16827462]. A touching novel about death, suicide but also love.
Wow. This book hit a little too close to home for me. It's going to take me awhile to get over this one. Both the main characters were so relatable and so real that it hurt to finish the book. It hurts so much to see others struggling with mental health issues and this book made me so thankful that I was able to get help when I did and fight my way through this stuff. But it's not easy when others think that you're weak and ungrateful for the life you have. It is so incredibly difficult to deal with these issues and discuss them frankly because of the stigma surrounding it. This book shows the realities of mental illness and how horrible it can be to have to deal with. Someone close to me has been suicidal and extremely depressed and reading this book made me grateful that I can still help them through it and not let them suffer alone. Mental illness is such a difficult issue and isn't discussed enough. I hope this book teaches people at the very least that it's okay to need help and it's nothing to be ashamed of.
Finch and Violet meet in the oddest of places...both are on the ledge of the bell tower at school, contemplating suicide. Finch and Violet have nothing in common—Violet's got friends everywhere, but Finch is friendless...Violet has two loving parents and Finch's parents have checked out of the parenting game...Violet is easygoing and compliant, but Finch is a loose cannon—but they inexplicably become friends.
Finch is a character you can't help but love, all the while seeing his desperation.
Niven doesn't let you down with this book and snap on happily-ever-afters here and there like weaker authors do. It's cold and hard and clear and true.
An amazing read.
Theodore Finch wonders, at the open of the book, “is today a good day to die?” Instead he meets and “saves” Violet Markey from the ledge of the school bell tower. What is with YA meet-cutes that have to include someone near death?
The whole book feels wholly manipulative with an IMPORTANT message for all teens. And certainly I can't argue the sentiment about raising awareness around suicide. I especially like that Jennifer Niven includes resources for teens that may be wrestling with issues of depression and suicide as an appendix to the book. But otherwise I'm left wondering why are all the parents here are criminally hamstrung, blind and hapless while the teens are just all the feels.
I am the aged curmudgeon wondering why everything has to be so overwrought and melodramatic. On a completely unrelated note, I currently live with 3 teenagers.
Violet and Finch officially meet on top of the bell tower of their school. Both are thinking about jumping, for completely different reasons, so one talks the other out of jumping and so begins the journey of the two.
2.75
I honestly don't know how to rate this because I loved half of Part 1 and the rest was a bunch of different emotions. I wasn't really feeling part three, but that could because I wasn't fond of the character who was narrating it. I much preferred Finch's point of view in part 1 but in part 2 he had a sense of hopelessness that you already knew he was fighting a losing battle. The author made it quite obvious that the characters were more about their illness than actual characters. I loved the quotes that he shared and just in general his inner thoughts, but in part 2 it was hard to read from his point of view because he was simply personifying his illness.
I personally could not handle reading from Violet's point of view. She was so entitled and got mad when people treated her with sympathy (even though she was clearly looking for it). In general she was so judgmental and nasty with other characters and judged others when they did it to her. Part three was especially hard to get through because she acted like the world owed her something. In the end she acted as if she really knew Finch and hated that others just pretended to be sympathetic when she was exactly like them in the beginning.
Ok so I'm going off in a rant that is not really helping anybody. In the end I enjoyed parts of the novel but I can't say I understand why so many people love it. Violet was a terrible character and Finch was just full of hopelessness that I couldn't even really empathize with. The characters should have been more like characters rather than encapsulations of their illness.
Good but overly long. Better than the breathless YA publishing oversell (claimed as the new Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor & Park) would have you believe.
So much sadness... but so much goodness. This book was amazing and has a very important message. I was sucked in from about page 5.
