Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death.
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries. It's only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who's not such a freak after all. And it's only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink…
I appreciated the author's note, and I do think that it changed my view of the book. I'm glad she mentioned it. Despite that, I've tried not to let that affect my review; instead, I'm trying to base my opinions purely on the book itself.
A book like this needs to be character-driven. It needs to have breathing and living characters who speak to the reader. Unfortunately, Jennifer Niven's characters just did not work for me, especially Violet. Was she popular? Because popular people don't read that much, or write that much, or do a lot of the things that Violet does. Her blog was cool, but it felt like her 'popularity' was being thrust into my face as a fact. She is devastated by her sister Eleanor's death, and I completely understand that, but I didn't feel at all connected to Eleanor. It seemed like they were the best of friends, and had no arguments at all – who's like that with their siblings? It was very fake. I felt no connection or grief at all to Eleanor. However, I warmed slightly more to Finch. He, too, had lots of different layers and personas (which were rather confusing), but he acknowledged it, and that made all the difference. I could understand him; I can be a different person depending on who I'm with. But I was expecting him to be quirky, and he wasn't really. It was almost like the author was trying to make him into your 'average' teenage boy by putting in random unnecessary comments about 'hot girls' and things like that. He keeps saying that he's a freak, but he's not. Again, it confused me greatly. Another big let-down for me was the romance. It's a key part of the novel, yet I felt no spark at all. There were beautiful quotes, cute nicknames, but I still felt nothing. Nada. Nope. I think it was down to the flatness of the characters. Therefore, I didn't feel a whole lot of grief at the ending. It was very abrupt and unexplained (at least, for me). All the Bright Things had lot of potential. There are so many things about it that are just begging for fans to get hold of them: quotes, nicknames, the cute way that Violet and Finch's relationship was made into a violet and a finch image. The plot may be a little clichéd and pretentious in places, but so was that of The Fault in Our Stars. It dealt with some important themes. Ultimately, though, the characters just did not work for me. But I think that it could definitely be big, so if you're a fan of John Green, Jay Asher, and Gayle Forman then I'd recommend it.
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