Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

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

42 reviews

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

skudiklier's review against another edition

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

lucy_shanners's review against another edition

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

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.

renkeeling's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

rtc 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content

ang_mendoza's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

I read the first book (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe) a couple years ago and loved it. Now, I feel like in those two years I've grown up with Ari. While the first book carried the characters angst, this one embodies all the hope and emotional intelligence he's learned. I would just stop and gape at how Ari grew as a person from the first book. So beautiful. I'm obsessed.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Racism, and Transphobia

alyssadavis's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.25

My father traced his name on my heart. And his name will remain there. And because his name lives there, I will be a better man for it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Hate crime, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol, Violence, Sexual content, and War

gabbygarcia's review against another edition

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

3.0

The second half of this book was significantly better than the first half. It had the momentum and powerful character arcs that I was looking for. I would've rated this book higher if not for the first half--it was quite slow, very repetitive, and not much happened. In my opinion, it could have been condensed significantly.

Additionally, I felt the discussion of AIDS was quite forced; discussion of AIDS did not exist in the first book at all, so it felt like the characters had never thought about it before, and all of a sudden they were experts on the subject. Also, the adults in this book were almost too accepting (??) and nearly always had the right thing to say about everything, which felt like an unrealistic departure from the first novel. People aren't perfect; they don't always know how to talk about difficult issues that are affecting their kids and students. 

That being said, I'm glad I finished it. It made me cry, it made me laugh. The second half was really beautiful and powerful. I just wish it was shorter (and a little less preachy... show! don't tell!!) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Grief

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, and Violence

AIDS epidemic

abigail_bowling's review against another edition

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

i cried a lot… i haven’t cried reading a book in a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Homophobia, War, Xenophobia, and Terminal illness

Minor: Deadnaming, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Outing, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Transphobia

mirireads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Homophobia

Moderate: Grief and Racism

Minor: War, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, and Transphobia