“sometimes there’s beauty in the tough words – it’s all in how you read them.”

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 everyone else.” “She is oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorous. “You are all the colours in one, at full brightness.” Some of my favourite quotes from All The Bright Places: A book that I will certainly be reading again and again. It is a book about noticing the good in everything around you, all the bright places there waiting to be discovered. It is an emotional read which is both moving and uplifting. This is an honest and beautifully written book, and the characters feel very real. The novel’s title is a reference to Dr Seuss’ The Places You’ll Go and Niven references a number of books, Virginia Woolf’s Waves. Finch reinvents himself as a myriad of different characters and is a talented musician, Violet is a writer who ran a popular website with her sister. Both Finch and Violet are troubled, but there is much more to them than their problems. As Finch says ‘They explain people away as illnesses’. He is bipolar, but the novel resists labels. Finch is a more complex character, eccentric and unpredictable. With Finch’s help she learns to stop fearing the world around her. Violet is depressed following the death of her sister Eleanor in a car accident the year before. They talk each other down, and thus begins an unlikely friendship that slowly develops into something more.īoth Violet and Finch are strong, believable characters. They meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school. Violet is popular, Finch is seen as a freak. Finch is counting the days he can stay ‘Awake’, out of the deep depression that leaves him helpless. Violet is counting down the days until graduation. I really loved this book, I’ve read it twice already and I know it’s one I will return to in the future 🙂 This is Jennifer Niven’s first YA book, and it has been getting a great response from readers.

All the bright places book cover