All the Bright Places Book Review

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Jennifer Niven took the literary world by storm with her first ever contemporary young adult novel, All the Bright Places. In a style similar to John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park, Niven’s story follows the lives of two high school students, Violet Markey and Theodore Finch. Their relationship kicks off right from the start when the two first meet at school, the classic combo of social outcast meets little-miss-popular. Only, their initial encounter happens to be on opposite ends of the ledge of the school bell tower.

Finch is the boy obsessed with death, and Violet is the girl who can’t stop looking toward the future, but as the book progresses it becomes clear that the two are not quite as different as they once appeared. It was all too easy to fall in love with Finch’s quirky and darkly hilarious personality, and the strength of Violet’s character never failed to surprise. After being paired together for a school project, the two set out to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, and along the way they help each other discover all the bright places in life, from the big to the small, the bizarre to the beautiful, and everything in between. As the book progresses, Niven flawlessly tells the story of a girl who finds her will to live in the boy who wants to die, and how even the most unlikely of pairs can turn out to be the perfect match.

All the Bright Places is a story full of adventure, happiness, love, pain, and is positively bursting with life. This book brought me immeasurable amounts of laughter and tears alike, and Niven’s brutally honest and endlessly beautiful storytelling had me sucked in the entire way. Within the 378 pages I managed to experience every one of their adventures with them, and feel every bit of heartache they felt. Although I had gone into this book a bit skeptical, I never once felt as though the storyline was uneventful or slow but was on the edge of my seat until the very end. All the Bright Places will forever stay with me as one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful books I have ever had the pleasure to read.

All the Bright Places is a 2017 Abraham Lincoln High School Book Award nominee.