Plot Overview: All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is about a boy, Theodore Finch, and a girl, Violet Markey, who meet on the top of the bell tower at their school. Violet is obsessed with her sister’s death and feels like in someway it is her fault. After her sister, Eleanor, died she stopped writing but that changes because of Finch. Finch is obsessed with his own death and only wants one perfect day.

Critique: The most compelling aspect is how Finch and Violet change each other’s lives. No disappointments!

Cover: I like the cover because the two drawings of the finch and violet represent the two characters.

Star Rating: 5/5

Additional Comments: This book is in our school library and it will soon become a movie.

From Ms. Yang: All the Bright Places is a heart breaking look at grief and mental illness. It will be interesting to see how the movie is handled. I really liked the relationship that developed between Finch and Violet, even though I generally have a thing against stories where the broken boy still manages to save the broken girl.

Plot Overview: Theodore Finch loves the thrill of near death experiences, and the fact that he has little to live for only drives him to commit such acts. When he manages to talk Violet Markey out of jumping off a ledge, he finds himself a new reason to live. Throughout All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, Finch struggles to hold onto this will, while Violet fights to find herself through the heartbreak that her sister left behind.

Critique: This book is a great book to read in order to gain more insight on mental illness. Finch is an extremely well rounded and compelling character who struggles with this issue, and seeing how he must cope with this, yet not be able to explain it, ironically, gives the reader more insight on the obscurity of this topic.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Although I did not find any immediate disappointments, I have heard from many people who were disappointed in the way that Niven dealt with Finch’s death. They believed that although this is a book about depression and how it impacts those affected by it, it is not for those who struggle with it. Many also feel that Violet does little to face the fact of Finch’s death and almost ignores it and instead. However, I still feel that this is a great book that gives necessary insight into the reality of mental illness.

Cover: I thought that this cover was very minimal. It does not give away much of what happens in the book, but that may have been purposefully done by the author. The sentence on the cover has a much deeper meaning once you have read the book and find the reference.

Star Rating: 5/5. I thought this book was extremely well written, although some people may disagree with the quality of the conclusion of the story.