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mlovationer1's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Grief, Bullying, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, Death, and Body shaming
Minor: Alcohol, Racism, Drug use, and Cancer
epeolatrist's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I was so disappointed in Holding Up the Universe. Especially due to the fact that I absolutely adored All the Bright Places. I think that Jennifer Niven is a phenomenal writer, but she did not hit a home run with this novel. I wanted to love it. Especially since I bought a signed hardcover copy (hey, I'm a financially unstable college student and I CANNOT afford signed hardcovers...).
The story was too predictable for me. Obviously, Jack and Libby were destined to fall in love. I mean, as soon as they have their first encounter, it's plain to see that they will "find theirselves in each other." It's a trope in YA romance novels, but there are many authors that have written the trope exceptionally.
In addition, the book focused completely on Libby and Jack's issues (obesity and prosopagnosia - AKA face blindness) instead of the two characters as PEOPLE. It's all they ever talked about???? I understand that the entire point of the book was the idea of two people with "issues" finding a place in the world, but a little bit of depth would have been nice.
My last critique that I'm going to talk about is the stereotypical high school scenario. I mean, honestly, does everyone have to be so awful?? This sort of writing never failed to anger me when I was actually IN high school and it still irritates me now. Jack is "popular" (sort of?), but he's also so self-absorbed and obsessed with himself and his illness. In a way, Libby is the same way. She's obsessed with her weight and yet she wants to rid herself of the title "America's Fattest Teen," yet she brings it up nearly every time that she speaks. When I had reached page 200, I was overwhelmingly tired of it. It took me WEEKS to trek through the rest of this book. I actually read other books while reading Holding Up the Universe to distract myself from how much I didn't like it.
I did enjoy a few things, however. I really liked learning a bit about prosopagnosia. I had never heard of it before. When Jack went to the doctor, it was cool to learn some facts about the condition. Other than that... there wasn't much that impressed me. Also, Jack's little brother carried a purse to school and it was pretty cool.
All in all, the book was a total miss for me. I really wanted to love this story. Honestly. Much love to Jennifer Niven because I love her, but this one was not my favorite and I'm sad to say that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.
The story was too predictable for me. Obviously, Jack and Libby were destined to fall in love. I mean, as soon as they have their first encounter, it's plain to see that they will "find theirselves in each other." It's a trope in YA romance novels, but there are many authors that have written the trope exceptionally.
In addition, the book focused completely on Libby and Jack's issues (obesity and prosopagnosia - AKA face blindness) instead of the two characters as PEOPLE. It's all they ever talked about???? I understand that the entire point of the book was the idea of two people with "issues" finding a place in the world, but a little bit of depth would have been nice.
My last critique that I'm going to talk about is the stereotypical high school scenario. I mean, honestly, does everyone have to be so awful?? This sort of writing never failed to anger me when I was actually IN high school and it still irritates me now. Jack is "popular" (sort of?), but he's also so self-absorbed and obsessed with himself and his illness. In a way, Libby is the same way. She's obsessed with her weight and yet she wants to rid herself of the title "America's Fattest Teen," yet she brings it up nearly every time that she speaks. When I had reached page 200, I was overwhelmingly tired of it. It took me WEEKS to trek through the rest of this book. I actually read other books while reading Holding Up the Universe to distract myself from how much I didn't like it.
I did enjoy a few things, however. I really liked learning a bit about prosopagnosia. I had never heard of it before. When Jack went to the doctor, it was cool to learn some facts about the condition. Other than that... there wasn't much that impressed me. Also, Jack's little brother carried a purse to school and it was pretty cool.
All in all, the book was a total miss for me. I really wanted to love this story. Honestly. Much love to Jennifer Niven because I love her, but this one was not my favorite and I'm sad to say that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Bullying
Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, and Eating disorder
thriiiii's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder, Bullying, Grief, Cancer, Cursing, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Body shaming
kafkatattoo's review against another edition
I didn’t like how it was supposed to be wholesome when it just couldn’t get wholesome
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
Moderate: Cancer
Minor: Body shaming
vlmollylv's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Eating disorder, Body shaming, and Death of parent
Minor: Fatphobia, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Cancer, and Alcohol
kirstenf's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Fatphobia, Grief, Bullying, and Body shaming
Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, and Terminal illness
Minor: Alcohol, Sexual assault, and Racism
duchess16's review against another edition
3.75
I got a ton of “Eleanor and Park” vibes from this book except I enjoyed this one more. In this book Jack actually has things he’s struggling with. Libby is fat and jack is face-blind. Whereas in eleanor and park, parks only problem is that he’s an underrepresented minority that has never struggled a day in his life. And his only issue was he was dating a fat poor redhead. This one was more believable to me. This one made more sense. It was sometimes cliché (ahem when they first realized they had feelings omggg) but in another sense it wasn’t cliché at all. There was drama and confusion and oh no! He kissed the wrong girl again… and they worked it out. Not like every other teen romance story works issues out tho, they dealt with it like someone (imo) would work it out irl. There was a fair amount of swearing (I suppose it can be expected from public schoolers) so that bumped my rating as I didn’t enjoy it at all. But overall I did fairly enjoy this book. It had a very interesting idea of literally the worlds fattest teen and not just: oH Hi iM oVeRwEiGhT sO mY aUtHoR wRoTe Me As InSeCuRe AnD pEtTy. Ik that’s not how most fat kid novels go but I did mostly enjoy this books perspective. I really felt for Jack through his struggles tho as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing and Fatphobia
Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, Body shaming, and Cancer
Minor: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Eating disorder
aphatius's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Death of parent and Cancer
hannahwillacy's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying and Body shaming
Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia
icarusandthesun's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Better to be the hunter than the hunted. Even if you're hunting yourself."
Jennifer Niven's writing style is THE BEST. fast-paced, very short chapters. it just keeps you going. i loved All the Bright Places a lot, so i had extremely high hopes for this one.
and i wasn't disappointed, but neither was i particularly ecstatic. the characters were fine i guess, but sadly pretty black-and-white if you look past their main conflicts - jack's prosopagnosia and libby's weight struggles. this felt dangerously much like a self-help book, with positive affirmations and all that every other page. got repetitive pretty quickly, same as their struggles and complaints.
so many plot points also felt straight-up useless - jack building a robot for his brother, libby and the damsels. tenacious fillers where there should've been more plot, more substance, more struggles.
10/10 for the writing, 4/10 for the content (because of the plus-size representation and the quite informative subject of prosopagnosia).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, and Violence
Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Kidnapping