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All the Bright Places

Jennifer Niven (Goodreads Author)

4.17 · Rating details · 246,717 ratings · 29,282 reviews

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning!

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.

...more

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Hardcover, 378 pages

Published January 6th 2015 by Knopf

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Average rating 4.17 ·

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· 246,717 ratings · 29,282 reviews

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Oct 03, 2014 C.G. Drews rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, contemporary, 5-star, read-2014, best-of-2014, mental-illness

I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO FUNCTION RIGHT NOW. I HAVE JUST READ THE MOST BRILLIANT AND HEART-RIPPING STORY OF THE UNIVERSE. How do I do words?! How do I explain how much I'm feeling right now? I think I could cry and sing all at once, but mostly cry. Just know this very very truthful fact: This is the most incredible book I have read. It's probably my favourite contemporary in the world. I can't....I just...I need a moment.
description

I love this book. You know how it's compared to Eleanor & Park and ...more

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Jan 24, 2015 Emily May rated it did not like it

Shelves: young-adult, contemporary, 2015

Hmm, so there's a girl whose name is a colour (Violet) and a boy whose name makes him sound like he burst from the pages of a Dickens' novel (Theodore Finch) and they're both super quirky, intelligent and know the names of a bunch of dead poets. Then there's that whole death thing hanging over this novel... why does it feel like I've read this before?

Err...

Oh, right.

Okay... so don't you just hate it when reviewers try to tell you what you should or shouldn't read? And they make universal ...more

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Jan 08, 2015 Raeleen Lemay rated it did not like it

Shelves: young-adult

the characters weren't people, just mental illnesses put into bodies. "quirky" but in reality mentally ill. not cool. nobody treated the characters' problems like they were real problems and that pissed me offfff

however, if you enjoyed the book/could relate to the characters, that's totally fine. this one just wasn't for me unfortunately.

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Jan 01, 2015 Caz (littlebookowl) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned

*EDIT*

Full review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXQBq...

I don't even know what to say... I'm sure the words will come, and at that point I'll try to film a review. But for now I'll just think about a million and one things.
My gosh <3

Review copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Feb 25, 2015 Ben Alderson rated it it was amazing

OMG
THIS
BOOK
HAS
CHANGED
ME

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Jan 13, 2015 Jr Bacdayan rated it really liked it

Fuck. I’m a glorified classics guy but what the hell happened here. I cried. Fuck. I rarely go for YA trust me; I’m a condescending jackass who’s read one too many books. Usually I never even touch these kinds of sappy stuff, I basically hate the genre. I don’t like John Green. Fuck the Fault In Our Stars overrated sack of shit. But I don’t know why this book got through to me. For one thing, it doesn’t condescend, it doesn’t sound corny, it doesn’t try too hard. The thing about adults writing Fuck. I’m a glorified classics guy but what the hell happened here. I cried. Fuck. I rarely go for YA trust me; I’m a condescending jackass who’s read one too many books. Usually I never even touch these kinds of sappy stuff, I basically hate the genre. I don’t like John Green. Fuck the Fault In Our Stars overrated sack of shit. But I don’t know why this book got through to me. For one thing, it doesn’t condescend, it doesn’t sound corny, it doesn’t try too hard. The thing about adults writing YA novels is that they try to sound fucking stupid. I mean, just because you’re writing for someone younger doesn’t mean you’re writing for someone moronic. Don’t look down on them, treat them like equals. I didn’t feel that condescension here. Jennifer Niven doesn’t fall into the pit of trying to water things down, or sound like a kindergarten teacher or a smartass. It felt natural. She didn’t condescend, I didn’t condescend. Nobody condescended, which is great. Respect begets respect. I digress; let’s get to book in the spotlight.

The story is about a girl learning to live from a boy who intends to die. It starts with two people meeting on a ledge of a school tower, both considering ending their lives. One out of grief, the other out of pain and in the midst of death they connect .Both survive that day. Then they are hurled together into a project that makes them wander through their provincial Indiana State finding beauty where they never expected to see it. The story of their growth in love and life, trying to find meaning is something that kept me up reading all night. Their journey through those precarious times together made me feel more than the last ten books I’ve read combined. They made me feel alive. But somehow, as one’s horizons grew, the other’s world shrank.

“It's my experience that people are a lot more sympathetic if they can see you hurting, and for the millionth time in my life I wish for measles or smallpox or some other easily understood disease just to make it easier on me and also on them.”

This novel touches on death, depression, and suicide; it paints a picture of love in a canvas of pain. Teenagers for one understand pain and loneliness more than anything: death, grief, love problems, hormones, identity crises, self-esteem issues. You don’t need to be depressed to relate to this novel. You don’t need to experience death to know the pain. Heck you don’t even have to be a young adult. You are just drawn by the flow of it all, you give in. You ride the waves and sometimes you can’t help the flow of tears.

I guess one of the things that really drew me in is the portrayal of characters. They feel real, they capture the life of someone who feels a variety of emotions, the confusion and pretenses of being a teenager. It captures anger. It captures heartache. It captures the hopeful dread inside someone young looking at the deep abyss of the future. Forget whatever their issues may be, forget their circumstances, they’re persons and they feel real. What happens to them feels real.

And it also doesn’t hurt that this novel is one giant tribute to Virginia Woolf.

But I think what’s important about this novel without giving away too much of a spoiler is that it spreads awareness about mental illness and suicide the same way Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time did with autism. This novel has the potential to be a mainstream success, and it talks about an important issue that needs more recognition especially with young people. It gives light about how young people should understand and deal with people who suffer from depression, bulimia, bipolar disorders, and other mental illnesses. Especially considering that young people who suffer from these are the ones most fragile, often bullied by their peers and schoolmates for being different. Ultimately this is a great novel with an important message aimed at the right audience. At the end of the day that’s all we can ask for from a book.

Whoever you are, whatever your condition may be, know that:

“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.”

Only sometimes you may get enveloped in darkness, which when you learn to deal with, you find actually accentuates your light.

Keep your head up. ...more

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Apr 20, 2015 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, own

$1.99 on Kindle US 1/28/18

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I'm going to say a lot of personal things on here then go on with the review which will include spoilers, but I will put up the spoiler alert before I do. I also want to add some quotes from the book and the author's note at the end.

This book is about teen suicide and bullying. But, it's also about some wonderful people, happy moments and a bit of crazy-wonderful.

When I was young I was bullied in school most of my life. ...more

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Sep 29, 2014 April (Aprilius Maximus) rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014

Seeing other people's reviews on this book that I really trust made me realise a lot of things that I don't really agree with. Right at the time I was reading this, I felt like I could really relate to the main characters and their depression and I think that's why I thought I loved it so much and why I somehow overlooked some really concerning things. It's kind of written in a way that the characters are nothing but their illnesses, if that makes any sense. It felt like there was nothing else ...more

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Feb 05, 2018 Virginia Ronan ♥ Herondale ♥ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

”I know life well enough to know you can’t count on things staying around or standing still, no matter how much you want them to. You can’t stop people from dying. You can’t stop them from going away. You can’t stop yourself from going away either. I know myself well enough to know that no one else can keep you awake or keep you from sleeping.”

I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to write a review about this book.
It made me so damn sad that I feel whatever I say, it just won’t be enough.
It ...more

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Nov 04, 2014 Shelby *trains flying monkeys* rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, netgalley, young-adult, made-my-face-rain, read-2015

First things first. In the blurb of this book it says..The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park. That should go. I liked both those books in their own right. This book should and does stand on it's own. It's better than that.

This review may go all spoilery and too much personal information. Be warned.
My writing of reviews have been said to be Awkward..fuck that. I'm going all in on this one. If I can get one person that needs to read this book to read it through my review..it's worth it.

...more

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Aug 15, 2017 jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

‘sometimes theres beauty in the tough words - its all in how you read them.’

i dont think a quote from a book has ever described its own story so perfectly. this is a tough one to get through, but living in the heartbreaking words is a touch of something so lovely, so precious.

ive noticed my feelings regarding this book have slightly changed the second time around, but there is one thing that has stayed the same. and that is how this story demands to be felt. its a kind of rawness and pure ...more

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Sep 12, 2013 Wendy Darling marked it as dnf

Shelves: realistic-fiction, tough-subjects, young-adult, own-dtb-tbr, rh, 2015-publication, hipster-ya, flames-on-the-side-of-my-face

I think this may end up being a DNF for me; consider this a prelimary reaction as I put it on hold. I've only read a few chapters so far, but I'm struggling with the quirky/cute style married with a subject as serious as suicide. I mean, are we going to see self-mutilation or child abuse or domestic violence or homophobia painted with cotton candy colors next? This is one of those set-ups (girl meets boy as they're both standing on a ledge contemplating suicide, rat-a-tat precocious-funny I think this may end up being a DNF for me; consider this a prelimary reaction as I put it on hold. I've only read a few chapters so far, but I'm struggling with the quirky/cute style married with a subject as serious as suicide. I mean, are we going to see self-mutilation or child abuse or domestic violence or homophobia painted with cotton candy colors next? This is one of those set-ups (girl meets boy as they're both standing on a ledge contemplating suicide, rat-a-tat precocious-funny dialogue ensues) that probably works better as an indie darling romantic comedy film than it does in book form, as there are no soundtracks or Instagram-type filters or dizzying camera tricks to distract from the main point of the story.

It's not that I don't think heavy topics can't be handled with a light hand (see the excellent--and hilarious--Suicide Notes, and I believe pretty much every John Green novel I haven't read), but thus far I'm not charmed enough by the relationships or humor or writing here to forget that suicide is used as a cute plot device. If the book also dealt well with the serious, no-shit implications and consequences of the acts these kids are contemplating, I might be more inclined to continue, but after chatting with my fabulous co-blogger Layla, it doesn't sound like that really ever happens--and in fact, the severe depression and (view spoiler) don't sound like they're handled with satisfactory weight. She wrote a real review for the book here: http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2015... discussing specifics if you're curious.

I'm wondering too--do reactions to this book vary depending on how much personal experience you've had with suicide or depression? Suicide has touched my life in ways that have forever changed me, and while I don't consider myself overly sensitive or prone to reacting to triggering material, other readers might find it easier to accept this facile treatment--or even harder, depending on your history.

Most readers I know seem to be absolutely loving this book, though, so take our reactions with that in mind. As I have a mental block with it at this point, I'm setting it aside for now, though I'm guessing I might come back to it out of curiosity, or if the year-end awards cycle sweeps this one up in its wake. It certainly seems like just the type of book that would be prone to do that.

An advance copy was provided by the publisher for this review.

...more

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Jan 06, 2015 Hailey (Hailey in Bookland) rated it did not like it

Shelves: owned, contemporary

Updated- 2015-07-02
This book has been bothering me for a while in all honesty. I thought I loved it when I first read it, I really did, but honestly I think I was caught up in all the hype. What Raeleen (padfootandprongs07 on YouTube) said has really stuck with me: the characters become their illness. And while depression really is all consuming and can make you feel like you're made up of not molecules but sadness, I feel that a book about depression should show that there is more to people ...more

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Apr 23, 2015 Jasmine rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Everyone. A MUST-READ in life.

Recommended to Jasmine by: Nalani

Shelves: thought-provoking, all-time-favorites, highly-recommend, beautiful-stories, will-reread, positive-ideas, practical-methods, touching, realism, movie-based

This is my secret---that any moment I might fly away.

Somehow I think 5 stars aren’t enough for such an ultra-remarkey-able book; if I can, I’ll definitely give it as many stars as those shining in the entire universe because All The Bright Places deserves them all, seriously.

For starters, I actually like the way Theodore Finch met Violet Markey---on the ledge six stories above the ground at the Bell Tower in their high school on a rainy day---it's a rather beautiful encounter for me.

Theodore ...more

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Mar 25, 2015 emma rated it it was ok

Shelves: owned, contemporary, nope, favorites-2015, reread, reviewed, gorgeous-covers, 2-stars, unpopular-opinion, ya

Reading is an interesting thing.

When I was around 17, I was just getting back into it. I’d spent the later part of my middle school years and the beginning part of my high school ones not reading much at all. This is due to my being deep in long-term tests of a very forced and inauthentic persona, in playing a version of myself who was just way too cool to do all those totally lame things like read, or try in school, or be an even remotely pleasant or interesting person.

It was neither convincing ...more

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Apr 01, 2015 Nick rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorite-authors, 2015, contempoary, suicide

very very sad but extremely beautiful

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Jan 20, 2016 Darth J rated it did not like it

Shelves: disappointing

Where to begin? I heard great things about this but I should have stayed away.

Violet
I feel like she only really existed here to be the emotional component of this book. She's used as a prop mostly and a prize, yet I never saw her as having any personality beyond just being a sounding board. There is plenty of woe is me/my sister died so I use that as an excuse to hide from life from this character. She just felt insubstantial to me, her only purpose being to tell the readers about the emotional ...more

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Mar 20, 2018 Charlotte May rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-recent, tear-jerker, illness-mental-terminal, romance, ya, sisters

“My beloved boat
is broken on the rocks of daily life.
I’ve paid my debts
and no longer need to count
pains I’ve suffered at the hands of others.
The misfortunes and the insults.
Good luck to those who remain.”

I was not prepared for this emotional upheaval! A damn good YA contemporary that deals with the complex issues around suicide. It is something that so many of us have dealt with first hand, I myself know two people who have committed suicide before I’ve even turned 25.

“We are all alone, ...more

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Jan 11, 2015 Lola rated it liked it

Shelves: romance, contemporary, family, death, mental-illness, suicide

Finch and Violet are two very different persons. She is popular, down to earth and is trying to please everyone. He’s the ‘‘Freak’’, careless and doesn’t know or acknowledge how the many things he does every day might hurt people around him. (Or maybe he does, and that is why he is lying to everyone about his deepest feelings, but I couldn't know for sure. Was there more to it, or just his personality?) Yet, they both have something in common: When at night, neither of them sleeps peacefully. Violet’s sister died in a car accident, and she blames herself for it. A part of her knows it wasn’t her fault…yet she can’t help but think about all the ‘‘If only I…’’

Finch was the most complicated to understand, decipher. Since we’re honest here, I actually didn’t and that is one of the reasons why this book cannot get a higher rating from me. Some might think it is okay to not clearly apprehend all of our main characters’ thoughts or his/her way of thinking but I really need that. Otherwise, the character in question will remain a mystery unsolved for me, and that would make me, as a reader, unsatisfied. That’s how I feel about Finch. He’s depressive*, yet doesn’t act like it – for the most part, not that there is a *way* of acting when you’re depressive. He just…didn’t convince me. Some might think that he’s searching for attention, because of how crazy he acts sometimes, but that’s not it. And that will never be it. But could I really tell you what the real problem is? I couldn’t, even though I am aware of one of the – I assume – things that makes him unhappy. I could try to, but the thing is that he, as a main character, is not fully honest with us. He rarely tells us everything that is on his mind – except for Violet. Very rarely. There’s always this mask he’s wearing daily that hides his true emotions and, whenever that mask falls, the deepest truth that comes out of it shocks him and he puts it back again. Maybe that’s not how you’ll see him, but, unfortunately, that’s how he appeared to me.

The writing was wonderful. I could recognize a little resemblance to the one in The Fault in Our Stars but very little, since that book is, for me, the best of YA contemporaries and my mind doesn’t want to compare it to any other YA contemporary book. But let’s go back to this novel, it had also much originality. I admit that some settings were too overused, but there was a variety of them, so that helped. Also, while I liked the plot, and I did – really, it did stretch too much. The first part, when Finch & Violet slowly got to know one another, was sweet but, when they became lovers, my interest wandered around and tried to anchor itself on something else, because I really wanted this to be more than a romance novel. And it is! Thank god it is. However, Finch & Violet’s relationship was not that different from other YA books with *broken* characters or ones searching for something to brighten up their lives.

There were some secondary characters but they looked as if, if the main characters aren’t interacting with them, they do not exist or are easily forgotten. Sincerely, Charlie, Finch’s best friend, had potential to be an exception to the rule, but his humour that was introduced at the beginning of the story disappeared later on.

Many will probably find this book to be beautiful – it was – and breathtaking and with reason. And that is why I would recommend it; I think we will all see it differently, maybe depending on our past experiences or the type of people we’re close to. Really, this is the kind of story that I will even recommend not reading reviews for before picking up. Now, my mentioning of this at the end of this review was not pre-planned. *wink*

PS. Virginia Woolf has just rocketed at the top of my TBR pile. The many quotes of hers that were included in this read had my complete attention.

*(view spoiler) ...more

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Sep 29, 2015 Brian Yahn rated it it was amazing

All the Bright Places is the story of how Theodore Finch and Ultraviolet are brought together by death--which would be gloomy, except the two personalities bloom, becoming something beautiful, as their wondrous adventures bring them closer together. Jennifer Niven takes a girl meets boy story, sets it in the dull landscape of Indiana, and turns it into a Seussical wonderworld with these extraordinarily conflicted characters.

Saying their journey is a rollercoaster would be a understatement. It's ...more

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Oct 18, 2014 Thomas rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, realistic-fiction, romance

2.5 stars

I would rate Jennifer Niven's author note five stars if I could. We need more books about mental illness; authors should strive to tackle uncomfortable subjects like abuse, suicide, and bipolar disorder. While Niven's intentions come across as meaningful and good, her delivery through her first YA novel, All the Bright Places, falls short. Some reasons why:

1: These characters have QftSoQ (Quirkiness for the Sake of Quirkiness) syndrome. They - in particular, Finch - read as caricatures 2.5 stars

I would rate Jennifer Niven's author note five stars if I could. We need more books about mental illness; authors should strive to tackle uncomfortable subjects like abuse, suicide, and bipolar disorder. While Niven's intentions come across as meaningful and good, her delivery through her first YA novel, All the Bright Places, falls short. Some reasons why:

1: These characters have QftSoQ (Quirkiness for the Sake of Quirkiness) syndrome. They - in particular, Finch - read as caricatures that spout literary references and send each other uncouth Facebook messages for the sake of evoking our inner John Green fans. I get that teens have intelligent and/or odd personalities. But slapping a character with an unusual sense of self does not do them justice: quirkiness does not equal depth. I wanted to get deeper into Finch and Violet, to learn about their backgrounds, their familial relationships, and other aspects of their humanities.

2: Finch and Violet's relationship felt like a shock of insta-love followed by a series of stalker-like advances. I wish I could see why they clicked, aside from their magical first time together on the rooftop of their school. Finch likes Violet's smile and creates a Facebook account just to add her; he pressures her to reveal her secrets and to hang out with him even after she says no. he bases his entire sense of self-worth on her existence, which acts as a huge red flag in any type of relationship. Niven treats this unbalanced romance as if it should make our hearts soar. I wish we got more complexity from Finch and Violet as individuals, in particular Violet, whose grief storyline felt overshadowed by Finch's perspective.

3: The parts of the book that pertained to mental illness lacked precision. I appreciated Finch's honesty with his suffering, even if sometimes Niven's voice superseded his own. I also enjoyed the ending of the book and how Niven handled the climax of the story. But so much of All the Bright Places felt more like an indie romance - starring Violet as the Manic Pixie Dream Girl - than an actual novel with serious themes. Niven could have replaced more of the too-overt symbolism and adolescent hyper-intellectualism with scenes that might have layered Finch and Violet as individuals, because people in real life go through similar struggles, and they deserve accurate representation.

As someone who has a lot of personal experience and exposure to mental illness, I wanted more from this book. Other authors have pulled it off, like Michael Thomas Ford in Suicide Notes and Nancy Werlin's The Rules of Survival. While Niven writes well and possesses great motives, I hope that readers will recognize the problematic portions of this book and still appreciate its foray into the subject of mental health. ...more

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Nov 15, 2014 Sarah Churchill rated it it was amazing

Shelves: received-for-review, favourites, arc

Every now and then you find a book that not only makes you think, but changes the way you look at the world. 'All the Bright Places', in all its clever, poetic and honest beauty is one of those books. It will stay with me, forever.

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Jun 26, 2015 Katty rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction, young-adult-and-children, 2015, reviewed, psychology-and-mental-health

Ugh. Just, no. Mental illness is not a cute little quirk. It isn't something that kickstarts a misfit, high school romance. It is not something that automatically makes you more witty, or intelligent, or really all that different from your peers. It isn't at all what is portrayed in this book. Niven's intentions may be wonderful, and she is right that we need more books about mental health and illness. But this makes a mockery of it. Please, YA authors, don't touch this topic unless you know ...more

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Nov 12, 2018 JV (semi-hiatus) rated it did not like it

Shelves: romance, 2018, young-adult, contemporary, paper-shredder, mental-health

Horribly pretentious, overtly ostentatious, and highly deleterious! Niven concocts a controversial narrative about suicide and mental illness with the intention of bringing forth light into all the darkest places yet the way she handles/executes this story is both disheartening and callous to those who are facing their everyday "black holes and blue holes and bottomless bodies of water and exploding stars and event horizons, and a place so dark that light can’t get out once it’s in."

Bartlett, ...more

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Jun 21, 2015 Warda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: re-reads, i-fell-in-love

“You make me lovely, and it’s so lovely to be lovely to the one I love.”

Well, my heart has been butchered again. But, I can’t complain because I chose to reread it.
I woke up in a state of mourning. This is what this book was. It was honest and raw about mental health, parental neglect, lack of understanding about the topic in schools and society as a whole.

Jennifer Niven did an amazing job showcasing all of this and I felt so deeply connected to the characters and their struggles.
This book ...more

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Jun 03, 2015 Aly (In Wonderland) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, contemporary, faves

Is today a good day to die?

All the Bright Places turned out to be one of the most personal books of the year for me. Although it's being marketed as "The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park", I have to violently disagree. As someone who detested The Fault in Our Stars and hasn't read Eleanor and Park, All the Bright Places touched something inside me that these books did not.

Theodore Finch, seventeen, wants to die. He knows the best ways to commit suicide, as well as the international ...more

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Jul 10, 2015 Christy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016-audios, 2016-ya-challenge

5 stars!

description

This year instead of having New Years resolutions I won’t keep, I decided to make book goals and one of those goals was to read more YA. 25 is my goal for the year. This was the first on my list this year and it blew me away! For real, I had ALL THE FEELS while reading this. Powerful, memorable, smart, funny, sad, real… this book was completely authentic and moving.

description

There were so many ‘quotable’ things in this book. I just want to talk about the story so much but I went in blind and ...more

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Mar 01, 2015 Whitney Atkinson rated it it was ok

Shelves: the-worst, read-in-2015, mental-health, unhauled

I can't even scramble my thoughts together for a review. Unrealistic and incredibly irritating. None of the characters' actions made sense. The only time I liked the story is whenever Theo's depression (????) was triggered and he became aloof and dissociated, because that was more tolerable than his annoying antics leading Violet on and perpetuating this "Theodore Freak" label at school. As a reader, I feel really guilty that the only parts of this book that I enjoyed were the parts that the ...more

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Nov 10, 2019 ♡ ᴅ ʀ ᴇ ᴀ ᴍ ♡ (semi-hiatus) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: made-me-cry

5 / 5 stars

“No longer rooted, but gold, flowing.”

Throughout the book, there were so many clues leading to what I did not want it to happen the most in the story and I tried, tried, and tried to ignore all of them, wishing that maybe this book would not be so cruel to me and there was still hope that the incident like this would not happen in the book.

But unfortunately, as I had already presumed for some time, my wishes did not come true. And that, if I’m being honest, completely ripped my ...more

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Jan 30, 2015 Natalie Monroe rated it it was ok

Shelves: i-should-ve-said-no, not-as-good-as-i-expected, not-worth-the-hype, boooring, typical, cheesy-cheesy-cheesy, mental-illness, copycat, slut-shaming, when-sparks-don-t-fly

2.5 stars

"He smiles out at the ugly trees and the ugly farmland and the ugly kids as if he can see Oz. As if he can really, truly see the beauty that's there. In that moment I wish I could see it through his eyes. I wish he had glasses to give me."

Can someone give me their glasses too, because I can't see it. I don't see the appeal. I don't see what inspired thousands of reviewers to post sobbing gifs, and those that disliked The Fault in Our Stars to tote it as amazeballs when it's the exact ...more

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Thoughts After finishing the book	94	705	Feb 14, 2020 05:21PM
YA Book Reviews : All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven	1	2	Feb 10, 2020 11:10PM
Bookish Reality: February Group Read!	1	11	Feb 03, 2020 11:48AM
Before I die, I want to...	2	13	Jan 06, 2020 07:04PM
Do you think Finch could have been saved?	2	19	Jan 06, 2020 07:03PM
MSM Sophomore Eng...: Melissa Gathings - Post #1	4	9	Dec 13, 2019 08:24AM

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About Jennifer Niven

Jennifer Niven

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By the time I was ten, I had already written numerous songs, a poem for Parker Stevenson ("If there were a Miss America for men, You would surely win"), two autobiographies (All About Me and My Life in Indiana: I Will Never Be Happy Again), a Christmas story, several picture books (which I illustrated myself) featuring the Doodle Bugs from Outer Space, a play about Laura Ingalls Wilder's sister ...more