Keep Holding On | Book Review

Keep Holding On

Written by: Susane Colasnti

Number of Pages: 224

Average Rating: 3.85 / 5 stars

My Rating: 2.5 / 5 stars

Published: May 31. 2012

Read in July 2018

Summary According to Goodreads

Noelle’s life is all about survival. Even her best friend doesn’t know how much she gets bullied, or the ways her mom neglects her. Noelle’s kept so much about her life a secret for so long that when her longtime crush Julian Porter starts paying attention to her, she’s terrified. Surely it’s safer to stay hidden than to risk the pain of a broken heart. But when the antagonism of her classmates takes a dramatic turn, Noelle realizes it’s time to stand up for herself - and for the love that keeps her holding on.

My Thoughts

The central theme of this novel is bullying, and the author did an amazing job getting that across. The narration felt so pure and real, however I think I would have related better to it if I had read it a few years ago. 

Unfortunately I wasn’t impressed with our main character Noelle, and preferred some of the side characters more such as her best friend. Noelle was constantly complaining about the limited options of food and clothing that she had at home, but chose to spend her babysitting money on a top from Forever 21. If that had been me and I only had $15, you’d be finding me at the food bank or the grocery store. She makes her mom feel terrible for making her dinners of “mushy spaghetti”, boiled hotdogs, or McDonalds, but doesn’t appreciate the fact that she isn’t actually going hungry. Another issue that I had with Noelle was her attitude. She was constantly reminding the reader how horrible her life was and how no one wanted to be her friend, but when a fellow victim named Ali tried to be her friend, she said that although she thought they’d be good friends, she couldn’t risk being friends with her because it would make her life even more miserable because Ali was a bigger loser than she is. She seemed too ungrateful and overreactive for my taste. 

I really wanted to love this novel and rate it highly because of how impactful it has the potential to be on readers, however it wasn’t strong enough. There wasn’t a huge plot or story line supporting this story, and instead each chapter is written almost as a diary leading up to the end of her junior year in high school. 

My first reaction was to give this novel three stars, but the more I discussed my opinions I had to knock it down by half a star. I think that the strongest reasons that I didn’t hate this novel where the fact that it was such a quick mindless read, and that there were a couple redeemable side characters. Overall, this isn’t a book I would recommend to anyone struggling with financial issues as it could seem privileged, but it is an interesting and uplifting story to read about a girl being bullied.