All the Bright Places

There is not a lot I can say about this YA debut from Jennifer Niven. It is a depressingly good representation of bipolar disorder and the feelings of being in love with someone who suffers from it. Grief is a huge player in this book and while there are bright spots the book barrels towards the dark without apology. I didn't cry, much because mostly I was frozen. Tense and waiting to see what became of Violet and Finch. It was a very ‘hits close to home' sort of book for me.

Theodore Finch is too pure for this world

Original de: El Extraño Gato del Cuento



Ay, creo que me será difícil reseñar este libro, lo tengo postergando porque de verdad no sé exactamente qué poner. No solo porque me gustó demasiado, sino también porque tocó un tema demasiado personal.

Siempre se me hace un poco extraño encontrar similitudes con personajes como Theodore Finch, alguien que puede ser demasiado aventurero un segundo pero al siguiente no poder ni siquiera levantarse de la cama. Tuve un poco de recelo mientras avanzaba con mi lectura porque hay una línea muy delgada entre querer contar una historia con un personaje como Theodore Finch de la manera más realista y romantizar una enfermedad, que por experiencia sé es un infierno.

Por otro lado Violet me recordó a muchas de las personas que conocí hasta ahora, ese tipo de persona que queremos ayudar a pesar de que quizá somos nosotros lo que necesitemos ayuda.

El libro está narrado a dos voces por lo que sentirás lo diferente de los personajes, encariñarte y sufrir cuando las cosas sucedan.

Es un libro complicado, habla sobre muerte, básicamente Finch no sé pasa un párrafo sin alguna mención a ella, pero mientras vas leyendo ves como su percepción de la cosas van cambiando, como va evolucionando y te da la esperanza que las cosas salgan bien. Tanto Violet como Finch tienen problemas bastante serios que enfrentar. Y es tan doloroso ver como cada uno se está ayudando porque te hace pensar una y otra vez “Esto no acabará bien”


Al llegar al final tuve que dejar el libro un rato porque no quería afrontarlo, como dije al principio, está historia la sentí demasiado cercana. All the Bright Places es un libro complicado, si no se lee correctamente puede acabar en mal entendidos, como idealizar una enfermedad mental.

No quiero compararlo con los otros libros, para mí All the Bright Places es único, te muestra hasta donde una enfermedad que lamentablemente está menospreciada.

¿Algo más? Creo que no, me sido difícil escribir este poquito, si tienen la oportunidad de leerlo, háganlo. Siempre y cuando lo que quieran es terminar con el corazón roto.



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Beautifully heart-breaking is all I can think to say about All the Bright Places. While it gets compared to TFIOS and Eleanor & Park, I think it's a completely different story. I highly recommend it.

Poignant, devastating, sweet. One needs to be stronger than me to read it and not end up sobbing.

This book is wonderful or to kind of steal a Violet and Finch thing it is also wander-full. I've never read this author before but I am really impressed with How thoughtful she was when writing about things such as grief, survivors guilt, abuse, bullying, depression,suicide, and hiding yourself from yourself. The main characters are well written and you find yourself hoping for them.Poor Finch definitely got the short end of the parent stick. Anyway great book and great literary references with Virginia Woolf. Recommend to those who like realistic fiction and don't get upset with hard topics like mental illness.

Last but not least I feel spent after having been on this emotional ride of a book.

“It's my experience that people are a lot more sympathetic if they can see you hurting, and for the millionth time in my life I wish for measles or smallpox or some other easily understood disease just to make it easier on me and also on them.”

Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of their school's bell tower one fall afternoon, each wondering what it would be like to end it all, though stopping short of taking the leap after being surprised to find the other there. Finch, a self-proclaimed loner who is fascinated with death is surprised to find popular Violet in the same situation, though she won't admit to him her reasons for being on the ledge that day. While she resists his efforts to form a friendship, he arranges for them to be partners on a class project, determined to get to know her. During their year together, the two broken teens wander their state, finding beauty and happiness in odd places.

With this book, Jennifer Niven may have changed my mind about YA fiction. Usually I find that tales of heartbroken, “damaged” teens feel forced: rife with kids who can't send a text using full words then make melodramatic speeches (yeah, I'm looking at you, Fault in Our Stars) and parents who are a stereotype. All The Bright Places, however, manages to not only capture authentic teen voices, but also show their daily struggles (bullying, friendships, searching for identity, family dynamics, etc.) without being patronizing.

That's not to say there aren't problems with this novel. The school they attend seems woefully ill-equipped to deal with teenagers. A guidance counselor Finch sees regularly knows of his bell tower visit yet doesn't make any concerted effort to contact Finch's parents, voicemails home go unanswered for the entire year with no follow-up, Finch regularly misses weeks of school, yet there's also no fall-out. Also, the secondary characters are not well developed and sometimes fade into the background, with the possible exception of Finch's and Violet's parents, who demonstrate their dysfunction in opposing ways.

The remarkable thing about this novel, however, is how Niven realistically portrays depression and mental illness. Finch describes his dark times:

I get into these moods sometimes, and I can't shake them. Kind of
black sinking moods. I imagine it's like what being in the eye of a
tornado would be like, all calm and blinding at the same time. I hate
them.

Finch copes by hiding in his closet, making his world small and manageable, until he feels “awake” again and can emerge to face everything again. A school counselor suggests he may have bipolar and Finch fights this suggestion, afraid that he will become even more of a “freak.” Niven manages to capture Finch's desire for an understanding even as he resists the label of a diagnosis.

Strangely, even though others have said that they saw the ending coming, I was so swept up in the story and my concern for these two characters that I was as blindsided by the ending as the characters were - surprised even though, in retrospect, it was probably inevitable. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys John Greene and Rainbow Rowell...but also to those who don't. This book was pitch-perfect in a field of books that otherwise strain a bit too hard to hit the right note.