Welcome to the first edition of “Music Match-Up”. This is where my love of music and my love of books come together to form a beautiful union. Music is such an important part of my life. It can push me through a difficult moment or bring to life a memory of the past or simply let me feel whatever it is that I need to feel. And I think it can do all these things for books and for the characters in books, as well. So in each edition of Music Match-Up, I want to pair a song with a book and weave their stories together so that in the end, I can’t think about one without the other.
All the Bright Places // “Passenger Seat”
All the Bright Places is a YA by Jennifer Niven. (You probably already knew that.) Violet is a high school senior with great parents and a solid life at school. On the outside, she looks great. But on the inside she’s been broken since her sister Eleanor died in a car accident (driving home with Violet from a concert Violet wanted to go to). When Violet meets Theodore Finch–resident school freak–on the ledge of the school’s bell tower, her life changes. When Finch chooses her for a history project partner, they embark on a tour of Indiana to discover the wonders of their state. During the course of this journey, Violet slowly rebuilds her life–driving again, taking risks, starting to write once more. And Finch, he finally feels what it’s like to love someone and to be loved for who he is.
From one of my favorite bands, “Passenger Seat” is about love. Love guides one through life like a companion in the passenger seat of car on a dark country road. Love is happiness and beauty and wonder. And as Ben Gibbard so beautifully sings, “My feet on the dash, the world doesn’t matter.” This is how I imagine it was for Violet and Finch.
