Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Ratings566
Average rating4.2
I don't think I've ever read a book that's made me want to sit down and cry while simultaneously contemplate my existence. This was such a beautiful story - when people say ‘coming of age' this is exactly what they mean.
Honestly, I had no idea what to expect going into this. I hadn't really read the synopsis or heard people talk about it beyond saying that it was a good book and I'm glad I didn't. Not knowing made it even better, it made me feeling like I was growing up alongside Ari. Maybe I have.
It was an incredible read. I'm glad I started the year off with this book.
[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.
A really sweet gay coming-of-age story. I found it a little unrealistic in parts, and the characters sometimes seemed either way younger or way older than 15. A little inconsistent, but a great story and a wonderful ending.
“Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.”[b:Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe 12000020 Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle and Dante, #1) Benjamin Alire Sáenz https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328320260l/12000020.SY75.jpg 16964419] is a coming of age story about two Mexican-American teenage boys who are trying to figure out their place in the world. It deals with topics such as friendship, identity, sexuality, and family relationships. The story begins with Dante offering to teach Ari how to swim, and their friendship blossoms from there. Throughout the novel, Dante is constantly teaching Ari about life and changes his perspective on a lot of topics. Ari hates his life but when he meets Dante, his life seems to be more tolerable and his outlook on many things seems to become more positive. At the end of their first summer together, Ari pushed Dante out of the way of an oncoming car and is beaten up badly. Only weeks later, Dante moves to Chicago. This only makes their friendship grow stronger, whether they notice it or not. Both are going through their own problems; Ari with his brother and Dante with his sexuality. The best part about friendship is the ability to go back to normal after not talking for so long, or after dealing with personal problems. Both boys are trying to find themselves in the world. Ari struggles with family issues for a long time before his family finally opens up about why his brother is in prison. He also deals with his closed-off father, who is still scarred from his time in Vietnam. Dante realizes he's into kissing boys instead of girls and is ashamed of himself. Dante gets caught kissing a boy in an alley and is beat up for it. Ari becomes protective and Dante and finds out who is responsible for giving his best friend pain. We find out that Dante is in love with Ari in like the middle of the book...and Ari is still clueless about his sexuality. But when he comes to terms with the fact that he reciprocates those feelings, he also feels a sense of shame – having been in love with his best friend and not realizing it. But when the two fully realize and admit their feelings, the book closes with a happy ending.
3
I think I would have adored this a few years ago, but now not quite as much. I really liked it, but the writing style wasn't to my taste and I couldn't stand Aristotle.
is this one of my favorite books? absolutely.
could i tell you the plot. absolutely not.
Quality internal conflict and believable character development. Really gets into how to do show not tell with internal thoughts without making the character seem dumb. The character has a level of awareness etc. etc. Would be a 4.5 if it didn't have a really scuffed ending sequence that kinda made me go ‘aight ig'.
8/10
Un libro precioso escrito de forma bastante lírica pero
SE BESAN EN LA ÚLTIMA PÁGINA POR QUÉÉÉÉÉÉÉE ODIO LA VIDA NECESITO QUE SE OCTUBRE YAAAAAAAAA.
I thought I wouldn't love this one as much as I did, but god.
This book was relatable and heartfelt. It was heartbreaking and touching and it got emotions and thoughs across so extremely well. I found everything believable and relatable and it was just a beautiful book.
Not to mention the gay romance in it, taking a while to take shape which made me beg so desperately for it but it was all worth the while.
This one absolutely deserves 5/5 stars
this book is perfect. it's so fucking beautiful. the language is so simplistic and yet every single sentence has a deeper meaning. i love ari because he's so realistic - he's stubborn and he's normal and i love that. and dante's just beautiful, he's lovely and he's free and he doesn't care. and the fucking parents too oh my god i wish i had those parents they are so amazing. i love most characters in this book (excluding some of the very small characters that were fucking assholes). i just think it's a very teenage book — it explores what it's like to be a teenager and all of these questions about the universe. i like that it makes you think. i love this book.
Oh. My. Goodness.
That's literally all I can say.
I just finished this and I cannot put into words how much I love this book oh my goodness.
I'll come back in the morning I need to sit with this wow
Edit: okay hello it's the next morning, here are my thoughts.
This book is PHENOMENAL. I'd heard a lot about it and thought about picking it up for a while, but when I heard someone compare it to “I'll Give You The Sun” by Jandy Nelson (my all-time favorite book) that was when I knew I needed to read this immediately. And honestly?? I really see the comparisons! Noah and Ari are super similar characters and the writing style is very similar. While Alire-Sáenz doesn't exactly match Nelson's constant flowering metaphors, this book isn't any less gorgeously written. From the very first line, before the book really even started, this book just slapped me in the face while hugging me tightly.
It was wild.
I don't want to spoil the first line but it was so painstakingly relatable and I felt understood from the first moment I opened the book.
One of my favorite quotes (aside from the first line) is:
“I knew that there was something about me that Mrs. Quintana saw and loved. And even though I felt it was a beautiful thing, I also felt it was a weight. Not that she meant it to be a weight. But love was always something heavy for me. Something I had to carry.” UGH... LOVE THAT SO MUCH!!! FELT THAT IN MY SOUL
Towards the end, I had a few ideas of where I thought it was going to go and I did end up calling one of the final conflicts, I still greatly enjoyed this.
I think this is gonna be closer to a 4.5. I'm not sure why, just kind of a gut feeling, but I'll still round up bc this book def deserves it!!!❤️❤️
It's always the ones you least expect, huh?
I picked it up because the title sounded interesting and I heard it's LGBT...
If I'll read a better book this year, well, then it will be a damn good year because to me reading Ari & Dante was like cuddling up to the person you love under the softest blanket with a cup of hot tea.
It was also quite personal. Dante is in so many ways the boy I once used to be with parents who are eerily similar. He cries a lot and so do I...
I cried a lot, not going to lie.
I'm sorry, I just can't put it to words...
I like how everyone's personal grief and pain was handled. It wasn't compared. It just belonged to each person. Maybe each year I'll heal a little bit too. Loving people hurts but it's also really good.
Edited after the story sat in my head for a few days.
I don't like how the thing with his brother was handled at the end. His best friend just went through a traumatizing experience and now you come in here and tell him your brother is in jail for murdering a transwomen?? Like that could have been you, that could have been your best friend...the reaction seems not right. Then they are all just smiling and putting up his pictures again. Wtf.
My review is low because there's just something about this genre that I don't like. Maybe because I'm a 32 year old woman, I can't relate to young boys coming of age stories. And there's something about reading about a 16 year old boy's urge to masturbate that turns me completely off. I wanted to stop listening to this audiobook at 82% because of it. But I pushed through. The ending was very sweet, but it felt too rushed. The best thing about this book was that it was narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
I took forever to read this book. So the thing about this book is.. It's really dull. Well yes the expectations were really high, which did not help. The plot itself was really underwhelming, and when finally it gotten a wee bit interesting the book was already finished. Like literally the last 5 pages??
The writing was not doing me any favors either, as it consisted mostly of dialogue and didn't give the book any depth.
This was my second time reading it as I needed a book I love to re read to get my out of my reading slump and I had forgotten how beautiful this book is. I can positively say it is my favourite book I have read so far. The writing is beautiful as well as the characters. I adore Ari's and Dante's relationship and the differences between them that make it work so well. I relate a lot to Ari, his feelings and the way he feels about the world and it was beautiful to read about a character that I could relate to so well. I loved the different themes throughout the book and the exploration of sexuality, friendship, love, alcohol & drugs, family and mental health. There were moments throughout the book where I cried, felt the anger Ari felt and more and I feel like its so good to be able to a read and really be able to understand and feel what the characters are feeling/experiencing. Being a queer, gender diverse teen and I really enjoyed this book and enjoyed the queer representation and how it shows what it can feel like to be a teenager.
I thoroughly loved this book and definitely recommend!
Imagine me pasting that Lady Gaga gif with her saying “talented brilliant incredible show stopping amazing” etc etc because, well, yeah. That's how I felt about the prose.
The transphobia is really pretty unfortunate here in what otherwise felt like an instant classic.
I think the hype for this book got to me and I was kinda underwhelmed by the writing style. It's almost entirely dialogue driven to the point that I don't even know what these main characters look like or what the general environment looks like. It is a nice coming of age story but in recent years I think film and literature have been so packed with those that they've become all similar to me.