Review: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! This book blew me away! This is some of the most well-written and brilliantly conceived young adult fiction that I've read. So good.

It's a novel about mental health, adolescence, suicide, friendship and grief. And it's amazing! I have lost two people to suicide and I am very aware of the messiness that surrounds it. And I feel this novel handles both mental health and suicide so effectively and honestly.

One of my favorite quotes from the novel captures it's take on mental health so well ... As someone who suffers from depression, this quote particularly resonated with me.

It's my experience that people are a lot more sympathetic if they can see you hurting, and for the millionth time in my life I wish for measles or smallpox or some other easily understood disease just to make it easier on me and also on them.

The relationships in the book felt very honest and real. The novel made me feel raw and emotionally impacted beyond what I typically feel. I suspect Finch will be a character who will stay with me for a long time. He almost felt like an old friend as I felt in him some of what I felt for people I've cared for in my life.

Although not a joyful novel, particularly given the very raw and emotional core of the story, it is a hopeful one. One that spoke to me as a human being and made the issues of the mentally ill very real.

I highly, highly recommend this one. Very good - well written, plotted so well, and ultimately gave me a great deal to think about.