I just finished reading All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven and wanted to share some thoughts. I had high expectations for this book, because NPR named it one of their best of the year. I don’t think it quite met my expectations, but it was pretty good. (Then again, NPR also called Mosquitoland one of their best of the year, and I hated that, so I’m starting to lose faith in them.)

I would give it 3.5 stars out of five. I don't think the TFIOS/Eleanor and Park comparisons it’s been given are accurate. It reminded me more of Looking for Alaska and 13 Reasons Why. The writing was good, but not great - not quite at Rainbow Rowell levels. 

I really enjoyed the voices of the two narrators, especially Finch, and I liked the alternating perspectives. I found the literary references throughout kind of random - The characters did seem smart, but you never really saw them reading or doing other literary activities that would explain their habit of randomly quoting poetry. It felt a little forced. In fact, a lot of the novel felt random and forced. For example, at one point, Finch and his little sister cut bad words out of books - this seemed very random, and like it was just stuck in there so the writer could make a point. I also thought the whole "exploring Indiana" thing was kind of random, and I wasn't that interested in it. And I felt sometimes that the relationship between Finch and Violet didn't entirely make sense, especially in the beginning - they just kind of fell in love with each other, and that was that.

Probably my biggest problem with the book, however, is that I just didn't really feel emotionally connected to either character. I don't know if this is my problem or the book. But it seemed like, for all the emotional things happening in the book and the expressions of emotions by the characters...I don't know, I never felt like it went too deeply into the characters' emotions, or maybe it just didn't express them in a way that felt real to me.

HOWEVER - I thought it did a good job of portraying mental illness. I liked how falling in love didn't solve either of the character's problems entirely. And I thought many of the choices the author made throughout, especially how she choose to end the book, were unusual in a good way and made the book stand out from similar stories. Also, I honestly couldn't stop reading it. Also, there were many sweet parts. I especially enjoyed the part with the glow in the dark stuff in the closet. Okay, now some spoilery stuff about the ending...

**Spoilers**

I drew this a couple nights ago. One of my favorite quotes from Eleanor and Park by @rainbowrowell.

I have decided to start blogging again!  

Honestly, I wish I had been blogging all through this pastyear, because it’s been quite an interesting year. But I couldn’t have known that at the time…

When I graduated from Library School in May, I thought I would have a “real” job by June, July at the latest. Well, it didn’t quite work out that way…but it’s been fun and totally unexpected!