All The Bright Places
Jennifer Niven
The journey of All the Bright Places takes readers through the blooming love story of young teens Atticus Finch and Violet Markey despite both battling mental health crises. Atticus Finch, a young troubled teen who faces physical and emotional scars from an absent abusive father and a hardly present mother, conventionally chooses to hide his battles. Violet Markey, a teen girl who struggles to cope with the recent death of her sister in an automobile accident after being the only one who survived, found herself standing over the ledge of the bridge where the accident took place, and is discovered by Finch. The story of their slow burn friendship begins when assigned a history project to venture to all the key tourist sites of their beloved state of Indiana. Afraid to travel in vehicles, Finch grows to earn Violet’s trust and takes her to the sights, not only growing in awe of the sites, but also of Violet who opens up about her struggles. As Violet softens towards Finch, she becomes aware of the patterns in his behavior to disappear days on end and eventually shut down. When previously taking Violet to his secret lake spot, they find themselves close and intimate, but as the end of their story approaches Finch disappears as per his usual pattern, but Violet as well as the readers come to find out he has disappeared for good at the beloved lake by taking his life.
The book does a phenomenal job of highlighting the different struggles regarding mental health as well as how teens are able to manage their daily lives. The overarching theme of this book is to showcase the variety of signs in teens regarding the issues they face and that every individual handles mental health and heals at their own pace with the right systems. In Finch and Violet exploring Indiana and the different sites, symbolically it represents the action of teens or any individuals struggling to find meaning amidst their environment when struggling with oneself’s battles. Both who try to find purpose in silent ways, find it through each other and silently advocate for individuals who are experiencing this in real life, that there is purpose all around them and in every dark place, “there is a bright place”.
