Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

106 reviews

mnatale100's review

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Child abuse, Grief, Suicide, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Vomit, Self harm, and Infidelity

Minor: Cursing, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Animal death, Alcohol, and Domestic abuse

startjpw23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is about two high school seniors who are both struggling with serious issues. They meet up in a very tense situation. They develop a friendship and then more. They help each other learn important things about themselves. The latter part of this book figuratively punched me in the gut. It tore out my heart and stomped on it. I can't remember a book affecting me as much emotionally as this book did. This book talks about some very important issues. I would give this book more than 5 stars if I could.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Suicide attempt, Bullying, and Suicide

Minor: Sexual content

katie_k1's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death, Grief, and Child abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Bullying, and Mental illness

Minor: Car accident and Vomit

thestoriesjar's review

challenging sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Child abuse

weatheringaddy's review

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I want to start my review off with that there will be spoilers (of course hidden) and are some big triggers for suicide, suicidal ideation and loss.

Violet is a senior whose sister passed away and Theodore Finch is a senior who has an undiagnosed mental illness. They found each other in the most unlikely of places and come together for a senior class project. 

This book delves into both of their pasts.

Spoiler

Violet has survivors guilt and is grieving her sister which has affected her future and contemplating suicide. Finch has an undiagnosed mental illness (revealed later to be bipolar disorder) and been abused as a child by his father who is now divorced and he sees on a weekly basis.

As these two become closer, a romance forms. The author does a great job in writing both characters. You can understand Violet and how her grief has affected her. You can also see how mental illness has affected Finch in the sometimes subtle and unsubtle words and actions. 

The ending was not one that I expected when going into the story or even as I read the book.

Spoiler

While the foreshadowing of Finch’s health are not spoken about overtly, the suicide itself was beautifully written. While I was not a huge fan of how the relationship ended, how his death was written, the characters response to it, and the aftermath were written well. I do think the ending was a bit rushed and could have given more details such as Finch’s family’s reactions and have given more of a sense of closure.

Overall, this book was good. It reminded me of Thirteen Reasons Why in some aspects and explained about the effects of  mental illness, abuse, and bullying can have on a person. I liked the themes of hopefulness and how that even if someone does love you, that it sometimes cannot overshadow the effects of mental illness or make it better/go away. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Child abuse and Car accident

tessvosper's review

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death, Grief, Bullying, Mental illness, and Self harm

Moderate: Vomit and Alcoholism

Minor: Eating disorder and Infidelity

jessicastewart's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Jennifer Niven got this book spot on. It's the most beautiful book I've ever read, this my second time reading it and I loved it just as much. The connection you feel with the characters as you learn about their story is so special. It's so heartbreaking and real.(check content warnings) <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, Grief, Bullying, Suicide, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Child abuse and Car accident

Minor: Child death

bg_oseman_fan's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was well written and touches on a topic that is not often covered, those that remain after a suicide. However, the way the love story is woven into the plot make the whole thing unstable. the books message about grief and understanding culpability with regards to mental health is often under cut by the at it talks about suicide. i would not recommend giving this book to someone seriously struggling with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts. it will not be helpful in my opinion. it helpful perhaps for people just beginning to understand the complexities of stigma and shame that can result from being neurodivergent. that along with wonderful writing gets it a four star from me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Car accident, Child abuse, Grief, Self harm, and Suicide

Moderate: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cancer, Violence, and Cursing

charli_bear's review

challenging dark emotional informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

This book was informative on mental illness.

Spoiler

As it talks a lot on suicidal ideation and suicide in general as well as Finch being bipolar, and the awake and sleep of bipolar disorder and how hard it is to live with that. It also shows the impact of sucide on others even when you don't think other people care, they do. This book helped me with my understanding of bipolar disorder and mental illness in general.

I highly recommend, however be sure to check content warnings before going into this book as it does have a few dark topics. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Death

Minor: Sexual content and Car accident

_tee_'s review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

didn’t really like it but then it made me ugly cry at 1am. so thanks for that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Grief, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Abandonment, and Gore

ouchy