All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

I love when I finish a book and am filled with such complicated emotions.  I know then that the book will be in my heart and mind for a very long time, if not forever.  When I finished reading All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, I was overcome with emotion.  I felt the heaviness of a pain planted somewhere deep inside of me as I contemplated all that had happened to the main characters.  I felt a weightlessness of hope when I thought about how I had found peace after such a turbulent storm, and I imagined this for Violet, Bren, and Charlie.  I felt a reminiscent happiness as I reflected upon the humor, the passion, and the love that the characters experienced together.  All the Bright Places is powerful!

The book begins cleverly.  Niven had to know that her readers would not be able to put the book down after they meet high school seniors Finch and Violet who are at the top of their school’s bell tower, out on the ledge, and both contemplating what it would be like to end their lives.  They are not there together.  They are simply two souls who are in a great deal of pain, imagining death at the same time.  Finch talks Violet off of the ledge, yet high school gossip retells the story as Violet, the popular cheerleader with the all-star boyfriend, saves suicidal Finch, the loser freak who is always doing something stupid.  

From that moment forward, readers fall in love with Finch’s unconventional methods as he tries to save Violet from her own pain.  They become friends and more and journey together around Indiana discovering ordinary landmarks that lead to not so ordinary revelations about life.  As Violet begins to grapple with her loss, Finch reveals the source of his pain.  The journey is tough for the characters and hard on the reader, but the beauty of what they find cannot be understated.   “I love: the way her eyes spark when we’re talking or when she’s telling me something she wants me to know, the way she mouths the words to herself when she’s reading and concentrating, the way she looks at me as if there’s only me, as if she can see past the flesh and bone and the bullshit right into the me that’s there, the one I don’t even see myself” (p. 265).  But, it is what they leave behind that is even more powerful for both the characters and reader.

All the Bright Places is wrought with reality.  It is a reality that many teens face.  There is joy, and there is sometimes great pain.  Sometimes teens keep the pain to themselves and suffer in silence.  Sometimes they let others in to help them.  There is humor with Finch and Violet.  There is love.  Yet, there is pain.  It may be a tough read from some, but I think it is an important one for all.  This book made me think about my own feelings after my grandfather’s suicide and living with a suicidal mother.  It made me think about the teens in our classrooms who may be like Finch.  I hate that we, as adults, do not see them like we should.  We have to be more vigilant.  We should say something.  I so appreciated the honest words of Niven in the Author’s Note at the end of the book, as she shared her own experiences as a Survivor After Suicide.  I think what she says, and the power of the story of Finch and Violet, might just help someone to unload the burden of blame or to seek help when all seems lost.   

Thanks, Jennifer Niven, for taking that first step into the world of YA lit.  You have left a powerful footprint.  “The thing I realize is that it’s not what you take, it’s what you leave” (p. 376).

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, 388 pages from Alfred A. Knopf books (2015). ISBN # 978-0-385-75588-7

Ideal for young adult readers (and those who work with or care about young adults)