{"id":43387,"date":"2025-08-19T21:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T01:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43387"},"modified":"2025-08-19T21:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T01:37:12","slug":"review-of-holding-up-the-sky-by-rebecca-alasdair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43387","title":{"rendered":"Review of Holding Up the Sky, by Rebecca Alasdair"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Holding Up the Sky<\/em><\/p>\n

by Rebecca Alasdair<\/p>\n

Southscript Press, 2022. 334 pages.
\nReview written March 14, 2023, from a library book.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

Holding Up the Sky<\/em> is a coming-out story, and one that is tough. We\u2019re following Carter, who’s got so many burdens in his life as a senior in high school, it feels like he\u2019s holding up the sky.<\/p>\n

He used to have a big brother looking out for him, but his brother and his father were killed in an accident that happened the afternoon of his brother\u2019s graduation dinner. Since then, Carter knows he\u2019s a disappointment to his mother. She has to work long hours so they can stay in their home. And Carter works to keep his grades up so he can be a doctor one day and make his mother proud of him.<\/p>\n

And then one day, as Carter is trying to hold things together, a new boy comes to school who is flamboyantly and proudly gay. Carter doesn\u2019t dare admit how much he\u2019s attracted to him. Because if his mother finds out, she\u2019ll be horrified.<\/p>\n

We get a warning at the very front of the book that Carter\u2019s going to end up turning to suicide to find freedom. All the plot points from there on out are predictable \u2013 but they still had my heart aching along with Carter.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t usually cry over young adult novels any more, unlike when I was a teen myself. But this one had me in tears. I figured out what was coming, but it still seemed all too much. Why couldn\u2019t this kid see how precious he was? How dare a parent treat him like that? Yet I read this book after having just learned about the suicide of a young transgender woman after her parents forced her to detransition. It was all too easy to believe this story.<\/p>\n

I will say this: The story does end both hopefully and realistically. In many ways, it\u2019s a message book (with a good message), but it also had me absorbed and invested in the story.<\/p>\n

rebeccaalasdair.com<\/a>
\nsouthscriptpress.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/holding_up_the_sky.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holding Up the Sky by Rebecca Alasdair Southscript Press, 2022. 334 pages. Review written March 14, 2023, from a library book. Starred Review Holding Up the Sky is a coming-out story, and one that is tough. We\u2019re following Carter, who’s got so many burdens in his life as a senior in high school, it feels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,42,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary","category-starred-review","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43387"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45644,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43387\/revisions\/45644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}