Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Aristotle e Dante si immergono nelle acque del mondo by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

75 reviews

applebutter_and_pickles'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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Violence, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Homophobia

Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, and Religious bigotry

btrz7's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.0

It's been a while since I read the first book and I'm gonna admit I didn't re-read it before coming into this, but the feelings I got as I finished each one couldn't be more different. While I remember enjoying the first book and finishing it with a sense that it was worth my time, this one was a chore from beginning to finish.
It's sappy, disjointed, goes nowhere with its weird fragmented chapters, seems to be just a lot of amateur philosophy and quotable sentences that seem over the top in context.
To be clear, the book was so boring and, in my opinion, badly written, that I had to go back and read a chapter because I had mostly glossed over in my head one of the major events if the book, if you can say it has any. Also was getting tired of all these characters introduced out of the blue just to tell Ari how much of a man he is.
Overall, too many attempts at moralising for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Homophobia

Moderate: Racial slurs, Murder, Alcohol, Violence, Transphobia, and Racism

sophie42's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, and Homophobia

Moderate: Murder, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Vomit and Outing

lukas_ty's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Homophobia and Racism

Minor: Murder and Transphobia

luananki'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? Yes

3.75

some books don’t need a sequel and this one might have been one of them.

don’t get me wrong, it’s a good book and i very much enjoyed the poetic and emotional writing. ari‘s thoughts were often times relatable. it was easy to follow his train of thoughts - that‘s one of the reasons why i appreciated the letters so much. 

i also liked that it adressed a lot of things that were left unsaid in the first one. 

after reading both books i was sad that we didn’t get to find out more about dante’s feelings and thoughts. i’m not sure if ari understood some of his decisions and it would’ve been nice to get to know him better.

i hate the ending.

it felt rushed in every way and honestly like the bit of drama that can be found in every romance novel. it was comforting to see dante supporting ari after his father’s death and how they were able to work through so much trouble. breaking up and getting back together right after without any communication (one of the reasons why i’m sad we don’t get to see anything from dante’s pov) felt very out of character.

the deadnaming and misgendering was painful to read and made me uncomfortable in a lot of ways.

all in all, i enjoyed their story and how ari felt in their relationship. i’m still glad i picked up the sequel even though it could’ve been kept shorter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Homophobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Transphobia, Cursing, and Racism

Minor: Biphobia, Bullying, Hate crime, Murder, and War

graphic: death of parent

headachesince03's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Biphobia, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, and Violence

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

hapalyn's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective relaxing 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Cursing, and Racism

Minor: Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Murder, Sexism, and Transphobia

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

pirateenthusiast's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book made me feel so much. I kept crying because I looked at the pages I just kept thinking "that's me, that's me." 

Both of these books have been very meaningful to me, because as Ari discovered himself, so did I.

A matter that was highly confusing to me, however, was

Rico's death. One minute he was fine, and the next, they were at his funeral. This was not explained beyond what happened at the funeral. I'm not sure what the point was. 

Although this book was very moving to me personally, I do not know that I would recommend it. The writing style is...very simplistic. It has it's beautiful moments, but mostly it is written like it is for children, which, it kind of is, but at the same time, some of the topics like sex in this book I would not be wanting a 5th grader to read. Also, the way the characters speak is so. Not how anyone speaks.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Xenophobia and Racism

Minor: Murder