Big Books of 2026
A Goodreads user asked this question about All the Bright Places:
Is this an overrated book (since it has been compared to Eleanor & Park and The Fault In Our Stars) or is it worth buying? Opinions, anyone? :)
Nenia Campbell It's pretty similar to FAULT IN OUR STARS. Two teens meet by happenstance. Both are so quirky and contrived it hurts. They connect over a work of pret…moreIt's pretty similar to FAULT IN OUR STARS. Two teens meet by happenstance. Both are so quirky and contrived it hurts. They connect over a work of pretentious literature (Virginia Woolf in this case), which they proceed to quote at each other throughout the whole book. Both try to make a serious illness lighthearted, but whereas Green manages to somewhat capture the closeness of the cancer community, Finch is relentlessly bullied for his mental illness -- without consequence. (There's this disgusting scene with the school paper, where his school prints an article called "Students most likely to commit suicide..." or something like that. Goes unpunished, nobody talks about why it's wrong.) I also didn't like how suicide and suicidality is painted as this reckless, romantic, brave "I'll show you"-type thing, because that's not how it is at all. The ending...well, you can see it coming. At least I did. In my opinion, TFIOS and AtBP are pretty similar, except one's a washed out copy of the other. I'm so tired of this Neo-Byronic bullcrap where every Tom, Dick, and Harry love interest in YA/NA has to have some deep-seated (and ill-portrayed) issue.(less)
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All the Bright Places
by Jennifer Niven (Goodreads Author)
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