All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
MY PERSONAL JOVIAN-PLUTONIAN GRAVITATIONAL EFFECT
Sometimes it’s not you who chooses the book…sometimes it’s the book that chooses you.. Instantly. Pops out of nowhere. Makes you fall in love with it even though you have no clue what’s behind that first enchanting look. No questions asked. No prisoners taken. Nothing. Since I am that kind of person, enthusiastic book lover and devoted to reading.. I kind of surrendered.
Forget me my writing, sometimes I cannot put everything into sentences because many of the important words just rush into my brain and I feel the need to write them down without forming a sentence (YES, I do have my board with sticky notes).
All The Bright Places is a story of two teenagers struggling with their own demons to make sense of life through the lenses of mental illness and depression. It is a heart-breaking story with lessons for us all.
Two seventeen year old young people, Theodore Finch and Violet Markey, suddenly meet at the top of the bell tower at their high school. The only reason they meet there, is that they both decided to end their lives.. But as they find themselves up there…the decision to die.. fades away.
In their U.S. Geography class, Finch rashly partners with Violet for a class project to see three wonders of the state of Indiana. These wanders of Indiana turn out to be the a journey they inevitably must take to learn a thing or two about life.
Wandering places:
Hoosier Hill, Blue Hole, …
The tale is narrated by both Finch and Violet.
In the following paragraphs I wanted to emphasise what I loved about the book so much.
Two compelling leaders
Theodore Finch - strong, intelligent, intense, alienated, persistent and yet so fragile. Desperately wanting to mean something, in the search of the Great Manifesto, feel something and stay awake.
Family: loving older sister Kate who chooses to turn her blind eye to his brother’s issues (I assume it’s because she knows she cannot help him), emotionally damaged younger sister Decca, absent-minded mother, abusive and self-absorbed father with his new family.
No one to talk to.
Mental illness considered as a stigma.
His depression takes a toll on him, his behaviour starts to be wayward...
Violet Markey - bright, smart, beautiful, talented, frail. Broken dreams and future, ready to end her life because she feels like there’s no other option.
Family: Deceased sister Eleanor, loving parents, circle of friends.
Feeling guilty for her sister’s death.
Extenuating circumstances.
Thanks to Finch she rediscovers the urge to write and creates a web magazine Germ.
Enriching on many levels
The story of the book is a constant reminder that all of us are different, all of us deal with problems in a different way. The easiest way is putting labels on people who are slightly divergent… It’s connected with bullying..
The story represents a scope inside the lives of two young people, so different yet so much alike.
Violet learns to live from a boy bidding farewells from his world for most years of his life. From a boy whose life he counts in days and not years, who teaches Violet to count her life on good moments, yet is incapable to take his own advice.
One thing for sure, you want to help Theodore Finch from the first moment you take him in, because he has that magic inside of him. Because above all he’s a good soul. Instead of being worshipped he’s put a label on him by his peers, teachers even his own parents.
The one who never did anything to anyone except be born with different brain and different wiring.
One of the most inspiring and unique things about him is his taking down all his thought and writing them to creative sticky notes: unhappy, mad, bad,unpleasant words written down and destroyed / happy, pleasant and sweet words put on the board
What if life could be this way? Only happy parts, none of the terrible. Not even mildly unpleasant. What if we could just cut out the bad and keep the good? This is what I want to do with Violet - give her only the good, keep away the bad, so that good is all we ever have around us. (Finch)
Soul-elevating
It’s not what you take, it’s what you leave..
I felt instantly wiser and enriched after finishing the book :) Was it only a temporary feeling? Am I being too self-important? Don’t know.. That’s why I had to re-read it again. Answer some of my doubts, remind myself of the perfect adventures these too lovable creatures were on. Oh, and, holy mac, I fell in love with Indiana. Like big time. I need to visit all of those places.
Bringing Awareness
What a terrible feeling to love someone and not be able to help them.
Brilliant take on mental illness, depression, bipolar disorder, manic depression… These people are normal. They are humans. And sometimes no matter how much we try to help our friends, our relatives with their fight with their own monsters, we cannot properly help them by pushing them into going to rehabs or taking pills.. We can only become great listeners, be there for them, constantly, no judging, no pretending.
It's one of the earnest and honest portrayal of mental illness that I’ve come across….
One of those bright souls from the book is definitely Mr. Embry, the school counsellor, who wanted to help but couldn’t. Finch’s resistance was holding him back. Mr. Embry (“Embryo”) became only peripheral character though a very important mediator in students’ daily life. In the end he felt guilty for Finch’s death.
When it comes to Finch's family...
Each member is coping with the divorce and years with abusive father before on their own. Sister Kate is leaving home, unable to move on with her life, distracted mother who has lost the ability to listen and help, because she can’t save herself..Unnatural pastimes of the youngest member of the family, sister Decca.
The fact, the kids are forced to visit their father and his "shiny" new family every week, makes them drift apart even more.
Funny
Researches about suicides presented in an easy and comprehensive way. Author’s quick with, serious things are spiked with self irony making the whole book very sweet, bittersweet.. I was laughing out loud about the Australian Finch..He became the closest Finch to my heart.
Page turner
Beautiful words. Characters are marvellously portrayed. The plot is vivid, dynamic and makes you not even imagine those two on their special places, but also feel… Not many books make you feel something. This one definitely did.
Passages from Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights”… Virginia Woolf's "Waves".. Lyrics to Finch’s new song… Just wonderful!
Sweet take on love between two broken souls
And in that moment there’s nothing I fear except losing hold of her hand. (Finch)
She is oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. The same elements that are inside the rest of us, but I can’t help thinking she’s more than that and she’s got other elements going on that no one’s ever heard of, ones that make her stand apart from everybody else. (Finch)
Although their love and friendship deepens throughout the wanderings, they both are put on a different paths. Finch being pushed aback with the negative relationship with his father, weak one with his mother and sisters that didn’t notice anything, or better, didn’t want to see a thing.
Later withdrawing from the relationship, fantasising about the ways of committing suicide, having pessimistic thoughts, fights with his schoolmate, overdosing with pills and seeking help at a support group for teens, giving away his possessions and moving to his closet. Slowly saying goodbye. to the world. We simply cannot underestimate the severity of a mental illness...sometimes it's not curable, sometimes it got its hooks deep inside of us..
After a meaningless fight which sets Finch off, he decides to leave…. To enjoy one of the brightest days of his living.
Don’t want to say goodbye
Last chapters are those most powerful ones… serve as a memoire…as a retrospective..
Until now the only book that resonated in my life was ‘Wuthering Heights’ with its compelling plot, twisted yet so deep characters.. ATBP came out of nowhere making me feel that feeling once again. When I say I fell in love with these two character…it’s a very faint denomination… I was right there with them while on the bell tower, at the classes, on their journeys, making me weep, gasp and smile. Thank you for letting us be this “omnipresent observer” you were able to create for your readers.
Thank you, Jennifer. I realized I need to take a break and focus also on the little, trivial things... Some days I was so concentrated on the big things, big gestures I almost forgot how important are those little things I was mindlessly passing by back in the day. Paying attention is the key. Thank you for making me stop and think. Think deeper. Think clearer.
Yes, I understand now better that plenty of smiles and laughters may be fake because a lot of people hide their real selves, busy being fighting their own demons…(I’m not a problem. Not a diagnosis. Not an illness. Not something to be rescued. I’m a person)…you just never know..sometimes the only thing people need is a hug, a simple “hello”, being reminded how amazing they are, and how they truly matter… You are all the colors in one, at full brightnes..…and sometimes a simple sincere smile can determine how we are going to seize the day…And sometimes it’s a simple book…
The problem with people is they forget that of the time it’s the small things that count.
