Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

921 reviews

br3anna_'s review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense medium-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

3.75

I think this book did a really good job at capturing teenagers and their way of not understanding how their body works.

But I feel at the end

when Ari decided he loved Dante. His dad shouldn't have been the one to shout it at him. Personally I think he should've had a dream where he finally sees its Dante.

It felt whenever Ari or Dante had character development. They didn't change correctly. I hope in the second book they do better with this change

Dante was getting on my nerves with this "Can't we kiss? Please? Please? Please?"

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the_outsiders_addicted's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

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jengoertz's review

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emotional funny inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

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witheringcarnelians's review

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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

5.0

I am Ari and Ari is me

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samstopher's review

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emotional reflective fast-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? Yes

3.5

The ending was beautiful and made me cry. I think this is a good book objectively, but subjectively it wasn't my taste exactly. Will be reading the sequel tho!

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venusdapoopiehead's review

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emotional funny sad fast-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? Yes

4.75

i loved the way this book covered teenage angst, the teenage hormones and emotions and just the experience of being a flawed teenage mexican boy trying to figure himself out and navigate the world around him. it felt real and in many ways i could see myself in ari and i deeply resonated with the way he felt about certain things. a beautiful book about boyhood and sexuality and the how being a teenager is so strange, confusing, scary, but wonderful nonetheless. however, i will say that if you’re not the type of person that likes characters that are annoying (mainly due to them being a teenager) and characters that constantly complain and basically just…….act like a hormonal teenager, this is definitely not the book for you, because there’s a LOT of teenage angst in this if that wasn’t already obvious. this may ALSO not be the book for you if you’re not a fan of simplistic language, as there’s lots of that in the book too. example:

“today i was sad. i don’t like being sad. this was a very sad day, how sad is that? so sad :(“

it almost gets annoying at times but of course this book is written in the perspective of a teen from the 80’s, i do NOT expect aristotle to start talking like shakespeare lmao, but if you’re not a huge fan of that kind of language then this book just might not be for you, and that’s ok.

side note: there is a small moment that i wanna lightly touch on that i think is definitely important. in one moment in this book there is some slight transphobia. small spoiler >>>>>

there was a scene where ari and dante are talking about ari’s brother and ari says that his brother basically committed a hate crime about a trans sex worker. aristotle also uses an outdated and triggering term to describe said trans person. i know this book is set in the 80’s, and i know the whole point is that the characters aren’t perfect because they’re teenagers, but this was a scene that was kind of unexpected so it did slightly trigger me.

just wanted to mention that for anyone planning on reading this so they know what to expect and not get triggered by it. and no, i’m not trying to “cancel” the book or the author, but this stuff IS important to mention cause some people do get triggered by that, so just a slight warning for anyone interested in reading this. but besides that, i loved this book, would def recommend (with content warnings).

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racbuckallew's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.75

Would be a perfect 5/5 score but the dialogue (while perfect) doesn’t match the setting which is confusing. SO DAMN CUTE

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soph05's review

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challenging 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

5.0

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adisiki's review

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4.0

This was so cute! I loved how it dealt with identity; both Ari and Dante being Mexican-American and not feeling “Mexican” enough at times and dealing with their sexuality and coming to terms with it. Ari was such an angry, moody teenager and I loved his banter with his mom, with Gina and Susie, and with Dante and Dante was such a sweet lighthearted boy just trying to save the birds. The ending kind of felt a little rushed to me, but overall I loved the writing and the story.

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aformeracceleratedreader's review

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emotional medium-paced

3.5

I can see why so many people love this but for me, it was just okay. Loved the character development and the families' dynamics. Loved the coming of age storyline and discovering/acknowledging/accepting of one's self but it didn't totally grab me or wow me or leave a big impact on me like it has for others.

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