Reviews with content warning for Outing - ARISTOTELES Y DANTE DESCUBREN LOS SECRETOS DEL UNIVERSO

I did enjoy the book overall but I did find it a little difficult to get into for the first 100 pages, but that could be because this had been sitting on my shelf for about a year before I made myself read it, I felt that the beginning was quite slow and a little repetitive as we were introduced to Dante and Ari’s friendship, thought the characters were established quite well. I did struggle with the time transition between sections and sometimes having to double check who was speaking during long periods of dialog. However, after a ‘incident in the rain’ I found that both grew a little more and matured and I found it easier to invest myself in the book and by the end I was wishing I had brought the sequel so I could read more about Ari and Dante’s new relationship as it was such a beautifully written transition and I loved how the change between relationships was written.

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elizlizabeth's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

Sometimes I'll read some YA book and think "you know, maybe this book wasn't meant for me at this age, maybe I could've enjoyed it when I was younger". This is not one of them :/
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

Aristotle doesn't even get together with Dante until the last few pages (like the last 10 pages y'all), even though this is marketed as a gay coming-of-age or whatever. Well come out and come of age then, why don't you?!?

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.

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hellscape_princess's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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davidbythebay's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

I am in awe of this book. This was NOTHING like I had anticipated it to be. I certainly expected a sweet coming-of-age novel involving LGBT issues of growing up in the 1980s. I expected it to be a bit of a sing-song romance with conflict. I expected a bit of a saccharine sweet story of young love. This was not that, but it was better. GO AND READ THIS NOW!

I went into this book blind. All I knew was that this was a YA book involving LGBT issues and people in the 1980s. Like I already said, it was so much more and absolutely fantastic. Aristotle and Dante have a story that involves a self-discovery that many LGBT individuals face even today. But it explores so many other topics - family secrets, homophobia, violence, acceptance, death, grief, war, mental health, etc. - which are each handled beautifully. Additionally, they are absolutely handled without a single one feeling like it was jammed in and forgotten, or like the book becomes bloated because of all of these topics.

This is potentially sort of spoilery, but really I don't think it is. For those who don't want to read about the message I got from this book, read the book first then come back here. It may be best that way.

Sometimes we don't accept what is before us. Sometimes we can't see what is real. Sometimes we need a push to get to the truth. We may not speak of the truths hidden deep inside us, but they are there and we can't run from them. We have to explore them and discover our truth in time. It's part of our journey as LGBT people. It's part of our journey as human beings. We all have to figure out that we cannot run from ourselves for the happiness of others. That doesn't make us happy, and it doesn't make the others happy either. Our happiness creates happiness for those we love. We cannot live unhappy in the hope it makes others happy. We can only live as us in all our beautiful glory. We are born as we are and we have to live that way.

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anapthine's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny reflective relaxing 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

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nikexistiertnik's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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

i loved the way this book was written so, so much. it felt really poetic and emotional, while at the same time somehow cold and detached, and that's a little how i feel on the inside.

there were lots of tears and lots of times when i realized i really wish i was like dante, as well as times when i related a lot to ari:

"but love was always something heavy to me. something i had to carry."

knowing that the author loves his dog a lot, also made the parts about ari loving legs so much more wholesome and beautiful.

the ileana stuff was unnecessary and rushed in my opinion, just because i couldn't really follow how their relationship progressed and then suddenly it was just over.

i am a little sad that we didn't get multiple povs - i would have enjoyed it a lot to get to know more of dante's thoughts and emotions.

for example i really wish i knew what went on in his head when he pushed ari to kiss him. it made me so uncomfortable.

what didn't really sit right with me was the way they talked about the fact that ari could've lost his legs, although i am in no position to really speak on that, it felt a little ableist to me, and i hope to find out more about what people think about that part who actually have a similar disability to the one he could've had if the surgery had went differently.

i also really hated the part about bernardo unaliving that prostitute, it was just so blatantly transphobic and hurt to read.

but overall i did like their friendship and the way they feel about each other a lot,

even though i didn't expect the romance stuff to take SO. LONG. which is not necessarily a bad thing though, i loved reading about ari's internal struggles, his and dante's families, just everything that was going on.

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amalie_andelova's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious relaxing sad fast-paced

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

4.75

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