Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti

Title: Keep Holding On
Author: Susane Colasanti
Series: N/A
Source: Traded
Publisher: Viking
Publication Date: May 31, 2012

A romantic and empowering book about bullying

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.

This book was a lot darker than I anticipated, and I haven't yet decided whether I loved it's darkness or just tolerated it. For Colasanti, this was REALLY dark. I rarely think that her book's are dark-- she writes about hard subjects, but she tends to do it in a lighter way. But this one was dark, and it had me kind of depressed for a bit.

The title is absolutely PERFECT for this book. Noelle just had to keep holding on-- even when her mom wouldn't buy any food, or when she got made fun of and violently tortured in school, even when all of her clothes were dirty, and one of her "acquaintances" committed suicide. She kept holding on. But sometimes I really wondered why. Her life was so awful, and I don't understand how she just kept pulling herself back. She seemed like the type to just pop one off, and leave the world with a bang. She just seemed like the type, you know what I mean?

I wish that we could've seen a little more backstory on all of the characters, and that the characters just could have gotten more development overall. They needed it-- they desperately needed it. Maybe I need a few more pages to get better acquainted with a character, but hey. I'm a sucker for good characters. The story could suck, but if the characters are good I'll be sold.

I honestly don't have very much to say about this one. I liked it, but I didn't love it, and I'm sure that my review reflects that. If I'd had a little more time to get into the story, a few more pages to get to know the characters, I might have liked it more. But as is, it was mediocre.

When your heart is shattered into a million pieces, all you can do is try to keep holding on. You breathe. You try to fall asleep. You try not to think about him. ~ Pg. 115, ARC