All the Bright Places
2014
- suicide
- friendship
- emotional problems
- fiction
- children's fiction
- friendship, fiction
- suicide, fiction
- emotions, fiction
- indiana, fiction
- nyt:young-adult-hardcover=2015-08-30
The story
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.
What it’s like
Alternating first-person chapters give this book a restless, close-up voice: clipped, funny lines that turn lyrical without warning, and the feeling of being inside two teenagers' heads at once. The world is flat Indiana in late spring and summer, with heat rising off roads, sun-bleached school corridors, a bell tower's bare ledge, and long drives with the windows down. The mood is bittersweet, tender and restless, with grief sitting under the humor the whole time. Pacing is quick and conversational, with chapters that feel like stolen afternoons and a steady pull toward a bond that feels both urgent and fragile. Suicide is central to the story, with frequent thoughts of self-harm and death, and the final stretch is heavy and devastating; there is no gore, but the emotional weight is intense and sustained. Dark, tender, and raw, it suits a reader who wants a melancholy, character-driven story and can handle its emotional honesty. It is for readers who want an emotionally intense story about mental illness, grief and first love, and who are prepared for a painful, unsoftened ending.
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