Staff Reviews

All the Bright Places is a heartbreaking and unforgettable exploration of depression, love, and loss. Finch and Violet’s lives intersect by chance when they simultaneously find themselves on a belltower contemplating jumping. For Finch, planning how he’ll kill himself is almost a hobby. For Violet, months of silent pain and guilt following her sister’s death have left her hopeless. To the watching crowd below, it was Violet who talked Finch down, but, in truth, it’s the strangely charismatic boy with a macabre preoccupation that saves the day. As the two are thrown together for a school assignment in which they must explore Indiana’s “natural wonders,” who is saving whom becomes increasingly unclear. Niven chronicles the effects of depression with frank honesty, shedding light on an often misunderstood illness. Keep tissues handy, this novel is painfully real.