Book review #3: Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven (summary and spoiler free review)

Book title: Holding Up The Universe
Author: Jennifer Niven
Genre: contemporary fiction
Pages: 391
Publisher: Penguin
My rating: 3/5

SPOILER FREE!

I'm going to be frank. The only reason I picked up this book was because I had read another book by Niven called All The Bright Places, which I absolutely loved. I read it maybe more than a year ago and It's still my favorite. So that is why, obviously, I had high expectations for this book.
Maybe a little too high.

The book is about a teenage girl named Libby Strout, whose mother had passed away a few years ago. Not knowing how to cope with her death, Libby began finding her comfort in food and spiraling backwards, without really knowing the consequences. Soon, she was titled 'America's fattest teen' and she dropped out of school and shifted her house. Her dad was supportive and real and over all- a perfect character. Maybe even too perfect.
When Libby starts going for therapy and begins following diets (determined to get back on track mainly for her dad's sake), she is finally ready to go back to her old school.

Enters the second main character of the book- Jack Masselin. Jack is a typical high school boy; or as English sitcoms say 'the boy everyone wants to be.' He has nice hair. A fairly good face and even though I've never seen him, the way Niven describes him...just makes me fall in love with his appearance. But there's one slight problem with Jack. He cannot recognize faces. Not his parents. Not his friends. Not his siblings.
Until I read this book, I didn't know a disorder like this actually existed. But it does and it's called Prosopagnosia (or face blindness). THIS IS REAL. I am not even kidding. In extreme cases, the person cannot even recognize their own face. Imagine looking into a mirror and turning back and then not being able to picture what you just saw!
Now, imagine feeling that way for every single person you ever meet, every single day of your life! People who have this disorder often remember their close ones by memorizing their unchangeable characteristics (such as hair colour, eye colour, or certain distinguishable habits). Guess who else has prosopagnosia? Brad Pitt. Yes, you read that absolutely right. Go on, google it if you like.

Most books that leave a reverberation on people, often have a very strong message to put across. And one thing that is really appreciable about this book, is that it throws light on two important subjects, not just one.
1) Libby experiences trouble in school and in life, in general because of her weight. Subject #1 is body shame. 
2) Jack doesn't tell anybody about his disorder and in fact, it takes him a while to understand it fully before he finally confides in Libby. Subject #2 is prosopagnosia. 

Reading this book was mainly gripping because like I said before, I hadn't heard of prosopagnosia before this. But, that being said, I think the individuals emotions could have been better written and more powerfully put across. Libby is strong, fierce and tries her best to be fearless. But, even the strongest people do sometimes have break downs. This book doesn't have any.

Jack, like any guy next door, tries being cool and covers up all his feelings behind a smiling face and sarcastic humour. But, he can't recognize faces for God's sake! That's not something that happens to every other guy. That is earth shattering and heart breaking and throat wrenching enough to remove a lot of different emotions out of someone. Number one on that list being anger and frustration. But no, no such emotions were portrayed.
Her characters are strong, loyal and loud, but just not real enough. And that's funny because the main reason why All The Bright Places is one of the best books I've read is because her characters are real as hell. I fell in love with them.

But Libby and Jack? I like them. The only problem is, they're just mere characters on the pages of my book...nothing else.
Another thing I disliked about the book was it's ending. It was simply too abrupt. It was almost like Niven just didn't know what else to do with the two of them so she decided to end the book. Not in a cliffhanger way. Just in a 'I should finish this book'  kind of way. Almost as though she reached a deadline. I would call the ending a real disappointment. I literally flipped the page with the expectation of another chapter and I was like 'what? It's over?'

I'd give the content 4/5. But, because of the writing and just...something that lacked, over all I would give the book 3/5. You can read it if you're interested in knowing how a person who is body shamed feels. Or how a person with prosopagnosia feels.
But, you should know that Libby and Jack, unfortunately, will leave you once the book is over.

Book review #2: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (spoiler free and spoiler sections)

Book: Carry On
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Macmillan
Pages: 528
My rating: 2  1/2 out of 5.


SPOILER FREE!

To discuss this book, the first thing you'll need to know is that even though this book is NOT a sequel to Fangirl, it does, definitely come after it. If you're reading this book before reading Fangirl, well...don't?
Speaking of Fangirl, the gist of it is that the protagonist- Cath is a first year college student who loves writing fanfiction online. She writes about Simon and Baz which are from her favorite books (Simon Snow series) written by Gemma T. Leslie. So basically, the Simon Snow series and Gemma and everything is just made up by Rowell which is actually really smart and original. In Fangirl, a series of extracts and quotes from her fanfcition is given through out the book which gives a really nice touch to it.
After Fangirl, apparently Rowell hadn't had enough of Simon and Baz so she decided to write a whole other book on them.
One small thing that I really like about the book is that Fangirl or Cath or any of the characters weren't mentioned even once throughout Carry On. Originality.


Before writing this review, I was reading a few reviews online and a lot of people have called this book a Harry Potter rip off. Frankly, while reading the book, I did think of HP a couple of times but I hate comparing anything to HP because it seems like an insult.
That being said, just for the sake of explaining this book a little better, I will compare a few things to HP. However, it is nothing like if you're a HP fan you will like this book and blah blah.

Carry On is magical. The book has five character narrations which might seem like a lot, but in the end, it is what makes the book. Simon, the protagonist is from a world of Normals (non 'magick' folks). He is brought into the world of Mages (magick folks) by The Mage. This sounds a lot like how Harry lived among the Muggles and was then brought into the world of witches and wizards, eh? Okay, so the character of The Mage is very confusing. For the first 100 pages or so you'll just be like, Mage who?
The Mage is basically the man who runs Watford school of Magicks. (a cartoon version of Dumbledore). While Dumbledore screams royalty, loyalty and authority...The Mage is the complete opposite. His voice is confusing and frankly, annoying. Half the time, he seems like a teenage boy trying to figure out his life.
Anywho, the world of Mages is threatened by an evil power that consumes magic from magicks around him and gains his own power through that. (like how dementors suck on happiness, The Humdrum sucks magic.)
The surprising and nail biting fact about the Humdrum is that he looks exactly like a 11 year old version of Harry Potter.
Oh wait, I meant Simon. 11 year old version of Simon. Oops.
Simon, therefore, is the 'chosen one' to kill the Humdrum. Chosen one. Haha. I'm not even going to. Why he is the chosen one and why The Humdrum looks like him...nobody has any idea. Not even Rainbow Rowell, I think.
Even though the character narrations are really really good, the plot is so pointless. This is the kind of book where the entire story depends upon the climax and before the climax, you cannot judge it. That's exactly why, it was such a disappointment when the 450 pages or so were leading to a climax and the climax ended up being unsatisfactory.
Besides the writing and the plot, the backbone of the book is its characters.
Simon Snow is a confused boy who cannot get his magic right half the time. He has magic inside of him that he does not know how to control or use. His best friend Penelope is my personal favorite. She has an opinionated voice that neatly covers up her narration through out the book. Simon hates his roommate Baz, who he is sure is a vampire. But obviously, nobody else knows this in the entire school which is frankly way too convenient for the plot's sake. Baz and Simon have that cute love- hate relationship which is really entertaining to read. One thing that can be said about Rowell inspite of her terrible plot, is that she definitely knows how to write dialogues. Her dialogues are crisp and witty and sound casual and natural all at the same time. The next narration is by Agatha, who is Simon's girlfriend, until Simon sees her holding hands with Baz and breaks up with her. Simon's relationship with Agatha I think could have been explained a little more in detail. Even though the relationship seemed very realistic, no one ends up explaining why Baz and Agatha were holding hands in the first place! Agatha is the most human character of all five. But that being said, I found her a little too on the bitchy side. She is selfish. Ungrateful. She takes all the people in her life for granted. She doesn't really want to have magick but I can respect that because there are strong reasons behind it.
Even though her character was different from all the others, I found her very...how do I put this subtly? fake. I found her really fake. I love seeing a character's good side and flawed side...trust me. But Agatha just seemed like...like Rowell wanted us to dislike her. And if that was the case, then good job. I disliked her.

For me, a good book is one which has character development and and strong voices. Baz and Agatha definitely had that. We see Baz struggle with his feelings and his thoughts in general. We see him feeling scared and frustrated and at times even happy about being a vampire. We see so many sides of his personality.
At the same time, Agatha grows with the book as well. Her confusion about whether or not she likes magick is not so obvious in the beginning but I love how smoothly and clearly it grows through out the book. Oh my God, it was so beautifully written. These two characters really just pop out of the book and you're left with that amazing feeling that you just somehow know them.

Only because characterization and writing is more important to me rather than story and plot, I could finish this book. If you judge a book like how I do (on the basis of characters) and if you've read fangirl and don't know if you should read this one, then go ahead and pick it up. You will love the writing!
BUT, if you read a book for its story and plot alone, then don't waste your time on this one. Even if you've read Fangirl, trust me, it's not incomplete without this book.
If I could rate this book only on the basis of characters, I would give it 4/5.

SPOILER ALERT!

1) After the first half or so of the book, we see Baz confused and frustrated about his feelings for Simon. Even though he admits his love, he's not really keen on portraying them. But the point is that we as readers know that he is in love.
On the other hand, even though Simon thinks and talks so much about Baz, he has never admitted in his narration that he might have feelings for him. And I don't know if this is just me, but I was really looking forward to reading Simon admit his feelings (even if it was just to himself). Really really looking forward to that writing.
And then the first kiss scene was written in Baz's narration. I was SO annoyed. We knew how Baz felt. I wanted to read Simon's thoughts. I wanted to read what made Simon do what he did. It almost felt like Rowell wrote it that way because well...it was just so much easier.
That was one thing that I really disliked.

2) Speaking of Simon, Baz and relationships, I felt like any sane person reading this book would think Penny (Penelope) was jealous of Simon's relationship with Agatha. Or was that just me? I was waiting for a narrative where Penny would give even the slightest of hints that yes...she did have a thing for Simon. But that didn't happen.
I'm all for 'a boy and girl can be just friends,' but it seemed like Rowell wanted Penny and Simon to remain friends only because Agatha, Baz and Simon has already created a love triangle. And two would be too much to handle!
I'm a big fan of unrequited love stories, so a subtle narration in Penny's part wouldn't have hurt.

3) Let's not forget the little 6th narrative which was given by Lucy, The Mage's wife. Initially after reading the book, I kind of appreciated the mystery that Lucy gave to the book. But then when I really thought of it, again, the suspense that her narration was leading to was actually so predictable. I think the only fun part about the narration was when Penny's mum shows Agatha a school photo of her's where she's with Lucy and Davy (The Mage) because that's the scene where you go 'ooooooooooh now it makes sense!' and I love scenes like that.
Maybe instead of writing from The Mage and Lucy's perspective, only Lucy's would have been more than enough (with a few changes, of course.)

The characters were so lovely and each one of them, even if they didn't play that big a role, were written so so well.
 Rainbow Rowell has originality and depth in her writing that makes the reader want to finish the book even if, like me, they don't like the plot or the story as a whole!

Thank you!
Happy reading :)