Wednesday 24 February 2016

Review: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven


Name: All the Bright Places
Author: Jennifer Niven
Pages: 378
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 978-0-141-35703-4
Rating: 5/5

Violet is struggling to cope with the sudden death of her sister. Finch is simply struggling. When a school project forces them to work together an unlikely but powerful friendship is formed. Slowly but surely Finch helps Violet feel more like her old self but Finch seems to be sinking deeper and deeper.

First of all I want to emphasise how much I loved Finch and Violet both together and separately. Their relationship wasn't perfect, they argued and to me that made it all the more believable. Finch is by far one of the smartest and most witty characters I have ever come across but he still has a wonderful sense of humour. The way he reinvented himself so many times was such a cool addition to the novel. I'm going to go all 'Lit Studenty' now, please forgive me, I felt like it really cemented how he seemed to have no clue of who he actually was. Really clever. I like how Violet interacted with him, she didn't push him away like everyone else did because he was different. She embraced it.

I would like to commend Jennifer Niven on how she handled such a harrowing topic. Suicide should never be romanticised and I felt that it was portrayed very well in this novel. Particularly the after effects and how it affects the family/friends.

The plot was just fantastic. Reading it I could tell where it was going but I still felt blindsided by the ending. I texted one of my best friends about it and told him I was "ugly crying like Kim Kardashian." I then suffered an epic book hangover. I felt like this novel had elements similar to Paper Towns by John Green in that there was a set of clues one of the characters had to follow. In this story though I really liked it, it made the novel all the more heart wrenching. (I legit tweeted Jennifer Niven both cursing and praising her for writing this book.)

I would highly suggest this for fans of The Fault In Our Stars or Thirteen Reasons Why.

Trigger warning for depression and suicide.

Have you read this novel?

What did you think of it?

Katie x

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