Book review 36 - All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Pages: 378
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: January 6th, 2015
Summary:
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. 

Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the 'natural wonders' of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It's only with Violet that Finch can be himself - a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who's not such a freak after all. And it's only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink.



My Thoughts:

Boy oh boy, where to start with this book.
First we have Violet, who lost her sister 9 months ago and is trying to find herself and put herself back together, and we have Finch, who thinks about death a lot but doesn't want to die. Their story begins on the top of a bell tower.

Every since I saw this cover (I'm a judge a book by its cover person) I knew I wanted to read this. I knew I would like it, I just never pictured it being this much.
The writing was so addicting. I couldn't put it down and I found myself at 3 in the morning going "okay just one more chapter" because I just couldn't stop reading. The story flows so smoothly and captivates you from the very first page. It's beautiful and descriptive and I loved every word on every page.
Their story is beautiful. This book made me want to wander and discover new things and I just love that Finch saw the beauty in everything no matter how small and minuscule it was. He has this really positive outlook on almost everything, which is sad because when you read more you see that he doesn't always have the most positive thoughts.

Speaking of Finch, he's really hard to picture in my head. He's described as this really lanky tall guy who likes music and has a ton of sex, but I cannot stop picturing him as a scrawny dorky kid who isn't comfortable in his body (even though he is). He's such a beautiful and complex character and he made the book for me because I loved him so much. Violet was not my favourite character in the beginning. I found her confusing and very hard to relate to (I haven't lost anyone close to me *knock on wood* so I couldn't understand her) so it took me about 3/4 of the book to really start to warm up to her. And them romantically, well I didn't feel for it, until it happened and then I really liked it. I still don't think it was a romance that they needed or should have gotten into, but I am so happy that they did.

I really dislike that this book gets the "fans who like The Fault in our Stars and Eleanor and Park will like this" label because it's really nothing like either of those books, and really this deserves to stand on its own. It's a beautiful book that deals with a tough topic (and does very well) and should not be compared to other books that it doesn't relate to at all.

The end though, the end hit me hard. It was beautiful and heart breaking and I love that it came full circle.

A definite must read book and it really does deserve all the praise it got.

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