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 Gayle Forman, Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.
As I began to read this book it felt a little flat to me. I will start by saying that I was not sure what to expect. I knew what the description told me and what I was hearing from the girls at EpicReads over on youtube but that was about it. I am not a big fan of books such as this one. Books that circle around suicide, depression, eating disorders etc. The sad books that surround these topics are heavy to the heart to read. I was not really sure what people really mean't when they said a book was heavy while they read it. I now understand as this was my first dive into a book such as this. Finch was such an interesting character to get to know and watch as he grew. I did catch myself learning things I had never known before as far as little facts of real world people. Statistics in this book was fairly educational and I did enjoy how the author placed them within the story. As I did not relate to Finch I did find myself attaching to him and hoping that he in fact would improve in this condition. I love the fact that though Finch was considered an outcast at school he still carried the vibe that he was one of the cool kids at time. Violet was a character that I really enjoyed to get to know as well. We got to dive into a world of a teenage girl who was completely heartbroken and lost due to the loss of a sibling. I feel as if she handled herself rather well considering what she had went through. Violet was a strong character but of course she had to be for this story. Violet is a character that develops into a strong lead within time. It did take me some time to really warm up to her character and really see who she was as a person. Finch I didn't have that problem. He was pretty much an open book from the first chapter. Though Finch has an addiction to death and statistics revolving around death I really enjoyed him as a character. This book was told in both points of view from Finch and Violet. It was a great choice in my opinion to apply that to the story line. Both characters had different things they were going through so you get to see that and really take in the experience. I was really captivated by Finch and really loved reading about him. After 200 pages in I did begin to get a little bored with the story line and it begin to fall flat for me. The story began strong and once it starting to fall flat I did put the book down for a couple weeks before I picked it back up again. This story is not a 5 out of 5 stars for me but I did rate it a 4 because I felt like the author did handle the subject of the story very well. I did not enjoy the ending and to be honestly it will probably take me a couple days to really get over the ending as it did not end the way I thought it would. I do understand and respect the author for choosing the ending that she did and feel like she did a great job at how she managed it. I can say with confidence that I would pick up another one of her books when she writes more of them. This is a subject that I feel does not get enough discussion. I do recommend parents to read this book as well because it does give some great insight on what teenagers today can be going through and in the author's notes are numbers that can be called if you notice any signs in your children. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in this story but would say I wouldn't recommend it to those who may be suffering from suicidal thoughts. The writing style for me was okay, it was average for your typical YA book. This is just a hard book to give a review for because giving too much information would be spoiling you on this book and the feelings are really hard to come to terms with or explain. The Author herself did suffer from a lot of the issues that was written within the story line, so it was pretty accurate to the feelings of one that would be suffering from these illnesses. You can definitely tell it comes from a real place. It does have some dark elements but did not lack the good. I really enjoyed that the author made a real website that was created in the book. You can check out the website online with http://www.eleanorandviolet.com/ and get the full experience of seeing what Violet was discussing and also get to see a bit of her sister's personality which is something we really didn't get in the book. As always feel free to let me know if you read this book and what you thought of it. I will try to put a youtube video review up on thenelsonway channel if you want to check out that as well.
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