by Jennifer Niven
Hardcover, 400 pages
Alfred A. Knopf, January 6, 2015
4 stars
Finch and Violet
meet on the ledge of their school's bell tower one fall afternoon, each
wondering what it would be like to end it all, though stopping short of taking
the leap after being surprised to find the other there. Finch, a
self-proclaimed loner who is fascinated with death is surprised to find popular
Violet in the same situation, though she won't admit to him her reasons for
being on the ledge that day. While she resists his efforts to form a
friendship, he arranges for them to be partners on a class project, determined
to get to know her. During their year together, the two broken teens wander
their state, finding beauty and happiness in odd places.
********************
"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."
With this book,
Jennifer Niven may have changed my mind about YA fiction. Usually I find that
tales of heartbroken, "damaged" teens feel forced: rife with kids who
can't send a text using full words then make melodramatic speeches (yeah, I'm
looking at you, Fault in Our Stars) and
parents who are a stereotype. All The Bright Places, however, manages to not
only capture authentic teen voices, but also show their daily struggles
(bullying, friendships, searching for identity, family dynamics, etc.) without
being patronizing.
That's not to say
there aren't problems with this novel. The school they attend seems woefully
ill-equipped to deal with teenagers. A guidance counselor Finch sees regularly
knows of his bell tower visit yet doesn't make any concerted effort to contact
Finch's parents, voicemails home go unanswered for the entire year with no
follow-up, Finch regularly misses weeks of school, yet there's also no
fall-out. Also, the secondary
characters are not well developed and sometimes fade into the background, with
the possible exception of Finch's and Violet's parents, who demonstrate their
dysfunction in opposing ways.
The remarkable thing
about this novel, however, is how Niven realistically portrays depression and
mental illness. Finch describes his dark
times:
I
get into these moods sometimes, and I can't shake them. Kind of black sinking
moods. I imagine it's like what being in the eye of a tornado would be like,
all calm and blinding at the same time. I hate them.
Finch copes by
hiding in his closet, making his world small and manageable, until he feels
"awake" again and can emerge to face everything again. A school counselor suggests he may have
bipolar and Finch fights this suggestion, afraid that he will become even more
of a "freak." Niven manages to
capture Finch's desire for an understanding even as he resists the label of a
diagnosis.
Strangely, even
though others have said that they saw the ending coming, I was so swept up in
the story and my concern for these two characters that I was as blindsided by
the ending as the characters were - surprised even though, in retrospect, it
was probably inevitable. I would
recommend this book to anyone who enjoys John Greene and Rainbow Rowell…but
also to those who don't. This book was pitch-perfect in a field of books that
otherwise strain a bit too hard to hit the right note.
(I received a copy of this book from Knopf Publishing in return for an honest review.)
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