Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

[2.5 stars]

I enjoyed Aristole and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and I look forward to reading Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World. I found the story of Aristotle's struggles with his brother Bernardo and his father's difficulties with the Vietnam war to be very compelling. I loved how it played out, where Ari's parents came to realise the error of their parenting and let Ari see and know who his brother was. And I liked the development of Ari and his father's relationship.
But there was something, a few things, lacking from this book.

For starters, I wasn't really able to connect with any of the characters. The odd, philosophical way that everyone spoke was bearable, but meant that I wasn't able to resonate with any of the characters because they didn't feel real to me. The world-building in this book is poor, a lot of things remaining unclear and there is no guide to help the reader visualise anything. All we have is a bunch of people talking in an empty space. And the talking isn't much good either. There are so many conversations in this book where I've had to reread sections because I have no idea who is speaking!
I wish there was at least a small break between these long lines of dialogue without so much as a ‘Dante said' or anything.

Also, this book is depressing as hell. Aristotle spends most of his time moping about and being angry at everyone and then when he does things with Dante, they are insanely boring scenes. Aristotle and Dante's hang outs consist of sitting silently or reading poetry to one another. Very gay, to be honest, but very dull. And that's the whole book. A whole lot of Ari being angry and a whole lot of nothing else. Until the very, very end when Ari realises he loves Dante. Dante in this end scene gets angry at Ari for one of the first times and I would've liked to see Dante's anger been more explored. But yeah, the ending is extremely abrupt. Ari realises he's in love with Dante on page 348 and the book ends on page 358. Are you serious? 348 pages of anger and boredom for 10 pages of not much either? This book is ridiculous.

After that rather negative review, I will say that I will, in fact, read the sequel. This book, more than anything, left me hoping for more and I'm really hoping that Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World will give me what I desired from this book.

[Post reading Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World]
Secrets of the Universe feels like a prequel to Waters of the World, which actually has interesting and compelling stories, as well as happy ones instead of just miserableness although out.