All The Bright Places is a 2015 Young Adult novel by Jennifer Niven, exploring the issues of suicide and mental illness amongst the dark comedy of life.
It switches narrators between Violet Markey, a once-popular girl grieving the loss of her older sister, and Theodore Finch, a bipolar boy known to his classmates as "Theodore Freak". They encounter one another atop the school clocktower, and each finds solace in the other.
It was adapted into a 2020 film starring Elle Fanning as Violet, and Justice Smith as Finch. Luke Wilson has a small role as Violet's father.
Tropes include:
- Adults Are Useless: Finch's parents refuse to believe that he has problems, and Mrs. Finch doesn't even notice when her son misses weeks of school.
- An Aesop:
- Don't hide your mental health issues. Pretending everything is fine when it isn't is going to make it worse in the long run.
- Abuse suffered as a child is going to affect them even later in life.
- Bittersweet Ending: Finch is dead from drowning himself, leaving Violet a mess, but she finds a way to cope with her grief and follow the map he drew, seeing what he wanted her to see.
- Chekhov's Gun: Finch's obsession with water and ability to hold his breath.
- Consummate Liar: Finch is one. When his lies blow up following sleeping with Violet, it starts the downward spiral towards his eventual suicide.
- Domestic Abuse: Finch's father is physically and verbally abusive. It stops for the most part when Finch is able to fight back as a teenager, but the damage persists.
- Double Standard: The Jerk Jock star baseball player can pummel Finch, but if he returns the favor, he faces suspension and expulsion.
- Happily Failed Suicide: Deconstructed, several times. In the support group that Finch finds, he finds several people who have repeated attempts and they aren't happy.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Subverted. Amanda starts out as an Alpha Bitch dating the Jerk Jock who is tormenting Finch and laughing at him, but she realizes they are no different when seeing him at her suicide support group. She then apologizes to Violet for inadvertently starting the chain of events leading to his death, as well as for making fun of him only to be told "too little, too late" by his friend Brenda. Still Brenda acquiesces when Violet invites Amanda to a memorial for Finch.
- Heroic BSoD: Violet starts the book in this state, and it takes a very long time for her to crawl out of it. Finch ends up like this following his expulsion, and starts a downward spiral towards his suicide.
- Hypocrite: The entire school body attends Finch's funeral, and the students create a shrine for him at his locker despite most of them having bullied or ignored him while he was alive. Violet lampshades it, and Brenda is outright disgusted.
- Interrupted Suicide: How the story starts. Both Violet and Finch find each other on top of the school tower, ready to jump, and they talk each other off the ledge.
- It's All My Fault: Violet blames herself for the accident that killed her sister, and also for not preventing Finch's suicide.
- Last-Name Basis: Finch prefers to go by his last name.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: A gender flip where Finch serves as a manic pixie dream guy for Violet. Subverted; he's revealed to be more of a Stepford Smiler.
- Parting-Words Regret: Violet doesn't even remember the last thing she said to Finch but she was pretty angry with him.
- Stepford Smiler: Finch and Amanda.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Amanda telling Violet about Finch's Interrupted Suicide starts a chain of events that eventually leads to Finch's death.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Amanda at the end of the book, where she apologizes to Violet for being mean to Finch, and dating his bully. She also has broken up with said bully following Finch's death. Brenda, who's sitting with Violet, isn't amused.
Tropes relating to the film adaptation:
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication:
- Violet seems to alternate between wearing glasses and not. In the book it's explained that these are her sister's glasses. It's therefore supposed to be a sign of character development that she's not wearing them in the last act of the film.
- Finch gets an ominous scene early in the film where he holds his breath underwater in the bath for a while. The book gives us access to his inner monologues, where we learn he has a fascination with death and the ways people have committed suicide in the past.
- Violet just seems to guess that Finch has gone to the Blue Hole to kill himself, even though she only knows he's run away and he could have gone to any of the other places. In the book, Finch sends a cryptic email saying to all his friends, which prompts Violet to search for him. And she does check the other places first.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Violet is a little more withdrawn in the film and a little more passive. For example, her parting words regret with Finch in the book involves her being angry; in the film, she just leaves his house when he yells at her.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Amanda is softened in the film where, instead of laughing at Finch or acting as an Alpha Bitch, she appears to be merely biased towards Roamer's version of events. Her crueller moments are absent for the most part. As a result, Brenda's cold reaction to her at Finch's memorial is also eliminated.
- Violet's parents don't order Finch to stay away from her after they sleep together. He initiates the separation here out of guilt.
- Adaptational Wealth: Finch's family have a bigger house in the film, and appear to be doing quite well for themselves.
- Adapted Out:
- Finch's father never appears in the film, only functioning as The Ghost.
- Violet's former boyfriend Ryan doesn't appear in the film.
- Affectionate Nickname: Kate calls Finch 'Theo' after they've had a heart to heart about their father.
- Brick Joke: A heartwarming example. Violet early on says she wants her epitaph to read "I was here", and Finch jokes about stealing it from her. At the church he intended to take her to, she finds his signature in the guest register reading "I was here" - which brings about happy tears.
- Casting Gag: Violet compares herself to her more brilliant older sister Eleanor. She's played by Elle Fanning - who coincidentally also has a gifted older sister she is often compared to.
- Cerebus Call-Back:
- The rock with 'Your Turn' written on it is first a present given to Violet in a sweet scene with Finch. It features prominently in several scenes showing the downfall of their relationship. Violet likewise finds it among his things when she discovers his suicide.
- As they go swimming in the Blue Hole, Finch jokingly calls out "Marco!" to make sure they're alone. Violet screams "Marco!" when she finds him drowned, in the vain hope that he'll respond.
- The same scene has a series of still shots of all the other places Finch took Violet to.
- Finch writes on the wall that he wants to "stay awake" before he dies. In an argument with Violet, he later clarifies that he sometimes blacks out and "staying awake" is his terminology for remaining present.
- Compressed Adaptation: The film condenses some of the events in the book - for example, Violet nearly catches up to Finch several times before arriving at the Blue Hole in the book, whereas here she goes there straight away. More foreshadowing for Finch's suicide, his expulsion from school and his cryptic emails are eliminated.
- Everyone Has Standards: After Finch's suicide, and Violet is reading the report in class, there's a shot of Roamer looking very sad - presumably feeling guilty about bullying Finch.
- Fan Disservice: Any Shirtless Scene with Finch becomes this when they focus on the massive scar he has from his father's abuse.
- Heel Realization: When Finch tells his story at the support group, the focus is on Amanda's reaction; she's realising she was wrong.
- Informed Ability: Subverted. Violet is said to have some talent writing and we don't actually get to see/hear anything she wrote in the past until the epilogue. However, what she writes is genuinely moving and heartfelt enough to show that Finch was right about enjoying her work.
- Meaningful Echo: "People don't like messy" - first said by Finch to reassure Violet. Then later to clarify his repressed mental health problems.
- Ocean Awe: The Blue Hole is portrayed this way, though it is a lake rather than an ocean.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Finch's suicide in the book is followed by Violet diving into the water and swimming around to look for him. Doing so in a film could possibly drag the scene out, where the implications are much quicker for the audience to guess. It's instead replaced with an equally effective scene of Violet screaming out his name in anguish.
- Race Lift: Finch becomes black, and by extension so do his mother and sister.
- Scenery Porn: When Finch and Violet are cycling or driving around the countryside, there are some aerial shots showing off the beauty of the landscape. Of course the whole point of these sequences is Finch showing Violet the beauty around her.
- The Unfair Sex: Defied by Violet. When her mother tries to justify her behavior towards Finch with him being the one who kept her out all night, Violet reminds her that she was a complicit partner who kept Finch out as well - making it a bit of a Double Standard to wholly blame him.
- When She Smiles: Violet particularly when she rides the rollercoaster. She can be seen thoroughly enjoying herself during Finch's turn, and she breaks into an ecstatic grin when she gets a go.
