Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

103 reviews

abigailmeeks's review

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lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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icarusandthesun's review

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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).
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nezhaouballa915's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.75

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annslee's review against another edition

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I am tired of this whole girl forgives boy because even though he did a crappy thing to me he isn’t that bad troupe. If someone knows what they did was mean, to me it makes it worse that they did it in the first place. 
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randomteenreader11's review against another edition

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emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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riajasfuentes's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-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

2.5

this is a reread because i don’t remember a single thing from this book when i read it four years ago and i wished i kept it that way. 

this was a snoozefest for me. i was bored for around 75% of the book and the remaining 25%, i sped through just to get this book over with. 

Holding Up the Universe had a pretty nice premise and had a possible chance to be a really good book. it deals with bullying, fat-shaming, insecurity, and figuring out that everyone has their problems and that you aren’t alone. and that morale is actually really important and something we should all learn. however, this book delivered it with characters which, for me, didn’t seem to have logical and rational decision thinking skills that i expected from a high schooler. there was two specific scenes that just really pissed me off and made me question if i was the one who thought it was a bad idea and a non-logical one. it’s honestly bad enough that i was so bored but i even had to dislike the characters near the end of the story?? come. on. 

the book contains quite a lot of filler chapters that i deem unnecessary. those chapters could’ve been used to flesh out characters in a better way and to really delve into the themes that the book wants to tackle. and because of the amount of filler chapters, i got a sense of slice-of-life trope, but done badly. 

i actually don’t think i’ve outgrown young adult books because i just read a pretty good ya book Pushing Perfect that i really liked. this book was just not it. and because of that i’m pushing back reading this author’s other book All The Bright Places which i already bought many years ago :”> 
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book_loverrrr's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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sydreadseverysooften's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
yeah I hated it.
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jessicohen15's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Warm and heartfelt story of two teenagers dealing with their own issues: fatphobia and not recognizing peoples faces. Really good story, easy read, and fun descriptions!
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haileeeyyy's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

i fucking hate this book
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