I picked up this book at an airport simply because I could not find the book I was looking for and I just wanted to buy books. I didn’t know that this book is called a ‘mixture of Eleanor and Park and The Fault in our Stars’, which is a terrible combination! I was in tears reading each of those books and the thought of bearing the burden of both of them at once was pretty overwhelming.
While reading this book I went through a roller coaster of emotions. It is probably because this book is in between the point of view of Theodore Finch and Violet Markey and both of them have very different views on things. Finch is the sort of person who has too many damaged parts and loose strings. His view of life is very fragile and sensitive. He does not want anyone else to suffer the way he does. According to Violet this is very hypocritical because he shows her the world she would want to live in; he radiates hopes and probably absorbs all the suffering and pain like the opposite version of Pandora’s Box. Violet on the other-hand would not be alive if it wasn’t for Finch. Violet had a phrase of depression which she overcomes gradually thanks to Finch but the boy finds himself disappearing somewhere he always feared.
From the difference between surviving and living to just very bad puns, this book has it all. It will make you laugh and it will make you cry but most of all it will make you feel something. That is what art does.
This was Jennifer Niven’s first young adult novel and I think everyone agrees with me when I say she did a splendid job. While reading the author’s note I realized the parallels between the story and her life and felt terrible about it. You know when you watch a show and it was fantastic and you loved it and then you are told that it was based on a true story? And you are all like, “No way?!” Well my friend, that is how I felt after reading this book. The fact that Jennifer Niven wrote this book in six weeks is driving me crazy. This book is a bestseller and currently taking over the world (no surprises there) but it is written in such a short time period! I think it is so incredible. After you finish this book you are going to advertise it to all your friends because that is what I did. This book is everywhere and if you haven’t read it, what are you even doing?!
Rating: 4.5/5
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Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
- Read an interview with Jennifer Niven from another site member!
- All the Bright Places is one of the books shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2015 - why not review one of the shortlisted books and enter our Young Critics Competition?
