I love to read, but more often than not it seems like I just don't have the time to pick up a book and read it for my own pleasure. While I do actually read a lot, (due to the nature of my creative writing degree) a lot of the texts I'm reading aren't ones I particularly enjoy or would choose of my own accord. So when I started making long commutes to and from Milton Keynes on the train, I knew I had to buy a few new titles to keep on my Kindle and read on the journeys I was making. I'd had Jennifer Niven's All the Bright Places in my wishlist on Amazon for a really long time and then hearing Zoella talk about it and how touching the story was, I just had to go for this one. It follows Theodore Finch, a boy who is struggling with mental illness and suicidal thoughts and Violet Markey who's still pretty messed up from her older sisters death. The two are an unlikely, but perfect match and they end up building a beautiful friendship and helping each other out quite a lot... Or it certainly seems that way. Finch shakes up the narrative continuously and makes for an interesting and exciting read. For me, the characters seem real and raw and while the novel is about the ways in which young people are dealing with feelings and coping with mental illness, these illnesses are not the be all and end all of the narrative. They are obviously spurring on the story, but they are not constantly referred to - like cancer was approached in John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. The book really is beautifully written and if you've read any John Green or Rainbow Rowell novel I think you'll really like it! Be warned, though, it is a tear jerker.
Em x
I was thinking about buying this book but wasn't really sure if I wanted to read it or not but after reading your blog post I think I might give it a go! x
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