After wanting to read this since its release I finally got round to it and I'm so glad I did. Violet Markey is a seemingly normal girl with popular friends, struggling to deal with life after her sister's tragic death. Theodore Finch is strange, peculiar and labelled the school freak, obsessed with death, he knows a limitless amount of facts on suicide yet is still alive. When they meet on the ledge of the bell tower, it is unclear who saved who but what is obvious is that they will never forget each other.
This book is simply astonishing. It's a book of wanderings and exploration. A book of love and grief and it's a book about teenagers. It made me laugh, cry and feel almost every emotion possible in a way that I can only compare to the first time I read The Fault In Our Stars. Finch's voice is one of the most unique I've come across in contemporary YA; he's flirtatious, and funny yet completely messed up at the same time. His voice has stuck with me since I started the book and probably will for a long time to come. Violet is shy but brave and it's so completely heartwarming to see her character evolution throughout the book. Her point blank refusal to see Finch as a freak like her classmates is inspiring and shows that although there are bad people everywhere, good people are everywhere too.
A large part of this book is about coping with mental illness and the labels it brings. The secret of Finch's Awake/Asleep phases isn't fully revealed until the end part of the book but I found seeing the way it affects him (ultimately) and those around him was majorly eye-opening. I've read Speak and 13 Reasons why but ATBP made me think about mental illness in a completely new way. Whilst reading this book I flew Finch's highs with him and suffered his lows and it was heartbreaking. My only criticism would be that the secondary characters could have been much better developed.
I understand that it is a very protagonist driven story but secondary characters like his sister Kate and Josh Raymond could have helped readers understand more about how his disorder is affecting those around Finch. Also, Violet's parents seemed much less affected by Eleanor's death than Violet herself was which I found odd as she was their daughter.
However, these things are so minor in the grand scheme of the book that they barely matter. I would recommend All the Bright Places to anyone and everyone. It's so different from most contemporary YA. It is a book about death and love but it's also a book about words and adventure. I loved it in case you hadn't noticed that already. Please read it now if you haven't already.
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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