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Overall Summary

All the Bright Places is a young adult novel written by Jennifer Niven. It deals with teen suicide, and it won the Goodreads Choice award in 2015.

The story is told from two different perspectives. One voice belongs to a high school student named Theodore Finch, who goes by the name “Finch”. He’s brilliant but he’s been ostracized by his peers and abused by his father. Finch has experienced suicidal thoughts for many years, so when he meets another teen on top of their high school bell tower about to jump off, he talks her out of it. In turn, she does the same for him. However, because everyone assumes that Violet climbed up there to save Finch instead of vice versa (since they think he would never have been able to come up with an idea like that), they end up in a relationship together even though both are still reeling from their respective losses.

The two characters take a trip to fulfill the requirements of their US geography class. They become friends and then lovers, but when Finch’s mood shifts from mania to depression, Violet attempts to help him. He feels that he is beyond help and ultimately kills himself.

In the postscript, Niven reveals that a boy she knew and loved committed suicide. She discusses the stigma of suicide, how this affected her and others who were close to him, as well as treatment options for mental illness. She also talks about bullying and how it affects people with mental illnesses.

The narrator of All the Bright Places focuses on hope and acceptance for suicide victims. The author emphasizes that survivors need support and counseling as well. Violet, who lost her sibling and boyfriend, still looks to her future at the end of the novel.

Chapter 1: “Finch”

The book begins with one of the two narrators, Theodore Finch, reflecting on how he has asked himself if today is a good day to die. He’s standing on the ledge of his school bell tower and feeling as dead as usual. He doesn’t remember what happened during several weeks before that moment, but it doesn’t matter because he feels like he could jump from where he is at any time.

Finch realizes that another student, Violet Markey, is also poised to jump from the tower. He calms her down and tells her not to jump; he wants it to look like “he’s been run through a wood chipper at his funeral.” Finch joins Violet on the ledge and assures her safety. When he sees that she’s okay, he considers jumping again but is stopped when Violet talks with him until he relents. Charlie Donahue casually mentions pizza in the cafeteria as they all go back inside together.

Finch meets with his school counselor. Mr. Embry questions Finch’s suicidal thoughts and threatens to call Finch’s mother. He also plans to meet with Finch twice a week, but he does not voice any of this information to Finch.

Chapter 2: “Violet”

Violet has been having nightmares and is not sleeping well. She has a dream where she melts away. The counselor asks about college applications, which Violet hasn’t finished because of her sister’s death in a car accident. Violet thinks that she deserves to be punished because of the accident, so she cut her hair like her sister’s and refuses to drive or even ride in a car.

Violet’s sister, Daisy, died a year ago. Since then Violet has been wearing her glasses and acting like she was her sister in order to be close to her. She even got a bad prescription so that she would look more like Daisy. Unfortunately, this affected the way she acted at school as well; for example, when asked to write an essay on Russian literature by the end of the week (a topic which Violet had already studied), Violet told her teacher that it was too much work because of all the other things going on in her life right now. However, some people think that what happened earlier with Finch is enough reason for them not to talk about it anymore or ask any questions about it.