Review: All the Bright Places
12:32
by Jennifer Niven
Source: Personal purchase, paperback
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Mental Illness, Realism
Goodreads Synopsis:
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.
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.
Although this book was compared to TFIOS by many people, I just overlooked that, and went into this book with an open-mind (well, someone spoiled the ending for me *angry face*, so I went in as open-minded as I could). I was wrong. This book - and I hate to compare books, but I just can’t help myself in this case - was so similar to The Fault in Our Stars.
This book has been described as “The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park”. I didn’t like TFIOS, but I liked Eleanor and Park (at the time - if I read it now (I read it around a year ago), I’m sure I wouldn't like it). Whoever said this definitely hit the nail on the head - if you enjoyed TFIOS and EaP, you are bound to love this novel.
My main problem with this book was that it was boring. I can see how some people would enjoy it (a lot of people enjoy this sort of thing), but it’s really not for me. I like more action, or if it is going to be purely romance, at least make their relationship have something more special about it.
There was practically no plot. For the majority of this book, it was just Violet and Finch falling in love (I promise this isn’t a spoiler - dual POV, really... what did you expect?), which bored me. I don’t mind romance, but I prefer the romance to just be a sideline plot, not the main point of the book.
The thing that bugged me the most about All The Bright Places was how it was told through Violet and Finch’s POV. I just found this unnecessary and confusing. I found it hard to keep track of who I was reading about, meaning I had to keep flicking back to the start of the chapter to see who was talking. This would have been easily fixed by writing in 3rd person, or just one person’s POV. This would have made the story much better for me.
The thing that I did like about this book (I know, I’m not an entirely bad person for giving a bad review on this book...) was how the relationship between Violet and Finch developed. It wasn’t some annoying insta-love. They grew to like each other overtime, which made this book a higher rating, and made me enjoy it much more.
Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book. I found it boring as there was basically no plot. I think it’s definitely fair to say this one isn’t for me.
My reaction:
Rating:
Hello! I'm D - a dog-loving feminist from the UK. You'll probably find me with my nose in a book or playing my clarinet
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