Take a photo of a barcode or cover
elishahdavis 's review for:
All the Bright Places
by Jennifer Niven
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was not it for me. It's very overhyped. I could've gone my whole entire life without reading this and would have been fine. If you want to read a book about mental health or depression or you want to cry, there are better books out there for all of these things. And the plot and characters had so many problems for me as well. It was clear that Theodore was having problems. Why did no adult help? Why didn't he ask for help? What truly made me the most angry is that he shut himself out for a long time then Violet literally was just like "Hey are you good? Because you don't seem good" and then he runs away and kills himself. Without leaving a note for months. He clearly doesn't consider Violet at all though he claims to love her. And yes, I understand no one is out here committing suicide to be selfish, but geez dude. And what was the swimming down in the hole about when Violet was literally RIGHT THERE?? AND YET HE STILL REFUSES TO BE HONEST WITH HER! He spends most of the book lying to everyone including Violet who is literally struggling with the exact same things as him and then he disappears and kills himself. That said, I like some of the author's other work, but I didn't find this particular book to be a beneficial use of my time.
a review of this book i found from before i had storygraph (by 15 year old idiot version elishah):
could tell it was written by the author of holding up the universe and i honestly way preferred that one to this. the way she describes romance and love makes me want to have that with someone. it was such a lovely story at first, but i didn’t like how thodore died. first of all, we like never even knew him. i know that we are literally looking into his thoughts, but he still seems to be somehow putting up a wall there either from him just being THAT afraid to let ANYONE see him or maybe because he is actually lying to himself so much that he is putting up walls from himself (unreliable narrator??). i am very very upset because although he did kinda sympathize with violet and kinda mention some things he never really opened up to her. she has no idea who he is and it makes me so so mad. like he is constantly pushing her to open up and get better but he is falling apart getting worse and worse but he wont stop lying to her. it hurts. also i know that its a hard place to be in where you feel like suicide is the only option but his timing was horrible. could he not have made violet feel worse? also bringing up getting help and brining up her concern caused him to unalive himself so thats saying to readers “if you friends/family are struggling and your worried, say nothing because that will make them kill themselves faster than their own mental issues will” WHY DIDN’T HE GET HELP FOR BIPOLAR?! he KNEW what was wrong but chose to ignore it. if he TRULY loved violet how could he say no to treatment that could keep him and her together. IN COLLEGE EVEN THEY WERE BOTH GOING TO NYU! also can someone explain to me why it didn’t occur to violet that theodore was 100% at the blue hole? like sorry but as soon as he was missing i thought “blue hole place” also im kinda upset we couldn’t be with theodore when he left. i know it was probably because he wasnt there himself, but still i would like to be there with him. i like to imagine he swam down to die but then he remembered violet and that he could get treated and his siblings and college and life and life and life and he tried to swim back up but he didn’t make it. ik its a lot more morbid and would make me cry harder than his death as it happened in the book, but i would have appreciated it more. because hey look hes gone and sure ppl are sad for a few months but they are recovering and they were all talking about how peaceful he was… it was like kinda glorifying suicide? idk. but overall, endings are really make or break for me and I did not like this ending, so it gets a no from me #wouldnotreccomend
a review of this book i found from before i had storygraph (by 15 year old idiot version elishah):
could tell it was written by the author of holding up the universe and i honestly way preferred that one to this. the way she describes romance and love makes me want to have that with someone. it was such a lovely story at first, but i didn’t like how thodore died. first of all, we like never even knew him. i know that we are literally looking into his thoughts, but he still seems to be somehow putting up a wall there either from him just being THAT afraid to let ANYONE see him or maybe because he is actually lying to himself so much that he is putting up walls from himself (unreliable narrator??). i am very very upset because although he did kinda sympathize with violet and kinda mention some things he never really opened up to her. she has no idea who he is and it makes me so so mad. like he is constantly pushing her to open up and get better but he is falling apart getting worse and worse but he wont stop lying to her. it hurts. also i know that its a hard place to be in where you feel like suicide is the only option but his timing was horrible. could he not have made violet feel worse? also bringing up getting help and brining up her concern caused him to unalive himself so thats saying to readers “if you friends/family are struggling and your worried, say nothing because that will make them kill themselves faster than their own mental issues will” WHY DIDN’T HE GET HELP FOR BIPOLAR?! he KNEW what was wrong but chose to ignore it. if he TRULY loved violet how could he say no to treatment that could keep him and her together. IN COLLEGE EVEN THEY WERE BOTH GOING TO NYU! also can someone explain to me why it didn’t occur to violet that theodore was 100% at the blue hole? like sorry but as soon as he was missing i thought “blue hole place” also im kinda upset we couldn’t be with theodore when he left. i know it was probably because he wasnt there himself, but still i would like to be there with him. i like to imagine he swam down to die but then he remembered violet and that he could get treated and his siblings and college and life and life and life and he tried to swim back up but he didn’t make it. ik its a lot more morbid and would make me cry harder than his death as it happened in the book, but i would have appreciated it more. because hey look hes gone and sure ppl are sad for a few months but they are recovering and they were all talking about how peaceful he was… it was like kinda glorifying suicide? idk. but overall, endings are really make or break for me and I did not like this ending, so it gets a no from me #wouldnotreccomend
OMG GIRL SHUUUUUT UP SHUT UR MOUTH WHAT ARE YOU SAAAAAYYYYYIIIIIINNNNGGGG okay my review was so insensitive and inconsiderate and not understanding at all. honestly my dislike for this book is 99% projection which i only realized after reading that review back. im sure its great!!
edit (again): okay no wait i just read some other reviews of this book and there are some valid criticisms i agree with and i do think there are a lot of not great things about this book. not defending 15 year old elishah’s review though— girl was on something else frfr
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Suicide