Trisha Joy B.

Muyot
VIII- Galileo

All the Bright Places

Jennifer Niven

Theodore Finch and Violet Markey are two teenagers who want to escape from
their small Indiana town. Violet is a popular girl who’s secretly dealing with
survivor’s remorse, and Finch is a boy obsessed with death, labelled a freak by
other students. Fate brought the two together when both climbed the bell tower
at Bartlett University together at the same time, planning to jump off the ledge.
Finch is surprised that Violet is up there because she’s a popular school
cheerleader. Violet has been dealing with the death of her sister, Eleanor, for
which she feels responsible. Eleanor died in a car accident and Violet has not
been in a car since. She quit the student council, then cheerleading, and now
cares about absolutely nothing. On the ledge, Finch talks Violet down and
Violet returns the favor.

As for Finch, he is depressed and experiences near-constant thoughts of

suicide. Morbidly, he writes out fun facts about other people’s suicides in his
journal. He initiates a partnership between himself and Violet for a project
given by Mr. Black inn which they will explore their home state of Indiana
together. But Ryan Cross, Violet’s alleged “boyfriend” is against it but he has
no choice but to be partners with anyone else. At home, he looks up Violet on
Facebook and read about her sister’s death. Finch’s family does not
understand his depression, so he feels isolated.

For their project, Finch and Violet travel around their state to see important or
unusual sites. They see homemade rollercoasters, the highest hill in Indiana,
Hoosier Hill, and more. As time goes on, the two begin a romantic relationship
and fall in love. Eventually, Finch becomes a kind of mentor and counselor for
Violet. He helps her begin to talk about her sister’s death, which her parents
have not managed to do. He inspires her to travel in a car again and begin
writing again, things she avoided for nine months, Violet begins to heal.

Finch, however, is getting worse. He suffers from an undiagnosed bipolar

disorder and therefore deals with very high highs and very low lows. His
behavior demonstrates the characteristic manic periods of impulsive
excitability as well as the lethargic mindset during the depressive periods. He is
also beaten by his father and bullied at school. The one shining spot in his life
is his blossoming relationship with Violet.
One afternoon, they make out in the backseat of Finch’s car, then wander
around Indiana some more; however, they accidentally stay out until the next
morning. Violet’s parents were furious, forbidding violet from seeing Finch
again.

One particularly bad night, Finch decides to end his life. He takes a handful of
sleeping pills but almost immediately regrets it. He gets his stomach pumped to
the emergency room after that, he tries to get help through a suicide support
group in a nearby town. Then he runs into Amanda, another girl he knows at
school. She is concerned about Finch’s suicide attempt and tells Violet about
it. Violet is obviously worried and tries to help.

Finch runs away from home and only violet seems to be looking for him. He
sends her mysterious texts while he visits the remaining locations for their
unfinished project, but violet does not understand them until much later. A
month after he has disappeared, Finch sends an email to every single person
he knows, saying goodbye. Violet, in panic, figures out that he has drowned
himself at the Blue Hole, one of their wandering sites. She goes there and
discovers she is right, and she becomes distraught. Later, she manages to
decode the texts and at the last location that they were supposed to visit, Finch
wrote a song for her. This helps a healing process and convinces violet that
finch suicide is not her fault. In the end, Violet went swimming at the Blue
Hole by herself, bringing her a sense of peace. The book teaches readers that
everything will work itself out somehow.