Hooked on Books: "All The Bright Places"

I've had my heart ripped out. Quite a horrendous and rather tragic ordeal; you see I started this book- and that was the beginning and end of it all.

To start this story, I’ve a very bad attitude toward ‘Bestselling Books’. If you win an award, I don’t want to read you. This is a terrible attitude to have because I’m aware of the number of books I must be shunning; life changing books I may never allow into my circle of friends. Yet, that’s always been my way- constantly rooting for the underdog and rewarding myself when I find a diamond in the rough.

Recently though I’ve gone through a sort of dry patch in my reading material. I found dud after dud. Or, I found books I ‘wasn’t prepared to read yet’. You see, every book has its time. In fact, some books even have a second, or third time if they’re fortunate. Yet this all depends on when you decide to read a book. I have many books on my bookshelf that I’m saving, saving for what I don’t know- but I will know when I’m ready. It’ll be effortless to start and a journey to end. If it doesn’t flow by the second chapter I give it up to another time.

So, with this all said I had no clue what I was going to read and I actually started to slightly panic. You see I never am not in the middle of reading a book. It’s in my genetic makeup, it’s programmed in my brain- I must be surrounded by words. Getting down to the nitty gritty I meticulously went from one book to the next, reading the first pages until finally I found myself on page 50 without ever realizing it. And lone behold, what do I find? A Bestselling Teen Fiction novel that decided to change my life.

“All The Bright Places” by. Jennifer Niven is a contemporary-coming of age-romance. It centers around the lives of Violet Markey and Theodore Finch (yet everyone just calls him Finch), and both of their lives are centered around death. If you’re looking for a feel good novel, don’t let the beautiful cover fool you, this novel broke me. And I mean that in the best possible way.

Violet Markey is coming up on the 1-year anniversary of her sister’s death from a fatal car crash, that she blames herself for. Her sister, Eleanor, was her rock and since her death Violet has found herself floating between life and that dark abyss she pictures Eleanor in.

‘Freak of the school’ Theodore Finch is obsessed with planning the perfect suicide. He's constantly fighting a losing battle to stay alive, and to keep participating to life. So, he takes life to the extreme and goes full throttle just to feel alive again. Or, to take advantage of the times he’s not locked himself in his closet, asleep and swimming in the darkness of his mind.

Violet never planned on committing suicide that day, yet she sure did find herself on that tower- looming over several feet of open air, and a concrete slab that’ll snap your neck. Yet Violet would never do such a thing, even if it were due to “extenuating circumstances”, she was the girl everyone wanted to be. But that girl died along with Eleanor, and here she is, all alone on a ledge awaiting death.

“Come here often? Because this is kind of my spot and I don’t remember seeing you here before.”

Theodore Finch fell for Violet Markey that very day. The big glasses that sat atop her nose looked out of place and her shoe-clad feet made him nervous she might slip. He hadn’t planned on jumping that day either. Although Finch has been obsessed with suicide for years, he has never attempted it. He merely dabbles in it.  And if he were to ever settle down and do the deed, he wants to go out with a bang. So seeing Violet on that ledge, mere feet from him, he adds a tally mark to his list of reasons not to jump.

The story of Violet and Finch is told from alternating point-of-views, and centers around a school project and the literary work of Virginia Woolf. Now, I'm not blind to the similarities between this novel and John Green's infamous "The Fault in Our Stars". While John Green created an emotionally realistic view of death, Bright Places showed the opposing view- death by choice. It took a seemingly lighthearted approach to the issue of suicide, almost to show the ludicrous view many people may have toward it as well as mental illness. 

The almost satirical view stems from the author's view that "you get flowers when people die naturally, not by choice". Whether this is right or wrong is not the case she is trying to make, rather it's the truth as seen by her own eyes.

Overall I enjoyed this book, and the way it tore me apart. Yet that's I'm wired. Many people in life are living for the high, and avoiding the low at all cost. I recognize this as not really living at all. Life is crap sometimes, more often than not and I'm not quick to run from it. Sometimes I have to stop myself from the complete acceptance.

"What a terrible feeling to love someone and not be able to help them."

In conclusion, I'm too tired for these emotional one-sided conversations, however frequent I participate in them. Read the book. Don't read the book. I'm not here to rule your life, rather to make some suggestions.

I am finishing this blogpost the day after I started it, so I have something very important to get to. The Golden Globes is playing in the background, Scout is crawling all over my laptop, and the train wreck that is celebrity award shows is too much of an offer to give up.

"Play the darn music already!"

"Oh look it's Eddie Redmayne!"

"Why am I not Jeniffer Lawrence?"

"Maybe I shouldn't eat real food anymore."

"Should I become a world renowned actress?"

"I've never even heard of these shows."

"McKenzie, shut up."

Happy reading, everyone.