Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven!!

Hello there guys!

Welcome to a new week, starting with a new Monday! And what better way to start the new week than with a new book review for Mark This Book Monday!

I was approved for this book via NetGalley and I have to give a big thanks to Penguin Random House UK for the approval! This is one book that I MUST recommend for everyone, even if I have to recommend that you stock up on tissues, comfort food and a strong cuppa tea!

This one is part of my 105 Challenge but not as part of my review shelf part of the challenge, but the one for Diversity, because there's still plenty of conspiracy of silence and stigma about mental health issues, and this book talks about them in a very raw and real and rather well done way.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had read plenty of reviews from my fellow bloggers warning me about the crying with this book, but I was not prepared to spend the last 10% of the book bawling my eyes out, connecting so much with the characters and feeling so much for them... It took me a good half hour to stop sobbing and then I was still feeling pretty gutted for the rest of the night.

All The Bright Places is told in dual point of view for the most part, following both Theodore Finch and Violet Markey who meet at the top of their school's bell tower, both thinking about jumping and both saving each other in a way at the time.

I was both fascinated by Theodore as well as worried sick after the first few chapters. My mental health knowledge is pretty basic since that's not my work speciality, but with what little I know, I could see so very clearly what was going on and what was likely to happen in the end, but seeing it coming didn't prepare me well enough for the emotional punch that I'd be getting. Theodore helps Violet through her loss and her insecurities, but he never feels like he can get help or accept other people's help.

There's such a stigma on mental health illnesses that people are afraid to speak up, to search for help, to ask for help that they end up fighting entirely on their own, and that's not always a battle you can win without help. But society as a whole still tends to ridicule or hide or ignore or a combination of all three when it comes to mental health, and books like this one are so important for all of us, but even more for young adults that might be dealing with something similar and don't even know what it is that they are fighting, and only get the "freak" treatment.

Be ready to be changed somehow by this book, Theodore Finch won't pass through your life and leave you as you were. We can all learn a few things from this boy that burns like the brightest star.

A wonderful and poignant book that is both relevant and intimate. More than well deserved 4 to 4.5 stars. Read it now, but buy some tissues first.



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Tell Me Tuesdays #24!!

Tell Me Tuesdays is a meme/feature created by the awesome ladies of Please Feed The Bookworm and La La In The Library, where we can share how we choose the book we are currently reading from our TBR pile!

I'm always curious about that, cause as much as I tend to make myself a rough schedule for books to read and the like, I'm quite a mood reader and sometimes I just HAVE to ignore my schedule and read something else!

 All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning!
 
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.

Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.

This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.

Includes a PDF Help Line Resource Guide and a Note Read by the Author.

 The Future Collection by Beth Revis

This collection of sci fi stories from NY Times Bestselling author Beth Revis features worlds and technology from the future. Featuring three brand new, original tales and three reprints, each story explores a different set of characters in a different world and facing different problems in the future world.

"Doctor-Patient Confidentiality": A girl wakes up in a cryomed unit and must recall why she's there and what's she's lost.

"The Most Precious Memory": In a world where memories are sold and consumed like drugs, one deal has a weird twist.

"The Girl & the Machine": A time traveller meets someone who claims she's met his future self and that they'll change the world together.

"Lag": A reporter has found the story of a lifetime--but a malfunctioning teleportation has made her forget it...

"The Turing Test": A college student must determine which test subject is human and which is an android with A.I.

"As They Slip Away": A novella set in the world of Across the Universe, exploring the fate of a side character.

 The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

To fight her destiny as the missing heir to a powerful and dangerous secret society, sixteen-year-old Avery West must solve an ancient puzzle in a deadly race across Europe. Forbidden love and code-breaking, masked balls and explosions, destiny and dark secrets collide in this romantic thriller, in the vein of a YA DaVinci Code.

Avery West's newfound family can shut down Prada at the Champs-Elysees when they want to shop in peace, and can just as easily order a bombing when they want to start a war.

They are part of a powerful and dangerous secret society called the Circle of Twelve, and Avery is their missing heir. If they discover who she is, some of them will want to use her as a pawn. Some will want her dead.

To thwart their plans, Avery must follow a trail of clues from the landmarks of Paris to the back alleys of Istanbul and through a web of ancient legends and lies. And unless she can stay one step ahead of beautiful, volatile Stellan, who knows she’s more than she seems, and can decide whether to trust mysterious, magnetic Jack, she may be doomed after all.


I'm still reading Thornhill but since my preorder of Willowgrove hasn't arrived yet, I've decided to set it aside until I have the final book too, just in case there's a cliffhanger at the end of this one!

I've been trying to do my best to get through all the January/Feb eARCs that I got approved for via Netgalley, but I decided that some short stories are always great to read when I need a break from something else, and science fiction is like comfort food for me, and I just HAD to start The Conspiracy of Us as soon as it downloaded at midnight because secret societies, guys with a British accent, ancient puzzles, treasure hunting!!! 

So what are you all guys reading and how and why did you decide to pick up that book? Shiny new ARC? Comfort read? Scheduled for review? Must have new release? Tell me!!