All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Both Finch and Violet feel like life isn’t worth living, but they end up trying to convince the other they’re wrong. This book explores how grief, and physical and emotional abuse, affect mental health. It shows that for all the people who let you down, or don’t want to listen, there are people who want to be there for you, too. 

The story is told from both Finch and Violet’s perspectives, and I really like that about the book: Finch thinks Violet is amazing, but she can’t see that herself, and vice versa. It’s really interesting to consider that how we see ourselves is so different to the way others see us.

Finch and Violet are witty and clever, and the stories about their mental illnesses, and the way they take over, ring true. I wanted to scream at both characters that everything will be okay, and just hang on . . . but mental health battles are harder than that. It’s not enough, sometimes, for other people to say it; we have to believe it ourselves. 

“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.”

“You are all the colours in one, at full brightness.”

This is a book for #depression #suicide #grief #bipolar #selfharm #bullying #estrangedrelationships #physicalabuse #alienation

Video review here