All the Bright Places
Jennifer Niven, 2015
Young adult RomanceContemporary fictionPsychology
A boy who can't stop thinking about death and a girl who can't stop thinking about the sister she lost meet on a ledge — and dare each other to find reasons to stay. Two grieving teenagers trade sharp, funny voices and fragile reasons to keep going, with a pace that stays light even when the subject turns heavy.
Feels like hope, grief and longing. About identity, friendship and love.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you're drawn to young-adult stories about mental health that balance wit with grief and friendship. Be aware the book deals directly with suicide and depression, and some readers may find Finch's despair and the ledge scenes hard to sit with.
Why read it
It gives you two honest teenage perspectives on grief and staying alive, and it makes the conversation about suicide feel personal rather than clinical.
A page from the book
What a family argues about when it can't talk about death.
She’s shivering or shaking, I can’t tell which, and so I slowly inch my way toward her, hoping I don’t fall off before I get there, because the last thing I want to do is make a jackass out of myself in front of this girl. “I’ve made it clear I want cremation, but my mom doesn’t believe in it.” And my dad will do whatever she says so he won’t upset her any more than he already has, and besides, You’re far too young to think about this, you know your Grandma Finch lived to be ninety-eight, we don’t need to talk about that now, Theodore, don’t upset your mother. Jennifer Niven.Jennifer Niven has said the character of Theodore Finch was inspired by a boy she knew as a teenager, and that she wanted to write a book that made suicide prevention feel personal rather than instructional.
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Questions readers ask
- Is All the Bright Places for me?
- You may like it if you're drawn to young-adult stories about mental health that balance wit with grief and friendship. Be aware the book deals directly with suicide and depression, and some readers may find Finch's despair and the ledge scenes hard to sit with.
- What is All the Bright Places like?
- Two grieving teenagers trade sharp, funny voices and fragile reasons to keep going, with a pace that stays light even when the subject turns heavy. Feels like hope, grief and longing. About identity, friendship and love.
- What should I read after All the Bright Places?
- If you liked All the Bright Places, try The Fault in Our Stars (John Green), November 9 (Colleen Hoover) and Girl in Pieces (Kathleen Glasgow).
A taste of the feed
A daughter hears what her father is really mourning.
I was one of the fastest up-and-coming teen actresses just two years ago, and the moment the fire burned away my looks, the studio pulled my contract. I think he mourns the idea that he’s not the father of an actress more than he mourns almost losing his daughter to a fire that was caused by his carelessness.
November 9 · Colleen Hoover
Recovery isn’t restoration; it’s learning the shape of the pieces.
Everyone has that moment I think, the moment when something so momentous happens that it rips your very being into small pieces. And then you have to stop. For a long time, you gather your pieces. And it takes such a very long time, not to fit them back together, but to assemble them in a new way, not necessarily a better way. More, a way you can live with until you know for certain that this piece should go there, and that one there.
Girl in Pieces · Kathleen Glasgow
The hole doesn't close. You just learn where to step.
I guess by now I should know enough about loss to realize that you never really stop missing someone-you just learn to live around the huge gaping hole of their absence.
Evermore · Alyson Noel
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