Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven

Challenge # 26 ~ “2 books with the same word in the title: ‘UNIVERSE’ ~ Book 1.”

holdinguptheuniverse

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

My opinion in three sentences:

When I found out, having just started this book, that there had been much controversy online about how problematic this book was, I had my doubts, but I didn’t find any of the issues raised there to be too much of a problem. I enjoyed the diversity, I enjoyed the own-voices elements, I enjoyed the dual-perspective approach, but I think overall it was let down by a lack of direction – it didn’t feel to me as if the book really knew where it was going or what (at its core) it wanted to be about. Add into that a couple of niggle points, and it becomes a fairly middle-of-the-road read for me.

(Without spoiling anything) the best bit:

Not only does Niven give us a diverse cast, but they’re realistic, too. It may be particularly noticeable to me given how many over-dramatised book experiences I’ve had of late, but this one seemed to hit the nail on the end – there was drama, but not an excess, and the teenage characters were awkward and did make mistakes and actually felt like teenagers rather than the young-adults-playing-high-schoolers we often get in mainstream media. Huzzah.

A warning for the book:

For a young adult book that raises some important themes, it’s frustrating to find that they’re not particularly dealt with in the duration of the book. It’s informative about topics such as prosopagnosia, sure, but the discussions on self-worth and identity never really got going. Which meant (big pet peeve) that the protagonist never really developed her idea of self-worth beyond finding a teenage boy who would be willing to date her. In short, it’s quite superficial when it comes to the big ideas it introduces, but otherwise is a relatively harmless read.

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