Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

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

40 reviews

eveofthestars's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful 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

I'm so sad I finished this book and yet I didn't want to put it down. I flew through this book, I read it in one weekend and throughout it I thought: "I want to read this book forever, I don't want to do anything else and above all I don't want it to end." I don't think I'll ever find books as beautiful as these, that speak to me in such a way. I could praise the writing for days — you can feel the poet in Sáenz and it's part of what makes these books so gorgeous. I'm so happy to see the journey Ari went through, with all its hardships, and the person he's becoming. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go grieve the fact that there're no more books in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: War, Transphobia, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content

kjm9773's review

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Cursing, Homophobia, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Sexual content, and Racism

Minor: Murder, Suicide, and Transphobia

sammymilfort's review against another edition

dark 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: Mental illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Vomit, Bullying, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Medical content, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death of parent, and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Car accident

I love Ari and Dante so much! I am conflicted how I feel because this series and story means so much to me, and it felt like a 5 star to me. Ari’s growth was so beautiful to see. Benjamin’s writing will always tug at my heartrings At the same time, I understand there is a nuance and problematic aspects to these characters that make it questionable and uncomfortable for people to read To me Ari and Dante are imperfect people who can learn from their views and our curious about the world I wish Saènez took from a note of compassion and love that he imposed on his characters into his own world view. The hate he has shown towards the trans/gender nonconforming community is honestly unacceptable and goes against many of the themes he writes about in his book. I am not part of this community but I stand with the community, who has given this author many chances to change or apologize and learn from his behavior, but he has shown no heart to some of the harmful damage he has has done After this I am no longer reading any books by this author

delisouseyelids's review

emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Misogyny, Violence, War, Alcohol, Car accident, Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Child death, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Lesbophobia, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug use, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Transphobia, and Cursing

hello_lovely13's review

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

4.5

This book was somehow hopeful and melancholy at the same time, and the result is just beautiful. While reading this, I really wanted to reread the first book. To say that this was a love story (in the sense that this is a romance book) would severely diminish the impact and honesty this book has. It has a simple, yet poetic writing style that makes every topic addressed in this book (self-love, grief, belonging, hate, etc.) so accessible and resonate within the reader.  There were a couple of times that I thought the writing style was too simplistic for the situation it was discussing, but for a majority of the time I thought it was perfect.  There are many everyday, meaningful conversations, and that is right up my alley.  This is a beautiful exploration of what it is like to love in a world so filled with hate, both in general and specifically for your identity.  Ari struggled a lot with self-hatred in the first book (so the first one is much more melancholy than this one), and he really deals with that in this book.  The character progression is heart-warming to see as he grows and learns.  Even if things can't last forever, it's impact will linger and become a part of who you are; it is just up to you to determine how it will change and influence you.  It is just wonderful.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Racism and Transphobia

Minor: Sexual content, Deadnaming, and War

Internalized homophobia, AIDs crisis

robinks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.25

The pacing of this book was really strange, as there were parts I didn’t think needed to be drawn out so much and others that I wish could’ve been drawn out more. I liked the new characters and what the book had to show about platonic intimacy. I also liked how we got to see the teens empowered to advocate for themselves and each other.

What I didn’t like was how the relationship between Dante & Ari progressed, and I think part of it was due to the fact that Ari seemed to be a totally different person from the first book. If we had seen more of his growth, it would’ve been more believable. Also, I don’t know if I liked Miranda as the narrator of the audiobook.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Violence, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Death, and Transphobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Cursing

Minor: Murder, Hate crime, Sexual content, Outing, and War

jadencove's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Transphobia, Homophobia, Deadnaming, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, and Death of parent

kirsten_marie's review against another edition

2.25

I had so high hopes for this one because I loved the first book so much. It had this special atmosphere to it, and I couldn't keep myself from caring deeply for those boys and their story. sadly, I feel all that is lost after reading the sequel. 

From the beginning, the writing felt awkward and as the author has tried to compose some beautiful text, but completely missed the mark in the process. It is an extreme case of tell and not show. It felt like watching a bad play. The characters only play their roles and never feel like fully developed souls. There is little to no emotional build-up in serious scenes either. It lacks subtlety and depth. Only on a number of pages I could count on my fingers did I feel invested in the story. I would also argue that there are several very illogical choices and events. 90% of it's entirety is also direct dialogue, which I find unbearably dull. 


Should have DNFed this one, but I'm too f*ing stubborn.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Murder, Violence, and Transphobia

booknerdz28's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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: Cursing, Grief, and Homophobia

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Minor: Deadnaming and Hate crime

ronan900's review

emotional hopeful 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Transphobia, Violence, and War

Minor: Hate crime, Bullying, Murder, Sexual content, and Deadnaming