Reviews with content warning for Grief - Holding Up the Universe

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.

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sagemello's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I feel horrible leaving shuch a low review as im aware the book is just not for me. But the representation was really iffy to me as well its a very cringe worthy book. Its great fir 11-13 maybe but i would say anyone older would enjoy this the writing is weird some parts i felt were badly written.

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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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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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