Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Racism'
ARISTOTELES Y DANTE DESCUBREN LOS SECRETOS DEL UNIVERSO by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
57 reviews
quinn_k's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Drug use, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Hate crime
siestudygirl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Overall, this is a good book! But some of the pacing and writing didn't really help with engagement.
Graphic: Homophobia and Hate crime
Moderate: Racism and Mental illness
Minor: Cursing and War
arshiya_amreen90786's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Transphobia, Murder, and Hate crime
Minor: Drug use and Racism
sashajames's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Hate crime, Car accident, Transphobia, and Homophobia
Minor: Racism
daisiesandbees's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Car accident, Violence, and Homophobia
Minor: Racism and Murder
elizlizabeth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I feel like the author has some shit to unpack because afaik he 's part of both the communities portrayed in the book (mexican-american and gay), but the whole thing is plagued with cliches and stereotypes of what it means to be either and both. I don't usually get upset when I see my culture written slightly off because at least it might come from a place of either ignorant admiration, or outright malice. For this book though, I feel like Alire-Saenz is coming from a place that's trying to be admiring and respectful but because of whatever issues ends up projecting hatred and malice.
See, it's hard to tell if he's celebrating being of mexican descent because he's constantly using the "rapist, violent, gang-member, drug addict, macho" stereotype to both make a joke or advance the plot; most of those are completely unnecessary and (at least for me) not funny at all. And don't even get me started on the sexist jokes.
I also can't tell if the author's celebrating being gay and in love because bad things keep happening to people in the plot just because they're gay. Which is I understand, a reality for many of us, but the way it's handled here is clumsy if not malintentioned. Gayness it's used not as self-discovery but as a curse and a source of drama to keep the stakes high with no resolution. Not to mention that if I wanted to really rock the boat, I could make a case of how this whole book was queer-baiting and not LGBTQA+ rep because
Very dissapointed by the conclusion of the book too, as the premise was that Ari was searching for the "secret" that would reveal what's "wrong" with him, and somehow he finds out that what was wrong with him was that he was gay. Sure, that's a healthy message.
Even if I were to ignore all of the above, the writing is objectively bad, dwelling on platitudes to land some quotable moments. I honestly felt that the characters were cut short from being fully distinct and even contradict themselves because the author wanted to keep them a blank canvas to make the reader project onto them. Recommend it to your toxic gay friends to make them worse, y'all.
Graphic: Racism, Drug use, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Outing, and Hate crime
One mexican-american character gets described as a "hungry coyote". Use of other negative stereotypes to mexicans are recurrent throughout (ie. they join gangs, they are obsessed with their cars, they know how to hotwire cars because they're mexican, etc)One of the characters gets outed while unconscious and without his knowledge. This is not discussed later, but it's implied that the outed character is not upset for it.
stinkeypasta's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Car accident, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Racism
nomoneyallcowboy's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Car accident, Racism, and Transphobia
Minor: Drug use
purplepenning's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Hate crime
Moderate: Car accident, Cursing, War, Violence, Racial slurs, Grief, Racism, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Medical content, and Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty and Cancer
matheo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Car accident, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, Grief, Death, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, War, Body horror, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Drug use