Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

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

46 reviews

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

Minor: Sexual content, Violence, Alcohol, 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: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, and Sexual content

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

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 and Death of parent

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

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

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: Homophobia and Death of parent

Moderate: Racism and Grief

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

emilyneiberg's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Death of parent

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Sexual content

luluslittlelibrary's review against another edition

emotional 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

2.0

If you enjoyed reading Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. I enjoyed the original, but the sequel ruined it for me. My main issue with this book is that the writing was just bad. Ari and Dante seemed to somewhat lose their connection once they were in a relationship. The female characters were poorly written and underdeveloped. The dialogue felt fake. Overall, none of this book seemed very realistic. There were also so many plot holes and parts that were just skipped over. And it was way too long and felt repetitive. I'm really disappointed by this book, especially because I really enjoyed the first one so much.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Outing and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content

lilycantchoose's review against another edition

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

3.5

I was really looking forward to this book, but unfortunately there were a lot of things that didn’t do it for me— there were a lot of typos, and the dialogue felt pretty bland, unrealistic. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but I like book 1 way better. That said, there were so many beautiful and inspiring quotes, messages, and themes throughout the book :)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Sexual content

angrybred's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Transphobia, and War

Minor: Bullying, Deadnaming, and Misogyny

lucinotlucy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Deadnaming, Sexual content, Violence, Religious bigotry, and War

saraordnez's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.75

This book disappointed me. While the first one felt natural and mostly realistic this one tried too hard to be philosophical and most of the dialogue just felt so forced and unreal. It's like the author wanted to have edgy sad boy inspirational quotes EVERY PAGE. Like sometimes people would say things that felt out of character just for the sake of having another deep quote. It was just too much. The only things I liked were the friendship of Ari with Susie & Gina and some scenes of Ari & Dante and Ari & his mother. Also it was super weird how this books just starts with Ari being horny. And that's basically the theme of the book in its first 150 pages. Like I get they're 17 yo and they're horny but you could have waited a little... Or even better you could have made their sex scenes a lot less explicit taking into account that you're a 67 yo man writing about teenager boys. It just made me uncomfortable. 
The book has its sweet moments but they just weren't enough to make the sequel feel good or necessary. 
And this book is transphobic just like the author so if you're going to buy it do it second-handed please! But I wouldn't even read it, if you want to know how it ends I'll spoil it for you:

They end up together and living in Paris and Ari's dad dies. Also Dante's brother is born and they name him Sophocles Bartholomew, no it's not a joke.

Btw, if you're going to read it (against my recommendations) and English isn't your first language, this book wasn't hard to understand at all! Spanish is my first language and I had no problem reading it. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: War

Minor: Racial slurs