All the Bright Places

My book is titled All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. The story revolves around two characters named Finch and Violet who one day meets up on the school's clock tower. The book discusses sensitive topics like, mourning, suicide, depression, bullying, abuse, ect. and story itself really heart-wrenching. It starts off in the clock tower where Finch originally planned to jump off of until he saw Violet, the schools' star girl, standing at the edge. Both protagonists are suffering from depression from Finch being bullied and unwanted at home to the death of Violets sister. When Violet topples off the edge and Finch saves her from death she had been thinking of, she feels grateful but also embarrassed because she didn't want to be associated with the school delinquent. During this first encounter, I already knew that a cliche teen romance type of love would ensue between the two and boy was I both right and wrong. Finch and Violet start off fresh and it turns into something explosive and then dies down into a pile of ashes. At the end when I felt my soul get crushed, Finch commits suicide at the lake where he and Violet had their first date. The end and the continuing story kept toying with my emotions and how the author deals with mental illness and having everything hold you back from the world hit a little too close to home. Niven showed the true painfully dull colors of depression and how adding a love interest won't make it go away, because you don't romanticize mental illnesses. There was one point in the book where I could feel myself be pulled in and empathize with Finch. This was when he was dating Violet and throughout their time while he was still alive, he gave her the reasons and encouragement on why she still needs to live and in turn pushing away all his problems just so he could keep her long enough and to make sure she was stable enough to handle his death. The love, the gloomy aura, the story,the handling of sensitive topics and placing them in a light where I can feel it correctly is what made me so intrigued and so angry at this book. I love and I you will too.