Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe: Tenth Anniversary Edition

A really cute story about a boy falling in love with another boy, what more could you want???

For some reason I absolutely LOVE the parents in this story, they’re amazing. I may even love them more than Dante and Ari themselves.

The start was a little slow, but I swear this book just got better and better the further in I got.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

“Dante. I really liked him. I really, really liked him.”

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goosecaboose's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book is amazing!! I just wanted to hug the book and the characters the whole time I was reading it. It’s very wholesome and warm. Putting this book down during a reading session was basically impossible. I definitely recommend this book.

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triangular_pascal's review against another edition

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lighthearted tense 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

3.5

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nenya's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

I must say, as a total, this book was somewhat of a disappointment. It tackled teenage confusion, angst and the journey of sexual discovery but in a - to me - not very groundbreaking way. Rather, most of the time it felt insufferably basic and like I‘d read and seen pretty much exactly that before (which is kind of the case). Furthermore, I mostly disliked the writing style because to me, it made the impression of wanting to be edgy or alternative but just ending up being boring. It also made me feel quite detached from the story (I recognize that this was done on purpose to properly show Ari’s way of thinking and well… it is first person narration after all so that is overall a good thing but in this case, it just didn’t quite work for me most of the time) However, I wouldn’t say that this is a bad book - for one I believe that my expectations were set a bit too high (after all, not every popular book is something for everyone) and I might quite simply be older than the target audience, plus I think there were some things done and represented very well. The relationships Ari and Dante have with their parents for example - they are each uniquely different but yet the same in the sense that these children experience immense parental love and a generally healthy relationship with their parents and are furthermore able to recognize this and reciprocate - which I think is very beautiful and also new to read about, since a good parent-son relationship is not very often written about in coming of age or YA pieces of fiction. It also showed parents as people with their flaws and traumas and how it is a part of growing up to stop idealizing one’s parents and instead seeing them for who they are.
I also liked reading about the Mexican-American experiences of the two (however, I as a non-Mexican am not qualified to judge about how well this was done. Since the author himself is Latino, I imagine it to be quite authentic and hopefully relatable to a certain audience), because this once again seems generally under-represented in YA fiction. I also have to admit, despite the (for me) unappealing writing and narration style, the characters - and I mean each of them, even the dog (who has my whole heart btw) most definitely have a lot depth, authenticity, show flaws as well as growth and courage. The ending (which I won’t spoil here) also seemed very fitting and I actually liked it a lot more than the rest of the book. Once again, this isn’t a bad or superficial book but it just didn’t really catch me - I think I‘d recommend this to people between the age of 14 and 16/17 (and I mean, everyone is different, so I wouldn’t exclude people older than that, but as someone who is older, it didn’t seem like quite the right book)

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jasmineslibraryy's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

ari was so incredibly relatable. i love best friends to lovers. i love slowburn. this book was perfect for me. alexa play midnight rain by taylor swift <3

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avagrossman's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny lighthearted tense 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? N/A

4.0

i really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.
a lot of important topics are covered yet it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

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anxieteaandbiscuits12's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

4.25

I did enjoy the book overall but I did find it a little difficult to get into for the first 100 pages, but that could be because this had been sitting on my shelf for about a year before I made myself read it, I felt that the beginning was quite slow and a little repetitive as we were introduced to Dante and Ari’s friendship, thought the characters were established quite well. I did struggle with the time transition between sections and sometimes having to double check who was speaking during long periods of dialog. However, after a ‘incident in the rain’ I found that both grew a little more and matured and I found it easier to invest myself in the book and by the end I was wishing I had brought the sequel so I could read more about Ari and Dante’s new relationship as it was such a beautifully written transition and I loved how the change between relationships was written.

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