All the Bright Places

Niven, Jennifer. All the Bright Places. 2015. 388p. ISBN 9780385755887. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

The school freak, Theodore Finch has been a target of his classmates for years, and a punching bag for his former NHL star dad. Morbidly fascinated by death, he knows all of the statistics dealing with suicide and has considered killing himself multiple times. He often loses track of months at a time, but now that he’s back and conscious he plans on remaining “awake” until he graduates.

So when he climbs the bell tower at school and considers what it would be like jumping, he notices that Violet Markey, another student at the school, is on the opposite ledge. With many witnesses on the ground below urging him to jump, he instead helps Violet step off the ledge and creates the story that she saved him by talking him off the ledge.

But why was Violet here? Theodore is intrigued, and wants to know more. Violet herself has suffered a tragedy when she and her sister got in a car accident last year and Eleanor died. Violet feels guilty. She’s the one who wanted to come back by crossing the bridge. It’s her fault that her sister is dead. She grieves for Eleanor, she grieves for herself and she grieve for the writing pair they used to be.

When a group project presents itself in the only class they share, Theodore volunteers to work with Violet, much to her chagrin. They must work together to discover the wonders of Indiana. They begin to discover that they have more in common than they thought, and that it this relationship which saved them both from the bell tower.

But as Violet begins to reconnect to life, Theodore barrels towards a complete disconnect. Will their love be stronger than the maelstrom of emotions and pain that surrounds them?

Told from both Theodore and Violet’s perspectives, this book is another tragic tale of death, suicide and its effects on those left behind. All the Bright Places manage to show that there is always an after. Ultimately, it’s a voyage of discovery that allows Violet to come to terms with her grief. Books with similar topics include Thirteen Reasons Why, Please Ignore Vera Dietz, We Were Liars, If I Stay, Zoe Letting Go, The Vanishing Season, Black Box or Kiss of Broken Glass.