A Great Awareness Read for the New Year

As school approaches once again for many students and has already begun for others, it's always important to be aware of the problems occurring today. All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is a great read as the break walks you off your holiday and into another semester.

All The Bright Places features two extremely different main characters, Violet Markey and Theodore Finch who encounter one another on the ledge of the school building. Violet Markey had the intention of jumping off but was frightened and frozen as she realized what she was doing while Theodore Finch simply wonders what it would mean to jump in the first place. As he talks her off, the two, later on, encounter one another in class where they are put together on a project to discover other places in Indiana before their senior year is over. Though the project only calls for two places, Finch makes it his effort to further open up Violet's eyes to the world around them and discover the little things that people overlook.

This novel gathers the emotions of many teenagers in the world who struggle with who they are and why they belong in the world that they live in. A key issue follows immensely with this story: Is suicide an easier way for me to leave? These two characters, though very different in personality, harbor this same intention. However, Violet marks down her days of finally being done with her senior year as to not bother with life in general or get away from everyone indefinitely, while Finch breathes in the time he has in the "Awake" as he calls it.

Year after year families and friends are emotionally stricken by those who decide to commit suicide. This book is definitely an eye-opener to the problems that surrounds us. It worries on the images people see in one another, the aches that comes with depression, labels that people put on one another and it especially deals with long term heartbreaks (the loss of a loved one, family illnesses, etc.) that come back to haunt you. Many people throughout the world take issues such as these lightly, which the novel also emphasizes. While many others neglect the problem altogether or simply don't know, which we come to observe in both parents of the main characters, each through a different sense. Finch's mother seems almost completely oblivious to Finch's ways and Violet's parents watch her constantly but know nothing of what she tried to do at school or how deep her depression for her loss really goes. In fact, no one knows except Finch.

This novel takes you on a series of deep emotions that you might not have thought you had. Feelings that strike right from the heart and linger even after you're done reading it. I, myself, had to sit down and let it all soak in once I was done reading it as well. I would not recommend this novel to the light-hearted because it does, as I mentioned before, deal with a lot of problems and events that occur today. All The Bright Places makes the reader think, deeply. It's almost extraordinary the things we take for granted and pay little attention to.  Though the novel may bring up sad, buried feelings, I admit that it is a truly captivating story that should be read as the new year is upon us. I personally found it a great way to start off the year.

To further demonstrate the importance of her message, Niven leaves an author note at the end of the novel that explains her personal experience along with listing different places that people can get help if they're dealing with a certain issue such as suicide, bullying, abuse, etc. One can tell that this intricate story was written from the heart and made into a movie of words. This is truly one of the greatest reads that I've personally participated in, in a long time. It leaves one with a message that circles throughout the entire novel, "it's not what you take, it's what you leave."