Holding up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

Holding up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
Release Date: April 4, 2016
Pages: 388
Rating: 💜💜💜💜💜
Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Everybody thinks they know Libby Strout, but no one looks past her weight.
Everybody thinks they know Jack Masselin, but his confidence hides a secret.
Then Jack meets Libby. And their worlds change.




This book reminded me of The Sun Is Also A Star, although that might be because I read it just before this one. It may also be because Jennifer Niven and Nicola Yoon seem to best friends, so their writing styles may be similar. All the same I loved this book for its own reasons.

Holding up the Universe focuses on two rather unique characters; Libby Strout who is the America's Fattest Teen and Jack Masselin who suffers from face blindness. I felt like both characters were well written and that their entire personality wasn't based off of their defining features. Libby loves to dance and read, Jack loves to invent things, and these are the main features in their stories.

It was also nice to see the confusion and prejudice that comes from these conditions. People ignore Libby because she's fat, and anyone who sees her knows her as "America's Fattest Teen". However Libby is full of so much self-love that it is really uplifting, even if you aren't facing the same hate. It was also nice to see her entire journey from being overweight to losing weight. And the thing is is that she doesn't lose weight by starving herself. She eats healthy food and sees a therapist and exercises and dances and doesn't hide anything from her dad. By showing her journey this way, Jennifer Niven does something many YA writers don't: tell you that your illness doesn't define you. And I found that beautiful.

Jack's face blindness was interesting. I have never read a book with anything like this before, so it was out of my comfort zone for reading. One of my problems with this book came from Jack's face blindness and how it seemed inconsistent at times. Obviously I know nothing about face blindness at all, but I feel like you would be able to tell who a family member is by the way they walk up the stairs. (If you know more than me, please let me know below!). Apart from that Jack was adorable and by far my favourite character of the book.

All in all, I loved this book. It was fun and heart warming, as well as educational. I would recommend this to literally anyone who wants to read it because it is amazing. And if you love Supernatural, you should read this book (you'll find out why...)