“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.”

The reviews on Goodreads of Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places seem to fall into two camps: either “SQueeeee OMG this book changed my life guys so many FEEEEEELINGS” OR “This book is a lame rip off of John Green/Rainbow Rowell/other YA author”. Y’all seemed to review it fairly well overall, so I gave it a shot, and I’m glad I did. It didn’t exactly change my life, but it did make an impression and I’m glad I read it.

“It’s my experience that people are a lot more sympathetic if they can see you hurting, and for the millionth time in my life I wish for measles or smallpox or some other easily understood disease just to make it easier on me and also on them.”

All the Bright Places starts with Violet and Finch on top of the school bell-tower. Finch went up there to contemplate jumping off (he has an obsession with suicide), while Violet went up there….probably actually do it. Finch talks her down, and then covers for her with the school by saying that she saved him. They end up linked after that, forming an unlikely friendship that changes both of their lives.

This book candidly discusses suicide, survivors guilt (and, less explicitly, PTSD), and mental disorders such as manic depression (which Finch quite obviously suffers from). The characters attend support groups, counselor meetings and lean on each other. There’s also a lot of secrecy, a rejection of labels, and the failure of adults to intervene when they probably should have. While I feel like maybe the novel glamorizes suicide a bit much, it also comes down hard on those who do it, by showing what happens to the people left behind. And the ending, while predictable, still had me a little sniffly and full of the feelings.

ETA: The way that Finch talks will absolutely make you crazy, especially at the beginning. It’s … a bit much. But just think about Augustus calling Hazel by her full name over and over, and sticking that cigarette between his lips and calling it a metaphor, and Finch won’t seem so bad.