All The Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven, is a young adult fiction and is a stand-alone book.
All The Bright Places follows Violet Markey and Theodore Finch as they navigate their own
struggles with mental illness and depression. After the death of Violet’s sister, she spirals and
contemplates her own death. In this unlikely friendship of the school freak and the popular girl
who met by happenstance, we see their journey as they both try escape the bubble of their
town and explore themselves and where they live. In this thrilling novel by Jennifer Niven, two
teenagers find themselves and their isolation. Their friendship reaches new highs and lows and
creates problems within their own personal lives, with their parents and their teachers. They
find solace in each other as each deal with their own fights.
All The Bright Places brings light to important issues to teenagers today and how mental health
can derail someone’s life. The subject matter chosen by Niven was a smart one, used to create
the most realistic image of how loss and grief can affect one’s life. Violet’s instance of survivor’s
remorse is felt by many who have lost those close to them. The main characters’ struggles with
mental illness are something we can all relate in some way. Reading relatable content made the
book more interesting and made it easier to understand finch and Violet’s perspective. Their
venture to try and find themselves and get out of their bubble is something we all feel. Trapped
within a cycle of school and work, we don’t always have the ability to break out like Violet and
Finch do. Niven uses this technique to allow the reader to imagine themself as Violet or Finch,
as a person who also has lows and struggles.