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

938 reviews

samstopher's review against another edition

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 against another edition

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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 against another edition

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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 against another edition

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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 against another edition

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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 against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

3.0

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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cscharfway's review against another edition

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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

3.75

Emotional portrayal of a teenage boy’s journey to understanding his family, his identity, his sexuality and where he fits in in the world. The characters are quirky, which presents interesting and unique dialogue, though hard for me personally to relate to. I also found it hard at times to figure out who was talking when a conversation was written out.

The relationship between Dante and Aristotle is sweet and heartwarming, especially next to the discrimination and hatred they are forced to deal with in the plot; a sad reality that continues to exist in many places today.

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secre's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

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

1.5

Urgh, I'm on the unpopular opinion road show again. The first ten percent of this was good. Then it fizzled until the last ten percent, which was absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, the eighty per cent in the middle was repetitive, slow, meandering and mostly without purpose. And it's obvious from the get go that we're meant to be building up to the big romantic reveal, but there's very little build up and it's just chucked at you in the last few pages instead.

I think my biggest issue throughout the novel was that it wasn't interesting, wasn't engaging and felt flat. The dialogue felt stilted, the characters didn't feel fully dimensional and there was almost no plot for the vast majority of the novel. You might get away with one of those flaws, but all three is a triple whammy without hope of reprieve. I was bored and that is one of the most fatal criticisms of a novel. It's better to make me angry than apathetic as at least I felt something.

It's a pity, because there's a solid kernel of excellence in here and the author can write, as demonstrated by the final ten per cent of the novel. It's just the bulk of this said very little in a whole lot of words whilst failing to build dynamic characters. There are some gems here, but they are floating in the dross.

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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

Book was recommended to me by a colleague. I can see the appeal for young people, and I think it’s important for them to have access to books like this one. I might’ve loved the book more if I was the target audience.

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sweetrosegirl76's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked this! It was sweet, easy read. Lin Manual was a good audio book narrator. I like the characters, they are both really sweet. Idk what the story graph question means if the cast of characters is diverse, do they mean many characters? Then no. If they mean are there racially diverse characters, yes bc it's about 2 Mexican boys and their Mexican families.

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