Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

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

34 reviews

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

---

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

---

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

emiliarosep's review

emotional 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death of parent, and Racism

Moderate: Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, and War

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.

---

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

redheadorganist's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Homophobia

Moderate: Murder, Pregnancy, Transphobia, and Racism

Minor: Religious bigotry and War

jasmineslibraryy's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

almost DNF'd, really glad i didn't 

this sequel was kinda unnecessary in my opinion but it was beautiful. ari has one of the most beautiful character arcs i've ever read. the first one is still miles better but i still thoroughly enjoyed this!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Religious bigotry, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Medical trauma, Hate crime, Death, Deadnaming, Cursing, Child death, Blood, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Bullying, and Alcohol

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Terminal illness, Child abuse, War, and Pregnancy

Minor: Pedophilia and Cancer

meghan4's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

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

Minor: Violence, Deadnaming, and Religious bigotry

thebookpaiges's review

emotional 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Deadnaming, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Terminal illness, War, Pregnancy, and Child abuse

preciouslittleingenue's review

emotional 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? Yes

5.0

How I loved this. I don’t know what it was about the graduation speech but it had me crying. I really loved Cassandra’s character, and her speech was just so powerful. The part where she made everyone hold hands and said that they were all human beings really got me. Wow. I loved watching Ari make friends with those girls and watching their friendship grow. If last book was the “Ari learns to be part of a family” book, this was the “Ari learns to be part of a friend group” book. And I just loved it. The young man who Ari helped come out at the graduation party also had me tearing up. Ari’s principal not caring about what he found in his journal was so moving too. That’s what really struck me about both of these books: there is so much goodness in this world. And I suppose that means THE world. Because it’s not like this is set in an alternate reality. It’s really hard to forget that fact, what with all of the horrid things you see online or in person even. The ones that carry that hatred just get more and more bold. But there was SO much more love and acceptance in these books than there was homophobia. And I really, really would like to believe that that’s true in real life too. I’m very grateful to have read these books. Thank you, Sáenz. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Religious bigotry

nikexistiertnik's review

emotional reflective

• 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

first of all, i am happy i read this book, and i am happy it exists.
i loved ari's personal development - seeing him evolve, build friendships, open up for love, made me very happy, especially the relationship he came to have with his father and his mother.

meeting bernardo was one thing i had really hoped would happen in the first book, so i was excited that it finally happened now; and while i appreciated that it wasn't a fantasy meeting and that he wasn't suddenly a wonderful and misunderstood man - because sometimes people we used to love turn out to be horrible and memories can't change that -, i was really uncomfortable with how mentions of his victim were handled. i understand why bernardo would misgender her, but i really don't get why it would be necessary to mention her deadname and then have ari misgender her afterwards.

this sequel also made dante feel more human and less idealised, but i still would have wanted more of his perspective, he feels like such a slippery and blurry character to me, regardless of all the flaws and mannerisms we learn about.
although i appreciated a lot of the topics that played parts in the story, like the aids pandemic or the impact the vietnam war had on veterans etc., it seemed rushed, like there was just too much content for this book, while also being very repetitive.
as a result, i feel like waters of the world could be 150 pages shorter, but at the same time it could discuss and deal with its topics for another 150 pages - the balance is just kinda off.
the ending is another example for that; i feel like it could've been cut short

and had them be broken up, because that's what happens with teenage relationships and there's no shame in that

or it could've been explored in greater length

and had them have better communication etc.

overall, i enjoyed the writing - even though there were kind of a lot of errors that could've been avoided by reading over it one more time - and the relationships ari was able to build over the course of the book. i couldn't fully get lost in the story, but i did feel with him, i did relate to lots of his thoughts, and i appreciated some of the political content that was brought up.
it was just not exactly what it could've been.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Racism, Pregnancy, Violence, War, Cursing, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Deadnaming