Theodore “Freak” Finch and Violet Markey stand on a ledge above their high school. Both are thinking about jumping. Both can’t quite do the deed. Strangers to one another, they ultimately talk each other back onto safe ground. They choose life. This meeting sparks the beginning of a lovely roller coaster ride. Violet comes from the land of the popular; a well-liked blond with her own online magazine and big dreams of going to New York University. Finch comes from the land of the loser; a tall black-haired outcast with bipolar tendencies and a bad homelife.
They would ordinarily never cross paths, but their unconventional meeting leaves them vulnerable. Violet reels from the sudden death of her older sister Eleanor. Finch is looking for control in his life. Both of them need help.
The two become partners on a geography project for school and soon find themselves wandering all over their home state of Indiana to find all of the most unusual places they can think of. They ride a homemade roller coaster in someone’s backyard, climb towers, swim in bottomless blue lakes, borrow books from a trailer park of retired bookmobiles. They become friends, and then they become something more.
As happens in life, what goes up must come down. Euphoric mania tumbles down into weighty depression. Sadness creeps in through the cracks. Staying awake and present in this world becomes hard. The good times don’t last. Will Finch and Violet be able to save one another?
All the Bright Places tackles very difficult subject matters with grace and aplomb. Both the main characters, who take turns telling their story, are likable and relatable even at their worst moments. Their doomed love story feels immediate and raw in the way that teenage love so often does, and readers will root for them to beat the odds that are stacked against them. Illness isn’t always visible or physical, and this book will hopefully inspire teens to look out for one another and find help when needed. Above all, this is an important story, beautifully told. 400 pages 978-0385755887 Ages 14 and up
Highly recommended by Molly Crumbley, Librarian, Maryland, USA.
he New York Times bestselling love story about two teens who find each other while standing on the edge. Theodore Finch is fascinated by death. Every day he thinks of ways he might kill himself, but every day he also searches for—and manages to find—something to keep him here, and alive, and awake.
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her small 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—six stories above the ground— it’s unclear who saves whom. Soon it’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself. 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. . .---from the publisher
416 pages 978-0385755917 Ages 14-17
Keywords: romance, death and dying, grief, loss, depression, teens, mental illness, mental health, being yourself, finding yourself, the power of connection, love, 14 year old, 15 year old, 16 year old, 17 year old, If You Liked Louder Than Hunger by John Schu, If You Liked Turtles All The Way Down by John Green, If You Liked Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone, If You Liked Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, If You Liked How To Make Friends With The Dark by Katherine Glasgow, If You Liked The Glass Girl by Katherine Glasgow, If You Liked Girl in Pieces by Katherine Glasgow, If You Liked Crank by Ellen Hopkins
