The book about a love story that had a pre-determined end: All the Bright Places

Aishwarya | Date: Aug, 17 2024, 11:51 PM | Last Updated: Aug 18, 2024, 3: 43 AM

It has already been a few days since I finished the book, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. It left a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth, one that I am usually not very fond of. But, this time is different, I found myself conflicted between both satisfied and dissatisfied. 

To begin with, there is no denying the fact that Niven does an absolutely amazing job at writing completely captivating characters. While reading, I found myself falling in love with each and every character, especially Finch. I am in love with him, as much as Violet is. He was a character that made me want to see the world he lived in, from his eyes. 

During the second part of the book, I constantly found myself balling my eyes out, which is a first for me, wishing that he’d be alive. I told myself that I needed to get to know his story better and it can’t just end that way for him, without even knowing what he was going through the week before his suicide. I was devastated at his death. 

The author is just that good at writing. Not just the characters but everything else as well. The writing is relatable and very realistic. It is indulging and addicting. Every single emotion is immersive, as I felt what they felt, saw what they saw, loved how they loved, and lived how they lived. The intensity of each of them multiplied as I just read and read and grew more and more impatient to know what would happen, hoping that they’d get a happy ending, even when I knew what was coming. 

The book reminded me of my life constantly. It kept me on the edge of my seat, as I found out about real life places, people, quotes, facts, and incidents as well. This book did not feel like a novel, it felt more like a memoir, of real love shared, life lived, and two teens who find each other standing on the edge. It gave me more to do, more to research, more to think about. 

This book keeps you thinking about it way after you turn the last page. It leaves you with questions and thoughts and dissatisfaction with how things played out, as if it were your own life. But at the very same time, it satisfies the reader part of you that simply cannot resist a well written book, with a perfect ending. I know it sounds contradictory. 

I say that the ending is dissatisfying making you wish things were different, but then I say that it had a perfect ending? They are both true. The ending was perfect as it is, and made me feel the book itself, and no longer just read or observe it.

It left me dissatisfied, yes, but that is what made the book’s ending perfect, because anything else would fail to make an impact on me. That is where the beauty of this book lies. In the dissatisfaction, in the questions, and the thoughts that you are left behind with after the book ends. Because, I believe, the worst book is the kind that doesn’t make you think about it, or any other form of art at that. 

This book does an amazing job at picking up the ideas of mental health and suicide and grief and abuse and ostracism and all of that, and building such a beautiful story shaped around it. 

I have read books with all of these themes in them before, but none of them could focus on them as the main point and make the book this interesting, unlike this book about an oddball romance which came with a pre-determined shelf life, which nothing could make last longer. 

As a person who has tried to commit suicide myself before, this is something that helped ease my pain. It gave me ideas about what else I can do to ease this suffering that I feel. It made me promise myself to go wandering, to write more often, to make a list of things that I want to do before dying; all so I have something to hold me back from dying without regrets; like Violet decides at the end.

Yes, this book leaves me conflicted about if I should say I am satisfied or dissatisfied if someone were to ask. But that is because this book satisfies me as a reader who got to read a realistic, immersive, relatable, and lovely book. But it dissatisfies the me who lived this book and wished things played out differently, even when I know that wouldn’t be possible, nor would it be right for that to happen.

This book is one of the best books that I have ever picked for myself. And although the conclusion of it may seem bland to some people, I for one thought it was perfect all on its own. I will say that this book is a must read for practically anyone who is breathing and can read. 

If I am being very very honest, I have never read a book that I enjoyed this much before. Every time I’d pick up a book, it would honestly be so hard on me, that I’d quit it midway through, but this book just kept making me turn the pages again and again. One more page and then I’ll stop, I’d say to myself, and here I am writing this.