I’m a blubbering mess and I can’t stop myself.

⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️ - DEPRESSION, SUICIDE, SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, ANXIETY, GRIEF, UNDERAGE DRINKING AND SMOKING, PHYSICAL AND VERBAL ABUSE, BIPOLAR DISORDER, DEATH, MENTIONS OF SEXUAL ACTIVITY -

All the Bright Places is a captivating, memorable, grieve able, sad, heartwarming, and heart wrenching, debut novel about a boy and girl dealing with loss, grief, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and life in general.

I bought this book in late July and decided to pick it up in early August. For some reason, I put it down and never picked up again until about a day ago. And let me tell you, I’m not disappointed

The story follows Violet Markey and Theodore Finch (Finch), working on a school project to discover Indiana. They meet before Finch jumps off a bell tower, and develop an unlikely friendship, which leads to a unlikely, and forbidden romance.

Niven’s writing is beautiful, eccentric and so vividly descriptive. I understood everything she was writing about, and her representations within the characters, and disorders they had was ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL. Never in my life have I read a book where I felt like I was represented in the anxiety department. But, the anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts was everything YOU NEED TO SEE WHEN YOU WRITE ABOUT THOSE THINGS.

I loved the character development within both sides of the characters. At the beginning Violet was dealing with the loss of her sister Eleanor Markey, and she had no one to talk to. She gave up everything including cheerleading, being popular, having friends, and most importantly WRITING. At the beginning Finch was going through the motions of things and was obviously depressed. But within time these characters got better and worse. And I loved the character development (EVEN IF IT WAS HEART BREAKING)

Finally, the book deals with such big topics, yet it’s done so well. Their really isn’t a way to describe on it and ponder, but it’s just done so amazing and I can just feel the grief and loss and things these characters are going through as I read.

(And also, can we all agree that Violet Markey and Theodore Finch were an ABSOLUTE SHIP?