When you’re a teenager, it can be challenging to work out how you see yourself, let alone how to show that self to the world, and this book gets that. She says in her acknowledgements that this book “comes from my heart, as well as my own loss and fear and pain, and from real people who are dear to me.” It’s this sincerity that comes across so strongly in the novel, and can be summarised into one motto: ‘YOU ARE WANTED’. Like Libby, Niven herself struggled with both anxiety and her weight as a teen. It’s wonderful to watch as these two bring out the best in each-other, and at the same time, Niven is giving teen readers a really important message. He’s always aiming to come across as aloof, and hasn’t yet found a way to show others who he really is. Throughout the book, Jack is struggling with his disorder. She loves her dad, she loves her friends, and she loves to dance. Libby is resilient and unafraid to be who she is, bullies be damned.
In their own ways, there’s a lot to admire about the characters of Libby and Jack. They’re not the prettiest, smartest, funniest – they don’t always feel like they fit in. The novel is told through both their eyes (that line was from Libby), and it means you really get to know each protagonist. Let’s us be okay together, just you and me…” It’s the feeling of everything is going to be okay. “Suddenly I’m filled with this safe, warm feeling that I haven’t felt in a really long time.
Slowly but surely the pair become friends, and you’ll be cheering as Jack and Libby inevitably realise they’re falling for each-other: When Jack and Libby are brought together in detention after a cruel prank, they’re sure they have nothing in common. Jack suffers from a very real neurological disorder called prosopagnosia, also known as ‘face blindness,’ and things like spotting his girlfriend in a crowd or picking his little brother up from a party become scary. His girlfriend, his mother, his friends – they’re all facially indistinguishable. And absolutely nobody knows that Jack can’t actually recognise faces. He’s congenial and charismatic, friends with everybody and yet, no-one really gets him. Jack Masselin, on the other hand, cares very deeply about keeping his truth hidden. Everyone knows her ‘secret’, and you know what? She doesn’t care. Once dubbed ‘America’s Fattest Teen,’ Libby worked hard to become healthier and to stop caring what others think, no matter what she weighs. When we meet Libby Strout, she’s preparing for her first day back at school after a rough few years. After the death of her mother, Libby found herself mentally, and then physically, trapped in her room. Fans of John Green should pay attention: we may just have found your new favourite author.
We loved Jennifer Niven’s emotional first YA novel All the Bright Places and now she’s back with Holding Up the Universe.
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