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A review by sarahscupofcoffee
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
5.0
Read this and other young adult book reviews at www.readersandteachers.com!
First Impressions
All the Bright Places is all over social media right now, due to the Netflix release. Honestly, it’s the reason why I decided to read it this month. It’s been on my TBR for a long time, so I’m using the adaptation as an excuse to bump it to a higher spot on the list.
On social media, everyone suggests reading (and watching) this novel with a box of tissues. I hate sad stories. I don’t mind brutal, gory, scary, or intense novels, but the ones that make me cry... well, you can say I’m an ugly crier.
With that being said, I was excited to read this because of the hype and the story. I love the cover and its simplicity. I love the character names and how they’re being represented by symbols (Finch and Violet). Despite the tissues, I am excited to dive into this book.
Main Elements
Plot. To say this book tore me apart is putting it lightly. I almost wanted to scrap my usual formatting for writing reviews, but decided it had to stay. I was battling which element to discuss first because this is a character-driven plot, but the plot itself is incredibly powerful. This marks a sign of an excellent writer. Niven had this expert balance between plot and characterization, which I cannot say is true for most writers I’ve read in this genre.
I loved the plot in this book. We have two teenagers who meet at the top of a bell tower, both intending on jumping (sort of). They talk each other down and build a solid friendship turned romantic relationship out of their experiences. One of the main points in the plot is a school project. They are tasked with the challenge of “wandering” their state.
The idea behind the wandering is that these seniors won’t be in the lovely state of Indiana much longer. Their teacher wants them to experience the state before moving away for college. So, Violet and Finch end up partners and start to chart their wanderings on a map.
The book’s hard plot, as I’m going to refer to it, is this project. They go on this journey together, making memories and inside jokes along the way. The book’s soft plot is that Finch is battling suicidal thoughts and a hard home life.
This plot dives deep into teen suicide, bullying, and making friendships.
Characters. All character introduced in All the Bright Places are well developed and dynamic, even the secondary ones. Violet recently lost her sister in a car accident and has a lot of grief to wade through. Her character is gray and murky, because that’s what it feels like to lose someone close to you. It feels like the world has lost color and Jennifer Niven did a great job at depicting that loss. Violet shows the most character growth throughout the novel, which I loved.
Finch is a weird person with a few close friends and a crappy home life. He switches personas when he feels like he’s changed as a person. He also has depression, which is evident throughout the novel. His character really confused me at first because I didn’t know how literal Niven was being toward his Awake and Asleep phases. He goes through phases where he goes to Sleep, where he blacks out and doesn’t resurface for days to weeks to months. He wants to stay Awake, so he fights off his Sleep. That’s the only part that really confused me in this novel.
Setting. The setting was developed beautifully. Violet and Finch visit so many places and interact with various odd attractions. The detail Niven put into the map and the places associated with it was stunning.
Theme. There were multiple themes of this book. The top one being suicide awareness. You don’t need me preaching at you about suicide, as most of us have had a brush with it in one way or another, but All The Bright Places truly dives deep with this theme.
Reason for Rating
I gave All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven a 5/5 star rating because of how detailed the plot was. The ending is crazy and unexpected. I knew I would cry and that this book is about teen suicide, but that ending tore me apart in ways I didn’t expect.
For Teachers
I would love to tell you that this book is perfect for every classroom library because I think it has important themes and is a book that all teens should read. I seriously believe that, but because of how the world is and the nature of this book, I’m not sure this book is great for all audiences. I would use your judgement and definitely read this book before doing anything professional with it.
That being said, I am going to build a literature unit around this novel for teachers who want to discuss these themes with high school students. Permission slips will be needed, but I think there are some important lessons for both bullies and kids that feel suicidal in this book.
Grades: 9-12
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven was published September 13, 2016 by Ember (reprint). She is the founder of Germ Magazine, a real literary magazine for teens, which you can find here http://www.germmagazine.com/. To view her other written works, visit her website https://www.jenniferniven.com/!
First Impressions
All the Bright Places is all over social media right now, due to the Netflix release. Honestly, it’s the reason why I decided to read it this month. It’s been on my TBR for a long time, so I’m using the adaptation as an excuse to bump it to a higher spot on the list.
On social media, everyone suggests reading (and watching) this novel with a box of tissues. I hate sad stories. I don’t mind brutal, gory, scary, or intense novels, but the ones that make me cry... well, you can say I’m an ugly crier.
With that being said, I was excited to read this because of the hype and the story. I love the cover and its simplicity. I love the character names and how they’re being represented by symbols (Finch and Violet). Despite the tissues, I am excited to dive into this book.
Main Elements
Plot. To say this book tore me apart is putting it lightly. I almost wanted to scrap my usual formatting for writing reviews, but decided it had to stay. I was battling which element to discuss first because this is a character-driven plot, but the plot itself is incredibly powerful. This marks a sign of an excellent writer. Niven had this expert balance between plot and characterization, which I cannot say is true for most writers I’ve read in this genre.
I loved the plot in this book. We have two teenagers who meet at the top of a bell tower, both intending on jumping (sort of). They talk each other down and build a solid friendship turned romantic relationship out of their experiences. One of the main points in the plot is a school project. They are tasked with the challenge of “wandering” their state.
The idea behind the wandering is that these seniors won’t be in the lovely state of Indiana much longer. Their teacher wants them to experience the state before moving away for college. So, Violet and Finch end up partners and start to chart their wanderings on a map.
The book’s hard plot, as I’m going to refer to it, is this project. They go on this journey together, making memories and inside jokes along the way. The book’s soft plot is that Finch is battling suicidal thoughts and a hard home life.
This plot dives deep into teen suicide, bullying, and making friendships.
Characters. All character introduced in All the Bright Places are well developed and dynamic, even the secondary ones. Violet recently lost her sister in a car accident and has a lot of grief to wade through. Her character is gray and murky, because that’s what it feels like to lose someone close to you. It feels like the world has lost color and Jennifer Niven did a great job at depicting that loss. Violet shows the most character growth throughout the novel, which I loved.
Finch is a weird person with a few close friends and a crappy home life. He switches personas when he feels like he’s changed as a person. He also has depression, which is evident throughout the novel. His character really confused me at first because I didn’t know how literal Niven was being toward his Awake and Asleep phases. He goes through phases where he goes to Sleep, where he blacks out and doesn’t resurface for days to weeks to months. He wants to stay Awake, so he fights off his Sleep. That’s the only part that really confused me in this novel.
Setting. The setting was developed beautifully. Violet and Finch visit so many places and interact with various odd attractions. The detail Niven put into the map and the places associated with it was stunning.
Theme. There were multiple themes of this book. The top one being suicide awareness. You don’t need me preaching at you about suicide, as most of us have had a brush with it in one way or another, but All The Bright Places truly dives deep with this theme.
Reason for Rating
I gave All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven a 5/5 star rating because of how detailed the plot was. The ending is crazy and unexpected. I knew I would cry and that this book is about teen suicide, but that ending tore me apart in ways I didn’t expect.
For Teachers
I would love to tell you that this book is perfect for every classroom library because I think it has important themes and is a book that all teens should read. I seriously believe that, but because of how the world is and the nature of this book, I’m not sure this book is great for all audiences. I would use your judgement and definitely read this book before doing anything professional with it.
That being said, I am going to build a literature unit around this novel for teachers who want to discuss these themes with high school students. Permission slips will be needed, but I think there are some important lessons for both bullies and kids that feel suicidal in this book.
Grades: 9-12
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven was published September 13, 2016 by Ember (reprint). She is the founder of Germ Magazine, a real literary magazine for teens, which you can find here http://www.germmagazine.com/. To view her other written works, visit her website https://www.jenniferniven.com/!