Book 7: All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

This is a new young adult book which I almost bought, but then decided against it, and then saw it at the library the next day. So I thought, why not. It alternates perspective between a 17 year old boy and girl who meet under shitty life circumstances, become friends, fall in love, and then life becomes shitty again. I liked this book a lot, which was a pleasant surprise. If I’ve ever discussed books with you then at some point I have probably ranted about my general dislike for most young adult books, and mostly my dislike for John Green’s writing style (which when it comes to dialog, is as unrealistic as humanly possible). This doesn’t stop me from actually reading YA books because every so often I find a gem. All The Bright Places is absolutely one of those gems. Jennifer Niven does a great job at accurately enough portraying someone who is bipolar. The obsessiveness involved when you are manic, the endless fog surrounding your depressive downs and even though the word “bipolar” is only mentioned once by a school counselor, it’s still fairly obviously that’s what’s going with the male character. While yes as a whole the it is terribly dramatic at times, I didn’t feel like it really distracted from the core of the book, plus it kind of comes with the territory. The book ended on a hopeful, but not happy, note. The last 60 or so pages I read with fingers crossed, silently egging on Jennifer Niven to end the book the way it needed to be ended, and props to her for doing it. Real life never gets wrapped up in a neat and tidy perfect package, the truth of the matter is sometimes life fucking sucks and shitty stuff just happens and then keeps happening and you find a way through it because that’s just how life works. It was nice to see a young adult book demonstrate that in a non pretentious manner.