Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Arystoteles i Dante przepadają w toni życia by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

163 reviews

elli15's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

4.5

It made me cry so be warned

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Grief

yoursupremereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing 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

3.75

Saenz did it again! Not only did he give Ari and Dante a hopefully definitive happy ending, but he found a way to flesh out the inner world of Ari Mendoza as well. Adding complexity through simplicity, Saenz further investigated Ari's personal landscape and his view of the world. Though the ending seemed a bit rushed I was still smiling by the final page. Once again, you jut wanna reach into the book and hug Ari and Dante all the time. You root for them. You love them. You adore them. You want them to know that things get better with time and that they are going to be the best people they can be by the end. I think that's what I appreciate the most about this duology. I care about Ari, I care about Dante, I care about their adorable parents and the bonds these two families have created that centers around the love of their two boys for one another. And even though there is a tragic loss in the book that literally made me scream at the ceiling in the middle of the night while reading it, Ari and Dante's journey was well worth the heartache. This book and it's OG novel are a fantastic addition to the YA queer canon and everyone should give them a go. Highly recommended. Will cherish these two books forever and ever!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, and Hate crime

rebeccap's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Grief and Cursing

Minor: Transphobia, Hate crime, and Racism

readwithmo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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 and Grief

lukas_ty's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Homophobia and Racism

Minor: Murder and Transphobia

afion's review against another edition

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Homophobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Stalking and Transphobia

Minor: Pregnancy

luananki's review against another edition

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? Yes

3.75

some books don’t need a sequel and this one might have been one of them.

don’t get me wrong, it’s a good book and i very much enjoyed the poetic and emotional writing. ari‘s thoughts were often times relatable. it was easy to follow his train of thoughts - that‘s one of the reasons why i appreciated the letters so much. 

i also liked that it adressed a lot of things that were left unsaid in the first one. 

after reading both books i was sad that we didn’t get to find out more about dante’s feelings and thoughts. i’m not sure if ari understood some of his decisions and it would’ve been nice to get to know him better.

i hate the ending.

it felt rushed in every way and honestly like the bit of drama that can be found in every romance novel. it was comforting to see dante supporting ari after his father’s death and how they were able to work through so much trouble. breaking up and getting back together right after without any communication (one of the reasons why i’m sad we don’t get to see anything from dante’s pov) felt very out of character.

the deadnaming and misgendering was painful to read and made me uncomfortable in a lot of ways.

all in all, i enjoyed their story and how ari felt in their relationship. i’m still glad i picked up the sequel even though it could’ve been kept shorter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Homophobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Transphobia, Cursing, and Racism

Minor: Biphobia, Bullying, Hate crime, Murder, and War

graphic: death of parent

headachesince03's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Biphobia, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, and Violence

daniellekat's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.5

I really wanted to love this as much as I loved the first book. While the writing was still beautiful and there were some really endearing moments in the plot, I just couldn’t get into it the same way. At times I felt like the author was trying to cover too much and over-repeating points. The book was a bit long and the last 20% just felt unnecessary to me.   I’m glad to have listened to the audiobook because I think this would have landed on my DNF otherwise. I loved Ari and his growth which was really the saving grace for me. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Deadnaming, Sexism, and Death

Minor: Chronic illness

eimear_jane's review against another edition

hopeful 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

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