All the Bright Places || Review

"I learned that there is good in this world, if you look hard enough for it. I learned that not everyone is disappointing, including me, and that a 1,257-foot bump in the ground can feel higher than a bell tower if you're standing next to the right person."

Star Rating: 5 out of 5

'All the Bright Places' by Jennifer Niven follows the story of a boy, Theodore Finch, and a girl, Violet Markey. Finch suffers from depression, and is suicidal. Violet is coming to terms with her sister's death. One day, they meet on top of the school's bell tower and the story begins. It's a beautiful and poignant story, documenting the way these characters impact each other's lives. It deals with important issues that I believe is really important, but very difficult, to talk about, exploring the stigma around mental illnesses and how we, as people, as a society, deal with them, and how we should be dealing with them.

I'm finding it really difficult to find words to describe this book because the way it impacted me is so personal, I can't articulate how it could possibly have the same effect on you. All I can say is this book opened my eyes to so many sad and wonderful things, it's nothing I've ever experienced before. The book made me happy, it made me feel free, it made me want to live in the moment just as Finch does. It taught me so much about appreciating the small things, remembering the moments, making me realise that there is good in everything.

This book did not just made me feel happy, it didn't just make me feel like air, like wonderful, light, spring air. It also cut me open. It made me want to let out some things I've never let go of. Things, not very nice things, I've been holding on to for so long. It especially hit me at the moment Finch said, "Let it out, all that stuff you're carrying around." Whenever Finch talked about dying, or sadness, or letting go, I felt like he was talking to me. I know that's a weird thing to say, but that's how I felt, especially when I read that line. In that moment, I understood that someone out there understands. I don't know in what way, but just that they understand. And that's all I needed to know that I was not alone. That none of us are.

I'm not going to "sell" you this book. I'm not going to hype it up. I'm not going to tell you to read it, although I hope you will, because I want your experience with this book to be just as raw and pure as my experience with it was. I just hope that if you ever decide to pick up this book, I hope it changes you, in some way, big or small. I hope that it helps you through whatever you're going through. I hope you find solace in it. I hope it makes you feel welcomed and not alone.

'Til the next chapter,
Patricia x