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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
Arystoteles i Dante przepadają w toni życia by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
85 reviews
thehmkane's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Violence, and Death of parent
thebookpaiges's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Racism, and Death of parent
Moderate: Deadnaming, Transphobia, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Minor: Child abuse, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, and War
megan_montgomery's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, Transphobia, Violence, and Death of parent
joshuanaya's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Transphobia, Violence, and Death of parent
incarceration a present themejosieruby1's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, and Death of parent
Moderate: Racism and Violence
This book heavily addresses the aids pandemic.nikexistiertnik's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
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.
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cursing, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and War
Minor: Deadnaming
readingelli's review against another edition
3.5
Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, Violence, and Murder
AIDS pandemicsparkinspace's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Violence
diana_raquel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
"I thought he was only going to teach me how to swim in the waters of this swimming pool. Instead, he taught me how to dive into the waters of life"
I really wanted to like this. When I read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, I knew I was going to love that book from the first paragraph. This one? Not so much.
Thematically speaking, this book follows the same themes that its predecessor, which makes sense, since this is a sequel. We continue to see the internal struggles of the characters regarding heritage, friendship, their relationship with family, the future, and their sexuality. In a few ways, this book, just like its predecessor, challenges the notions that society has about ethnicity, family, friendship, and love but, most importantly, it challenges the idea of what makes and means to be a man.
So, if this is a continuation of a story that I absolutely adored, why this rating? Well, this is why coming-of-age stories shouldn't have a sequel. At least, in my opinion. Because, how do you follow that? With another coming-of-age story? Haven't the characters come of age, yet? Look, I understand, the first book left enough space for more character development. And, for the most part, there's strong character development in this book. The problem? If the first book was the most perfect movie ever made in Hollywood, this was the cheap Walmart version. It's boring. I only enjoyed the last 30% of the book. And, honestly, I didn't like the ending. I think that Ari and Dante shouldn't have gotten together in Paris. I think it would make more sense, within the setting of a coming-of-age story, when the character is clearly entering a new phase in their life. Yes, it's cute and romantic! And also predictable. And boring.
I absolutely recommend the first book. This one not so much. It's boring. It tries to capture the essence of the first one but it fails. I'm only giving a 2.75-star rating because I do recognize the strong character development.
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Hate crime, Mental illness, Transphobia, Outing, and War
babsi_222's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Maybe you ask yourself why I didn’t enjoy reading this book?
- While I like lots of sentences and chapters of the book, so many words/sentences and topics where frequently repeated but not in a new breeze kind of way which made the book bland and uninteresting to read for me. I wanted to scream „YES I KNOW THAT AND HE DOES TOO BECAUSE Y‘ALL TALKED ABOUT IT 400 TIMES ALREADY AND IRL YOU CAN IDC BUT IT‘S SO BORING TO READ UGHHHHH“ but I just said it in my head.
- I don’t need to hear „Ari, when have you become a man?“ or „Ari you‘ve changed“ from every person he meets.
-btw the book has no plot whatsoever and it only contains moments where one of the characters says something intelectual and the other say „how are you so sophisticated?“ and then the talk about the word sophisticated.
- the dialogue writing is incredibly unrealistic. Nobody would say these things at once.
- i saw someone else’s review and they said how much they hated the word „gay“ just being thrown around. I know what they mean because you don’t get one conversation without a „because I‘m gay(?)“. It seems like the author, Benjamin thinks Ari‘s only personal trait is being gay. The whole racism, homophobia, talking about that and about AIDS, queer stereotypes and gender and sexuality-Problem in this book would be too much for me to try and write it out here. But i can so much day that it’s not great at all but you can read @kthedestroyer‘s review and opinion which is veryyyyy similar to mine and where they covered these topics.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Death of parent
Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Murder, and War