Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

16 reviews

katnip46's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was such an amazing, well written novel! I enjoyed the story of Violet and Finch so much. I highly recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual content, Bullying, and Car accident

Minor: Animal death

nadiamarjolein's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

At first, I was of the opinion that the book was a bit too ‘young’ adult for me, having little depth and describing teenage drama, but then the book took a more serious turn and I became way more invested in what would happen to the characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, and Car accident

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death, and Child death

filippawe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Suicide

Minor: Animal death and Sexual content

tayrod4594's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is a hard book to read, from an emotional standpoint. It's absolutely worth it, though, because Niven somehow finds the beauty and the hope in the aftermath and the memories. I honestly think this book should be required reading in school. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Grief, Suicide, Animal death, and Bullying

harley_dean's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I think this was my third re-read. I thought I remembered it too well to cry this time, but I still ended up bawling (which is a good thing).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Car accident, Death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Violence, Bullying, Vomit, and Cursing

the_true_monroe's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Starting off with what I disliked.

While I appreciate the author’s note and how personal this book is to the author, and how there was a lot of research into mental health and suicide, I could not see much past how badly certain topics were portrayed. Not in the way of “everyone grieves differently” or “this is real life” because all of that is true- this book did not need a happy ending and it was important to include a lot of the stuff we wish did not happen- but in how some things that were very inappropriate or not recommended were not even touched upon.

For example, when Violet tells her parents about her suicide attempt  while also at the same time revealing she still was seeing Finch , all the parents mentioned aside from working to make sure Finch was okay is their disappointment. Yeah that probably was in relation to Violet’s disobedience but she literally mentioned she almost took her life and that is never addressed again by her parents.

One thing I wish there was more of in the book was that suicide support group. Although that was not really a realistic portrayal of a group (at least one that is run well) as they literally had everyone share their diagnoses and method of previous suicide attempt (which today goes against safe suicide messaging) introducing another part of who Amanda was was really nice even if she did horribly out Finch to Violet despite her knowing how much she would hate of anyone knew she herself was there.Although it was all nice when Ryan and Amanda joined Violet and Finch’s other friends for a tribute to Finch, we did not have enough character development of Amanda and especially Ryan to justify them being any different from the other mourners at the school who at best never paid any attention to Finch and at worst tormented him. 

Also, Finch was pretty coercive and pushy towards Violet such as when he ripped up her note twice when she did not have a direct “yes” … like cool, you are looking for direct consent but you did not except anything but that.


And now, what I appreciated!

I did like Finch’s counselor - he was genuine and even though he started out kind of “eh” for me, he was actually direct with Finch and tried so much to help him beyond actually making him get additional help, which he acknowledges he could have done more anyway. And also, people need to want to get help and Finch did, multiple times. But even the people who fight most against suicide- for themselves and others- end up dying by suicide. And even though people say this book romanticized suicide (which I can see, especially with Violet going on the journey to visit the remaining wandering spots), I think having seen Finch in so many different states of mind- the backs and forths of what his illness does to him, and how he KNEW he wanted to live at so many points, and appreciated life and being awake- he still ended up taking his life. And that happens… a lot. Some of the best advocates for suicide prevention die by suicide even with years of saying “there is always help” and “I am here for you”. I am a suicide prevention advocate myself but also know that a lot of messaging around suicide prevention can make it seem like loved ones did something wrong or did not try hard enough. This books gets that right- how that is in no way true and suicide prevention is not about you as one person preventing a suicide but it is a collective effort across the lifespan for people to recognize the signs, and have the resources to help both themselves and others.

Closing thoughts:
While I clearly disliked this book overall, I am so glad I read it. As a suicide prevention advocate it is interesting to me to read and watch different portrayals of mental health and suicide over time. Even since this was written in 2015, so much has changed to where I know the movie addressed some things that this book did not (although I need to watch it still). I feel like if I read it around when it came out, I would have loved this as I did Thirteen Reasons Why. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death, Toxic relationship, Grief, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Stalking

Minor: Eating disorder, Ableism, Homophobia, Sexual content, Car accident, and Animal death

lucyrudd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Animal death, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

mnatale100's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Child abuse, Grief, Suicide, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Vomit, Self harm, and Infidelity

Minor: Cursing, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Animal death, Alcohol, and Domestic abuse

_tee_'s review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

didn’t really like it but then it made me ugly cry at 1am. so thanks for that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Grief, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Abandonment, and Gore

ouchy

chuckielittle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

It's exceptionally hard to rate this book, relating to and having lived so many of its events personally. The characters felt believable and real for once (which is rare in a YA novel) and weren't in the least irritating.

Parts of it did feel an awful lot like info-dumping, but it was all important, valuable, and relevant information that added to the storyline and filled it out more.

Heartbreaking, hopeful, and cathartic, to sum up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Mental illness, and Bullying

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Car accident, Alcohol, Self harm, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Child abuse