Table Of ContentAll The Bright Places
1. All The Bright Places
2. Contents
3. FINCH
4. VIOLET
5. FINCH
6. I write: Reason for not jumping: Too messy. Too public. Too crowded.
7. Eleanor Markey, 18, a senior at Bartlett High School and member of the
student congress, lost control of her car on A Street Bridge at
approximately 12:45 a.m.
8. FINCH’S RULES FOR WANDERING
9. VIOLET
10. FINCH
11. VIOLET
12. FINCH
13. VIOLET
14. FINCH
15. VIOLET
16. FINCH
17. VIOLET
18. FINCH
19. VIOLET
20. FINCH
21. VIOLET
22. FINCH
23. FINCH
24. VIOLET
25. FINCH
26. VIOLET
27. FINCH
28. VIOLET
29. FINCH
30. VIOLET
31. VIOLET
32. FINCH
33. FINCH
34. VIOLET
35. VIOLET
36. FINCH
37. VIOLET
38. FINCH
39. VIOLET
40. FINCH
41. FINCH
42. VIOLET
43. VIOLET
44. FINCH
45. FINCH
46. VIOLET
47. FINCH
48. FINCH
49. VIOLET
50. FINCH
51. VIOLET
52. VIOLET
53. FINCH
54. VIOLET
55. VIOLET
56. VIOLET
57. April 26 (part two)
58. VIOLET
59. VIOLET
60. VIOLET
61. VIOLET
62. VIOLET
63. VIOLET
64. AUTHOR’S NOTE
65. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
66. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
All The Bright Places
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This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters (with the
exception of the creators of the World’s Largest Ball of Paint and the Blue Flash
and Blue Too roller coasters), are products of the author’s imagination. Any
resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2015 by Jennifer Niven
Jacket photographs (flowers) copyright © 2015 by Neil Fletcher and Matthew
Ward/Getty Images Hand-lettering and illustrations copyright © 2015 by Sarah
Watts All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an
imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC,
a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random
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Excerpt from Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss, TM and copyright © by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Niven, Jennifer.
All the bright places / Jennifer Niven.—1st ed. p. cm.
Summary: “Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey
meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school —both teetering on the edge—it’s
the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the ‘natural
wonders’ of the state of Indiana, and two teens’ desperate desire to heal and save
one another.”—Provided by publisher Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-385-75588-7 (trade) — ISBN 978-0-385-75589-4 (lib. bdg.) —
ISBN 978-0-385-75590-0 (ebook) — ISBN 978-0-553-53358-3 (inti. tr. pbk.)
[1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. Suicide—Fiction. 3. Emotional problems— Fiction.
[1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. Suicide—Fiction. 3. Emotional problems— Fiction.
4. Indiana—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.N6434A1 2015 [Fic]—dc23 2014002238
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates
the right to read.
v3.1
For my mother, Penelope Niven, my brightest place of all
Contents
Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph
Part 1
Finch: I am awake again. Day 6 Violet: 154 days till graduation Finch: Day 6
(still) of being awake Finch’s Rules for Wandering Violet: 153 days till
graduation Finch: Day 7 of the Awake Violet: 152 days till graduation Finch:
Day 8 of the Awake Violet: 151 days till graduation Finch: Day 9
Violet: 151 days till graduation Finch: The night of the day my life changed
Violet: 148 days till graduation Finch: Day 13
Violet: 147-146 days till freedom Finch: Day 15 (I am still awake) Violet: 145
days till liberation Finch: Day 15 (still)
Finch: Days 16 and 17 Violet: 142 days to go Finch: Day 22 and I’m still here
Violet: 138 days to go Finch: Days 23, 24, 25 ...
Part 2
Violet: 135, 134, 133 days to go Finch: Day 27 (I am still here) Violet: 133 days
to go Violet: Saturday Finch: Day 28
Finch: Day 30 (and I am awake) Violet: February 2 Violet: The weekend Finch:
The first warm day Violet: The day of Finch: The day of Violet: The morning
after
Finch: What follows
Finch: How to survive quicksand Violet: The week after
Violet: Spring break
Finch: Day 64 of the awake Finch: Days 65 and 66
Violet: March 10
Finch: Days 66 and 67
Finch: Day 71
Violet: March 18
Finch: Day 75
Violet: March 20
Violet: March 21 and beyond Finch: Day 80: (a muthaf#@*ing world record)
Violet: The rest of march
Part 3
Violet: April
Violet: April 26
Violet: April 26 (part two) Violet: May 3
Violet: May—weeks 1, 2, and 3 Violet: Remaining wanderings 1 and 2 Violet:
Remaining wanderings 3 and 4 Violet: The last wandering Violet: June 20
Author’s Note A cknowledgments About the Author
The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.
—Ernest Hemingway
FINCH
I am awake again. Day 6.
Is today a good day to die?
This is something I ask myself in the morning when I wake up. In third period
when I’m trying to keep my eyes open while Mr. Schroeder drones on and on.
At the supper table as I’m passing the green beans. At night when I’m lying
awake because my brain won’t shut off due to all there is to think about.
Is today the day?
And if not today — when?
I am asking myself this now as I stand on a narrow ledge six stories above the
ground. I’m so high up, I’m practically part of the sky. I look down at the
pavement below, and the world tilts. I close my eyes, enjoying the way
everything spins. Maybe this time I’ll do it—let the air carry me away. It will be
like floating in a pool, drifting off until there’s nothing.
I don’t remember climbing up here. In fact, I don’t remember much of anything
before Sunday, at least not anything so far this winter. This happens every time
—the blanking out, the waking up. I’m like that old man with the beard, Rip Van
Winkle. Now you see me, now you don’t. You’d think I’d have gotten used to it,
but this last time was the worst yet because I wasn’t asleep for a couple days or a
week or two—I was asleep for the holidays, meaning Thanksgiving, Christmas,
and New Year’s. I can’t tell you what was different this time around, only that
when I woke up, I felt deader than usual. Awake, yeah, but completely empty,
like someone had been feasting on my blood. This is day six of being awake
again, and my first week back at school since November 14.
I open my eyes, and the ground is still there, hard and permanent. I am in the bell
tower of the high school, standing on a ledge about four inches wide. The tower
is pretty small, with only a few feet of concrete floor space on all sides of the
bell itself, and then this low stone railing, which I’ve climbed over to get here.
Every now and then I knock one of my legs against it to remind myself it’s there.
My arms are outstretched as if I’m conducting a sermon and this entire not-very-
big, dull, dull town is my congregation. “Ladies and gentlemen,” I shout, “I
would like to welcome you to my death!” You might expect me to say “life,”
having just woken up and all, but it’s only when I’m awake that I think about
dying.
I am shouting in an old-school-preacher way, all jerking head and words that
twitch at the ends, and I almost lose my balance. I hold on behind me, happy no
one seems to have noticed, because, let’s face it, it’s hard to look fearless when
you’re clutching the railing like a chicken.
“I, Theodore Finch, being of unsound mind, do hereby bequeath all my earthly
possessions to Charlie Donahue, Brenda Shank-Kravitz, and my sisters.
Everyone else can go f—
