Bookreview - Holding up the universe

Holdning up the universe

Holding up the universe by Jennifer Niven

Holding up the universe is a book about a love story between two troubled teens. To explain what this book is about is really hard. I don't know! That's part of my problem with it. Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, "America's Fattest Teen". But no one cares what's behind her weight. She's been taking care of her heartbroken father after her mom's death. But everything changed when Libby was ready for high school. She was ready for everything that life has to offer. Libby Strout wants to be the girl who can do anything. Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin too. Jack has a secret: he can't recognize faces. Even his family looks like strangers to him. He tells himself to play it cool: Be charming. Be hilarious. Don't let anyone get too close. Until he meets Libby. When the two get tangled up in a cruel high school game Libby and Jack are both pissed, and then surprised. Because the more time they spend together, the less alone they feel. Because sometimes when you meet someone, it changes the world.

Jack is a very thin character. He doesn't have any type of deeper thoughts. He has an illness and that is supposed to make up for him being brainless. Jack has prosopagnosia, face blindness, but I don't think that's an excuse for him being a jerk. Libby Strout on the other hand is a special snowflake. She was really annoying and I really didn't like her. At all. None of them or any other character had any depth whatsoever.

I think that Jennifer Niven chose to write her book this way because her other book did great. Two suicidal teens... Hmm that must work with everything. Two troubled teens! It really doesn't . I loved her first book, All the Bright Places and I had high expectations. This book fell flat. I could, hand on my heart, call this book bad.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. Hearing about it I thought it would be good. An overweight girl who gets out in the world and a boy with an illness he can't talk about. Who would enjoy reading this book? I have no idea.

I was going to give this book three stars because, honestly, it started well. Yet it's another book that insensitively uses its characters to create an angsty romance.

If anything, I feel like Jennifer Niven has given very little thought to what it means to portray an obese character and a character with a disorder. I feel like little thought has been given to any readers who might relate to these characters, in all of her books. I can't help but imagine the author sitting there and simply thinking "How can I make this romance super angsty?". I don't necessarily care that Libby Strout was called "America's Fattest Teen" or that a major plot point is a game called "Fat Girl Rodeo". These things are gross and offensive, but showing the horrible effects of labels and cruel bullying does not seem like a bad thing to me. No, the bigger problem is that this book actually isn't about bullying, or fat-shaming, or living with mental illness, it's about high school love. That's it.

The author throws together two teens who are solely characterized by their weight and prosopagnosia (the inability to recognize faces) and, despite having zero chemistry, they fall in love. They are defined by these singular differences, being the "fat girl" and being unable to recognize anyone, never once feeling like human beings. Stereotypes and cliches. Dress it up however you want, but this book is about an unpopular girl who sees herself as unattractive, and a popular good-looking guy who comes to see how said girl is so much better than all those hot, evil cheerleaders he's been dating. His hot, evil girlfriend constantly fat-shames and bullies Libby, obviously, because we all know pretty popular girls are mean, shallow and have no feelings. Libby's journey to self-love seems to entirely revolve around finding a guy who will actually like her. Then there's my disbelief that Jack has managed to hide face-blindness from his family for years. That seems impossible to me, but I guess this book never was about the reality of the issues it offered up.

It doesn't have a good message and it really isn't good.

"Maybe no boy will love me or want to touch me ever, even in a dark room, even after an apocalypse when all the skinny girls have been wiped off the earth by some horrible plague. Maybe one day I can be thinner than I am now and have a boyfriend who loves me, but I'll still be a liar."

I give this a two out of five stars! (almost one)