All the Bright Places is a phenomenal book. It looks at the idea that despite your love for someone, it isn’t always possible to save them. Violet and Finch meet on the top of the bell tower when both are contemplating suicide and it is unclear who saves who; but they both survive. Violet is coming to terms with a past tragedy and Finch is battling with his mental health

The book gently touches first love and how quickly you can fall for someone, but also the pain that comes when your idea of forever ends after a few months. It also explores the difficulty of teenage years and how easy it is to give your all to someone and then have it all taken away.

The characters like to think that they can save each other; that love covers up all their pain and if they both put everything into each other then they can save the other. As you turn the pages of this book you get more and more attached to the characters and you want, for their sake, it to result in the happy ending that they’re longing for. They’re both so young and their lives so complicated but they give this relationship a try because of a school project that brings them together.

The project results in them sharing road trips which causes them to grow closer and closer as they both frantically try to give the other a reason to live. A reason before it is too late. Finch is so obsessed with death but for Violet he finds reasons to live. Violet is so consumed with guilt but for Finch she puts the past behind her. They both try. They both want to make it. Even love can’t fix everything though, and I think throughout the text the characters start to learn this but they won’t let themselves believe it, they want this relationship to be enough to keep them both alive.

The book constantly explores life and death and it shows the reader just how valid life is, and it comes with an overpowering message of doing everything before it is too late. It shows that the thought of ‘what could have been’ can destroy a person.

Overall, the book is a must read and your longing for the characters to pull through keeps you turning page after page; you can’t put it down.

It is one of those books that you still remember months after reading it because the characters and the storyline they followed touched your heart in a way that you can’t forget them. It is a book that you can link back to your own life and it reminds you how fragile everything is and how important it is to treasure every moment with a loved one before it can be snatched away.

WHAT IS THE STORY ALL ABOUT?

Violet and Theodore come across each other when they are both contemplating suicide, and come to understand and care for each other. Theodore deals with mental illness while Violet struggles with the loss of her sister.

On the anniversary of her sister’s birthday, she tries to kill herself, but Theodore talks her out of it. The students who had seen what had happened thought the opposite happened and neither one of them tries to correct them. He reaches out to her through Facebook and they soon become friends.

Finch tries to help her attain resilience and overcome her tragic past. Theodore himself is later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Violet is one of the reasons that the bleak moments in his life seemed temporary. None of his friends or family really feel that there is something wrong with him and feel that he is just being himself. After she tries to help him, he goes on the run. As she goes looking for him, she finds his car. It is later presumed that he has drowned himself.

This novel extensively deals with the themes of mental illness and trauma and universalizes those themes to be understood by anyone who reads the novel.