Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

44 reviews

luananki's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

some books don’t need a sequel and this one might have been one of them.

don’t get me wrong, it’s a good book and i very much enjoyed the poetic and emotional writing. ari‘s thoughts were often times relatable. it was easy to follow his train of thoughts - that‘s one of the reasons why i appreciated the letters so much. 

i also liked that it adressed a lot of things that were left unsaid in the first one. 

after reading both books i was sad that we didn’t get to find out more about dante’s feelings and thoughts. i’m not sure if ari understood some of his decisions and it would’ve been nice to get to know him better.

i hate the ending.

it felt rushed in every way and honestly like the bit of drama that can be found in every romance novel. it was comforting to see dante supporting ari after his father’s death and how they were able to work through so much trouble. breaking up and getting back together right after without any communication (one of the reasons why i’m sad we don’t get to see anything from dante’s pov) felt very out of character.

the deadnaming and misgendering was painful to read and made me uncomfortable in a lot of ways.

all in all, i enjoyed their story and how ari felt in their relationship. i’m still glad i picked up the sequel even though it could’ve been kept shorter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Homophobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Transphobia, Cursing, and Racism

Minor: Biphobia, Bullying, Hate crime, Murder, and War

graphic: death of parent

lunep's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Deadnaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Homophobia, Bullying, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, and Pregnancy

Minor: Outing, Domestic abuse, Murder, War, Sexual content, and Death

ginadapooh's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Homophobia, and Terminal illness

skudiklier's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Oh I loved this book. I think it might have been even better than the first one--it certainly made me more emotional, and touched me in deeper places. I looked at the content warnings partway through the book because I wanted to be prepared for if a certain thing would happen, and those made me realize a different thing would happen. Even knowing that, it really got me and I was so wrecked by it. Overall though this book is beautiful and hopeful and real.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Death of parent, Homophobia, Grief, and Outing

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Sexual content, Racism, Biphobia, Cursing, Bullying, Pregnancy, Hate crime, Deadnaming, and Child death

Minor: War, Animal death, Slavery, Murder, and Infidelity

moonchildshine's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

I love the prequel so much it made me drive myself to the bookstore at night just after I finished the prequel so that I can immediately buy and read this book. That's how much I anticipate it.

It was more than a week ago. And sadly, this sequel isn't like the first book of this series--which I pretty much devoured in two sitting. 

I read this slowly, because there were times when I felt it dragged too much.

Ari and Dante are still two precious boys who deal with things and try to learn about life together. The writing is still as beautiful as the first book. But there's just something lack? (Besides the lack of description, of course). It's just... It's not as magical as the first one, that's all.

However, I still enjoyed this read and I still find myself loving the characters. The friendship Ari and Dante's found, the love they discovered in each other's family, the grief they had to bear and the way they handle it... It's all important and just as heartwarming as the first book.

It's just my expectations, I guess. I expect too much and I didn't quite find my expectations were met after reading this.

3.5 stars, for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, and Transphobia

Moderate: Pregnancy, Transphobia, and Deadnaming

Minor: Racism and War

bennispizza's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Gun violence, Alcohol, Hate crime, War, Transphobia, Violence, and Homophobia

lucy_shanners's review

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Homophobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Transphobia, Pregnancy, and Racism

Minor: Sexual content

tj_thekind's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book isn't perfect. But nothing is. Perfection is a lie we strive towards because we have nothing else to try to reach. Instead, this book is exactly what it is meant to be. It is happy and thoughtful and heartbreaking.
Yeah, it is sad. Hell, I struggled to get through the first half because it kept making me too emotional. And the second half made me ache inside. This book is an emotional rollercoaster. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
Thank you Ari and Dante. For teaching me something about desire and love and friendship and how to exist.
I am forever glad for one of the kindest people I know, how wouldn't stop talking about his favourite book and leant it to me. And for him buying this one for me for candlenights.
He introduced me to characters that have changed how I view my world. And I will never be able to repay him for that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Homophobia, Racism, Grief, Hate crime, and Transphobia

Moderate: Alcohol and Pregnancy

Minor: Deadnaming

This one hit me hard for good reasons too. Accepting parents and friends in this book made me cry for hours about my family and their lack of acceptance.

grboph's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I LOVED this book. I had read Secrets of the Universe three or four times before I found out this book existed, and the day I found out it did I drove half an hour to buy it. I am very glad I did. I think this book did a really good job of tying up some of the loose ends that were left at the end of the first book. I found the character development to be stronger and more significant in this book than it was in the first one, particularly in how Ari makes new friends and

deals with the death of his father

. I also really liked that the plot of this book was contextualized a bit more and dealt with important social issues, particularly the AIDS epidemic, homophobia, transphobia, and racism (which are as prevalent now as they were in the late 1980s when this book takes place). The only reasons I removed half a star were because I found the writing to be trying too hard to be "deep" in some places and because I don't quite know how I felt about Dante's choices towards the end of the book (they were sort of immature, and for a book where maturity and the concept of "becoming a man" is so central, I'm not sure his actions were correct or made sense). All in all, however, I really enjoyed reading this book and I am so glad I went to the lengths I did to get it. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me think very deeply about life. It was everything I could have hoped for in a sequel to Secrets of the Universe. I would recommend this book to anyone who read the first book, even if they did not enjoy it very much, and I would recommend this series to anyone in the world looking for an emotional book to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Homophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Hate crime, Outing, Pregnancy, and Transphobia

Minor: Deadnaming, Sexual content, and Violence

The father of one of the main characters passes away, which the main character is present for and grapples with emotionally for a while afterward. The main characters of this book are two gay teenagers, and the book occasionally describes some of the homophobia they face in the world. Additionally, a major plot point is that the brother of the main character is in prison for murdering a transgender woman, and this is talked about at certain points of the book as well.

lisa_m's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is one of my all time favourite books. It has stuck with me and ever since I've read it for the first time I can't stop thinking about it. When I heard that there was going to be a sequel I was incredibly excited. I adore Saenz's writing style and he always manages to make me think and feel.

This book was a long one I'm not gonna lie. 516 pages of slow paced writing are probably not for everyone but I loved it. I love the characters and the families and the friendships and relationships. It's truly beautiful.

I also cried my eyes out while reading this book. I have to say though that I'm very emotional and I had a strong connection to the characters which made it even more painful for me.

When Ari's dad died I was sobbing so much I had to take a break. Their character development was beautiful and his death so incredibly unsuspected. But that made it realistic and raw. And when Dante and Ari had a fight I cried again. When Ari talked to Dantes parents and they gave him the painting Dante drew I completely lost it again. There is so much detail and it just felt so real.

My only critic about the book was the ending. It felt very rushed in the end. The last 70 pages just felt weird and like they didn't fit in. The usually so well thought out dialogue felt like a 5 year old wrote it and the whole ending was kind of frustrating. Still I loved this book with all my heart and if 70 out if 500 pages are bad I guess that is still a good quota.

The part that I found weird was the one about that boy from school who was crying at the party and telling Ari that he's gay. It felt so strange and unnecessary. Idk I just didn't get it and the dialogue felt cheap.

I don't know who I would recommend this book to but I think everybody has to make that decision for themselves. It fit perfectly into my life and helped me because I could connect with it and think about it. If you are just expecting a cute gay romance you will for sure be disappointed by this book though. I would describe it more as philosophy and poetry than a love story. The relationship is in my opinion not even the main focus if the story. Just the two people in the relationship and their lifes, worries, fears etc.

Oh and one more thing that I found strange. The general talk about outing. At one point Ari's mum says somethung like 'she is his mom and can therefore tell anyone anything about her son if she thinks it is important.' She uses that argument to justify outing Ari to his sisters and she also says that he would never have done it on his own and that's why she had to which is just a crappy thing to say.

And when that boy from school comes out to Ari he just says he should tell his friends and not him. The boy tells him he's scared (which makes 100% sense since we know people have been beat up for that) and Ari basically pressures him into coming out by telling him he needs to be brave and then bringing his friends to him so he has to say something. Like I said earlier that whole scene just felt weird and unreal but yeah shitty behaviour still.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Transphobia, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Outing

Moderate: Murder, War, Deadnaming, Bullying, and Racism

Minor: Domestic abuse and Misogyny

I want to add that the AIDS pandemic is talked about quite a lot and in detail throughout this book so if that is a triggering topic to you if might be better if you skip this one. There are some instances of deadnaming a trans woman who was also murdered which is committed and defended my one person in this book. He is portrayed as the bad guy and his actions are condemned but it is a pretty big plot point which could be triggering to a certain audience.