Book in Review: All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

2015
Title: All The Bright Places
Author: Jennifer Niven
Publishing Date: January 6th, 2015
Publisher: Knopf
Format: Paperback
Rating: 5/5 stars

Summary:

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning!
 
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 to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, 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.
 
This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.
Where do I even begin to describe how beautiful this book is?

I think I just found the best book of 2015 even if it's just January. It's funny because every time I read a really really good book, I am surprised at how speechless I get; whereas if it's a bad one, I always know what stuff I didn't like and I tend to point those out in my reviews. But what to say when I'm blown away with such a gripping and emotional read that made me cry for 2 hours?

Because I am NOT okay, and I don't know when I will be okay, or if I ever will be okay. And every time I see this book, let alone think about it, I tend to have the reaction of  throwing stuff and bursting into ugly tears and just kicking people from sheer sadness and anger - so don't you dare mention this book to me in person if you don't want to be turned into a punching bag or a crying shoulder. 

The blurb of this book tells us that it is for fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell. These are really heavy claims, and I wasn't too sure since most contemporaries always tell us that it's "for fans of John Green" even if they are NOTHING alike, save for the genre. But man, does this book deliver. I don't want to sound like I'm a PR or Marketing agent, but yes, this is for fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell, and you better read it, because oh my God, nothing will compare, and nothing I say will be enough to tell you how beautiful and lovely this is.

All the Bright Places is not just a fictional story about two teenagers who struggle with their brokenness and their constant efforts to hold on with life. It rings with honesty and rawness, and what we read about in this book are things that real people struggle with everyday. There's depression and mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, and these are struggles that we see with our eyes in everyday scenarios. No matter how fictional this story may be, it is real to me, and it should be to anyone. This book is not about how two people fall in love and suddenly just save each other from their problems. This tells us that it's not easy, and everyday is a hard struggle to stay in the Awake, and that it's so easy to slip off into the unknown and just turn everything off. This book shows us that there are good days, but that there are bad ones too, and yet we can keep fighting everyday so we can get more good ones. This tells us that you can hold on to each other as much as you want, but sometimes it's not enough, it's not that easy to fix, and one day it will just eat you alive until you succumb to it and you finally make the leap. 

Depression is not just a quick fix like a band-aid; it should be a constant process of healing and getting yourself together. It's not your fault if things aren't enough, it's not your fault if you can't control it, because somehow it becomes a part of you. And it's okay to ask for help, it's okay to admit you can't do it anymore, because depression is a scary thing and it burns inside you until you just can't take it anymore. It's not just about feeling sad or down sometimes or wanting to kill yourself; it's about struggling to stay alive, and fighting for your life, and looking for good reasons to live. 

There's a huge social stigma that mental illness is just a choice, and people want to suffer and that it's just a form of weakness or they are trying to get attention. But no matter what others think, these issues are real. And it's exactly because of these social stigmas that make people with these conditions not want to seek support or help. And that should change.

All The Bright Places is one of the best portrayals of mental illness and suicide. It's so hauntingly emotional and real, and I think this is one way to get people to understand and accept these issues. It's incredibly gut wrenching and touching to read, and this book complete broke me. This book demands to be read and I can't stress how much this book deserves every bit of acclaim and praise, even if all of them will never be enough.

All The Bright Places gave me a subtle reminder of why I even started reading - and it's because there's just something about these books that invoke feelings into me. And this one, is a keeper.


Book in Review: The Spectacular Now

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Title: The Spectacular Now
Author: Tim Tharp
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: October 20, 2008
Rating: 3/5 

The Spectacular Now is about a high school senior named Sutter who likes 3 things: his "fat" girlfriend Cassidy, drinking and partying, and basically living the yolo life. The protagonist isn't new, there are a lot of books that have immature screwed up little boys who don't have any future plans except living in the now and having fun. Now, this wouldn't be much of a problem if Sutter would be 17 forever, but that's not the case, so Cassidy breaks up with him, because she actually wants to have a future, and Sutter won't probably ever give that to her. This of course affects Sutter, though not much, as he does believe that Cassidy will get back together with him. We also quickly find out that Sutter has daddy issues, as his parents had a divorce when he was younger. He lives with his mom, who he blames for the divorce because apparently she kicked his father out of the house. Sutter also of course had a best friend, who is like him in many ways with his weed addiction, but changes when he falls in love with his new girlfriend. This leaves Sutter confused with his life as seemingly so everyone is moving on with their lives, changing and evolving except him.

Enter Amy Finnicky. One night Sutter gets completely drunk and is woken up by Amy the next morning. He's in an unknown neighborhood, and he has no recollections of the night before, plus his truck is nowhere to be found. Amy helps him find the truck, while he helps Amy with her paper route - she delivers papers to houses for her mother every morning at the crack of dawn. We immediately know that Amy is this incredibly helpless pushover who simply can't stand up for herself while her mother and stepfather boss her around endlessly. Sutter makes it his life's mission to help Amy, and eventually they become a couple.

I really had high hopes for this book, especially since the synopsis reminded me a lot of Catcher in the Rye but it disappointed me so much and I finished the book with a heavy annoyed feeling. The writing was fresh, and crisp and the voice of Sutter was very charming and well written. I had no problems with the technicals of this story, as the grammar the technique and the prose was perfect. However, I can only rate this a 3.0 rating. I will explain why.

My primary problem is with Sutter.
Sutter does not develop or progress throughout the book, and does nothing to help Or save Amy at all (unless you consider bad influencing Amy into becoming a drunkard as helping her). He does not mature or come of age, he does not get struck by a epiphany or a eureka moment that he needs to change his ways, but rather he realizes at the end that he loves the way his life is going, and that he'd rather live in the spectacular now. I know that maybe it is the point of the author to make this the ending of the book, as a cautionary tale, and you've got characters moving on like his best friend, Cassidy, and Amy who moves to Boston, yet Sutter is left behind and we the readers are left with this big lesson that we shouldn't be like Sutter. Yet, I found this story incredibly infuriating as the author completely ignores the structure of a maturation plot or a plot in general, which is that the character must mature or change. Sutter mostly stays the same from the beginning and the end of the book. And that is where a promising book like this fails for me.

Book in Review: Everyday by David Levithan

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Every Day
Title: Every Day
Author: David Levithan
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: August 28, 2012
Hardcover: 322 pages
Rating: 4.5/5

 (We wrote this review together, so...)

 This is a story about a being named A. A doesn't have a permanent body. A doesn't have a gender (for convenience we will be calling A "Being" like a replacement for he/she/it). Being moves from body to body to body, never staying in one for more than a day. A doesn't try to change a person's life or do anything too different or significant when being does stay in that person's body. Being could be a girl today and a boy tomorrow. Being could be Asian, American, German, or anything else. Being can have blond hair, dark hair, brown hair, or dyed hair. Being can be athletic, nerdy, artsy, suicidal, an environmentalist and many more. Being can be rich, poor, or middle-class. A can be the total opposite of what being was yesterday and it's totally normally for being.

 On a certain day, A meets a girl named Rhiannon while inhabiting Rhiannon's boyfriend's body. A usually tries not to do anything too different while staying in anyone but this time, being just couldn't resist. A finds beingself liking Rhiannon and tries to find ways to meet her, even while in the body of someone else. They slowly build a relationship and get to know more about each other. Can their relationship survive under the circumstances?

 We actually read this book a long time ago but have put off making a review until now. We needed a bit of time to reflect on this book. Even now, we're not sure if we consider the ending happy or sad. There's something about this book that drew us in. Maybe it's the unique plot? Maybe it's the impossible romance?

 We loved how Every Day was able to show that though A likes Rhiannon, being is still capable of liking someone of the opposite gender. This highlights the fact that A really doesn't have any gender. Levithan was very clear on saying that A isn't a boy or a girl. A wasn't shown as a masculine character or a feminine one though others might think that A is more male than female.

 Every Day was an extremely unique book. The plot was new and fresh, totally not a cliche. We love the plot since it makes you realize how creative Levithan is. He manages to make many books with different topics. His characters don't sound the same like some author's characters do. A was the kind of character whose voice was different from the others. Being was a being (as in being-being not being-he/she/it) that had already figured out what being (back to being-he/she/it) needed to do in order to not mess up anyone's life. we loved how the book started and also loved how it ended. We loved how A, though he never really got education from the same teachers for more than a day, isn't stupid. Being makes use of being's common sense and the things being learned while inhabiting somebody's body to survive. As for Rhiannon, she wasn't stupid either. We don't like her very much but we don't hate her either. She was on our neutral side but even so, we can understand why A would like her, why A would risk so many things for her. Rhiannon didn't do stupid things or rush off into danger. She and A were good together.

 Normally, in books, we like happy endings but we realized that if this book ended happily, it wouldn't be perfect anymore and would seem forced just to please the readers. We also realized that if it ended sadly, we might hate the book, think of it as too depressing. What Levithan did was create an ending that wasn't sad but wasn't happy either. It was more hopeful than happy. Peaceful than sad.

 The writing was easy to read and would grab your attention from the very first page. It showed everything it had to show and made the events perfect. We don't know why we didn't give it a 5. There's just a tiny little thing that's missing but we can't figure out what it is. Other than that, we loved the book.

 Have you read Every Day? What did you think about it? Leave a comment!