All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Rating; 1 out of 5
If You Like: Teen fiction, mental disorders
Similar to: Other teen novels
Ages: 13-18

This story is about a girl named Violet and a boy named Finch who come from two different social circles. One day they both meet on a rooftop where both of them are considering jumping.   Violet has been lost since her sister died last year, and Finch struggles with an abusive father with bipolar disorder and a mother who is too emotionally fragile to intervene. Violet and Finch start to develop feelings for each other when they are forced to work on a project together and it turns into an intense love.  Even after finding each other, both Violet and Finch have to battle their internal struggles, and although they have each other for support, they ultimately have to face their battles on their own.

I really had to force myself to finish this one. I definitely understand mental illness, and take it seriously, but this book was such a drag.  It didn't keep my attention, was far too long for the story that took place, and I don't even think that Niven really tackled bipolar disorder as well as she could have.  The love story was a little bit of a saving grace, but the ending really ruined it for me.  I read five books this summer, and although some were better than others, none of them were amazing. This book was my least favorite of the five.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

If You Like: Teen books, romance, suspense

Similar to: Gossip Girl, M. Night Shymalan movies

Ages: 13-30

We Were Liars starts off telling us about a 17 year old girl named Cadence who has terrible headaches and issues with her memory ever since she was 15 and "the accident", that she can't remember, happened. Her family is rich, thanks to a rich grandfather, and every summer Cadence and her aunts and cousins travel to the island where the rich grandfather lives and owns many houses for them to stay in.  The liars are Cadence's cousin, Johnny, her cousin, Mirren, and her aunt's boyfriend's nephew, Gat.  Cadence has loved Gat ever since he started coming to the island every summer.  Every summer they get together and have their adventures on the island.  That is until Summer 15, when Cadence has her accident, and her mother forces her to go to Europe with her father for her sixteenth summer.  When she finally convinces her mother to let her go back to the island for her seventeenth summer, nothing is as it was.  There is a new main house where her grandfather lives, and all of the decorations are different. None of the liars will go to the main house for dinner like they used to, and Cadence is frequently too sick to leave her house.  This is the summer where Cadence discovers what really happened during her "accident"...

I had read about 2/3 of this book before it finally got took off for me, and then it took off, past the moon, past the planets, and out of this solar system.  In fact, this book was so shocking and upsetting to me that I found myself crying in my car as I was listening to this on audio book (the reader was fantastic by the way!).  I would consider this one of the saddest and most frustrating books I have ever read, but when I finished it, I knew that it was a work of art.  I would definitely recommend this  book.  It is such a quick read, and I urge your to press through the boring stuff to get to the good stuff. You will not be disappointed.