Review: Holding Up the Universe

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was nervous about reading Holding Up the Universe (after being able to give my hands on an advance copy) because of the topic at hand. Weight is such a sensitive topic and there has been so much media hype that I was concerned about just how it would be handled and how much of a big deal would be made of the romance aspect. Jennifer Niven isn't known for shying away from her strong opinions about things and having had the pleasure of meeting her I know that she is a writer who is very conscious about not shying away from difficult conversations.

I have to say that this was an incredibly quick read and one that just made me want to keep turning the pages. The reason for this is that the characters are strong, and in my opinion much stronger than in her first novel. I could empathise with both Jack and Libby.

Jack is like no other character that I've encountered before, by the very fact that he cannot recognise faces you are also left in the dark. Even when Jack thinks he knows who he is talking to you can never be certain because of his illness. It's unnerving to even read so I cannot imagine what it would be like to live with. I feel that he handles it in a way that is unusual. It would have been very easy for him to become a character who avoided people because of his inability to recognise them. However, instead he becomes the very life and soul of his school. He uses the jock stereotype to his advantage and has to deal with the fact that it will also make people totally misunderstand him.

We come to Libby at a really unusual time in her life, where she has overcome so much and used it to make herself stronger - but we get to see the vulnerable aspects that she still has. The parts that she doesn't let anyone (even Jack see). She is bold and so very smart. She understands how to support and help other people (even when she doesn't necessarily want to) because she has had to go on the journey herself.

I don't want to give too much away about what happens because I feel that this is an important storyline to experience with no preconception about what is going to happen and how things unfold. I didn't expect it and that made it even more enjoyable.


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