Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

11 reviews

mrmarshall591's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

Starting off with what I disliked.

While I appreciate the author’s note and how personal this book is to the author, and how there was a lot of research into mental health and suicide, I could not see much past how badly certain topics were portrayed. Not in the way of “everyone grieves differently” or “this is real life” because all of that is true- this book did not need a happy ending and it was important to include a lot of the stuff we wish did not happen- but in how some things that were very inappropriate or not recommended were not even touched upon.

Spoiler

For example, when Violet tells her parents about her suicide attempt  while also at the same time revealing she still was seeing Finch , all the parents mentioned aside from working to make sure Finch was okay is their disappointment. Yeah that probably was in relation to Violet’s disobedience but she literally mentioned she almost took her life and that is never addressed again by her parents.

One thing I wish there was more of in the book was that suicide support group. Although that was not really a realistic portrayal of a group (at least one that is run well) as they literally had everyone share their diagnoses and method of previous suicide attempt (which today goes against safe suicide messaging) introducing another part of who Amanda was was really nice even if she did horribly out Finch to Violet despite her knowing how much she would hate of anyone knew she herself was there.Although it was all nice when Ryan and Amanda joined Violet and Finch’s other friends for a tribute to Finch, we did not have enough character development of Amanda and especially Ryan to justify them being any different from the other mourners at the school who at best never paid any attention to Finch and at worst tormented him. 

Also, Finch was pretty coercive and pushy towards Violet such as when he ripped up her note twice when she did not have a direct “yes” … like cool, you are looking for direct consent but you did not except anything but that.


And now, what I appreciated!

I did like Finch’s counselor - he was genuine and even though he started out kind of “eh” for me, he was actually direct with Finch and tried so much to help him beyond actually making him get additional help, which he acknowledges he could have done more anyway. And also, people need to want to get help and Finch did, multiple times. But even the people who fight most against suicide- for themselves and others- end up dying by suicide. And even though people say this book romanticized suicide (which I can see, especially with Violet going on the journey to visit the remaining wandering spots), I think having seen Finch in so many different states of mind- the backs and forths of what his illness does to him, and how he KNEW he wanted to live at so many points, and appreciated life and being awake- he still ended up taking his life. And that happens… a lot. Some of the best advocates for suicide prevention die by suicide even with years of saying “there is always help” and “I am here for you”. I am a suicide prevention advocate myself but also know that a lot of messaging around suicide prevention can make it seem like loved ones did something wrong or did not try hard enough. This books gets that right- how that is in no way true and suicide prevention is not about you as one person preventing a suicide but it is a collective effort across the lifespan for people to recognize the signs, and have the resources to help both themselves and others.

Closing thoughts:
While I clearly disliked this book overall, I am so glad I read it. As a suicide prevention advocate it is interesting to me to read and watch different portrayals of mental health and suicide over time. Even since this was written in 2015, so much has changed to where I know the movie addressed some things that this book did not (although I need to watch it still). I feel like if I read it around when it came out, I would have loved this as I did Thirteen Reasons Why. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Stalking

Minor: Eating disorder, Ableism, Homophobia, Sexual content, Car accident, and Animal death

lucyrudd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Animal death, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

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

_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

chuckielittle's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad medium-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

It's exceptionally hard to rate this book, relating to and having lived so many of its events personally. The characters felt believable and real for once (which is rare in a YA novel) and weren't in the least irritating.

Parts of it did feel an awful lot like info-dumping, but it was all important, valuable, and relevant information that added to the storyline and filled it out more.

Heartbreaking, hopeful, and cathartic, to sum up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Mental illness, and Bullying

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Car accident, Alcohol, Self harm, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Child abuse

mirandap442's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Self harm, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Death, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gaslighting, Animal death, Drug use, Alcohol, Blood, Racial slurs, and Racism

markovskaiskra's review

adventurous emotional funny sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Abandonment, Bullying, Death, and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

haorey's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Grief, Violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Chronic illness, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, Alcohol, Bullying, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, and Toxic friendship

jasmine_0206's review

adventurous emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.75

This book was okay, It had so many great quotes and I loved the way the characters interacted and the different POVs. However I feel as if there could have been more, just more detail and the writing was definitely geared towards the YA audience.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Alcohol, Car accident, Eating disorder, and Gaslighting

leialou's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.5

 Key Themes: 

Depression; Loss; Suicide; Love; and Recovery. 

Best (or Worst) Moments: 

In my opinion the best part of this book is the end, and ‘after’. The raw emotion that violet demonstrates and the adventure she continues is so heart-breaking, yet beautiful, and is so well written. Niven’s end notes, however, illustrate that she has personally found a friend who committed suicide so probably drew on her own experience and emotions making the story even more heart-breaking. 

Was this Book What I Expected?: 

This book is a reread - the book isn’t as emotional as I remember it being, but at the time of my initial read through my life had a lot of similarities to the book so maybe that’s why it was so emotional. However, the book was still great and emotional and pulled on my heartstrings. 

Review: 

This book is beautiful and sad, but shows both sides of what death can do to an individual whether accidental or suicide, yet this also shows strong character development and growth following a significant loss, and shows that there is beauty in recovery. This is a hard book to read, especially when you have personal experience, that allows you to relate to either Violet or Finch, but at the same time beautiful, in that it demonstrates that your life can continue after the loss of a loved one and still be beautiful. 

Things to Research Further: 

Nothing that I want to research further - but I’m intrigued to read Niven’s other work. I’ve tried reading some of her other work in the past and always DNF’d it but I love this book so really want to give her work another try. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Bullying, Car accident, Death, and Grief

Minor: Animal death