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A review by emordnilap
Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I have a lot of thoughts on this book:
1. It was too long for how little plot there was. I don't feel like there was a solid plot with the storyline and we were just badly following Ari through the rest of summer and his senior year.
2. They never really elaborated on many things (ex. when they say "going to Rico's funeral" I spent 30+ mins digging through the last 50+ pages before that trying to find where she died, but there was nothing. It was off-handly mentioned that he used drugs in a journal entry a few pages later )
3. The immediate and general acceptance of just about EVERYONE when Dante and Ari came out was unrealistic. It was so off and wrong that it was really upsetting. There is no way that the one lady was the only one who when someone came out/was gay was mad.
4. The book felt like it was trying too hard to be prose. There were a lot of "wow what a beautiful line moment" but they felt out of place and forced so that the book could seem of higher literary value because nothing in the plot did that.
5. It felt like the author wrote a sequel because of how well the first book did and they knew he could make a lot of money, not because he felt like he had more to do with the characters.
6. The transphobic behavior of the author once again comes through in his writing. (Also biphobia is gross)
7. The sudden and frequent references to pop culture of the time felt really out of place compared to the first novel(I feel like following the AIDS crisis through book one would have been interesting because doing it in the second book felt really out of place).
Overall I was really disappointed by this book, I'm glad I got it from the library and did not directly financially support the author. God forbid this becomes a trilogy because if it does I will not read it.
1. It was too long for how little plot there was. I don't feel like there was a solid plot with the storyline and we were just badly following Ari through the rest of summer and his senior year.
2. They never really elaborated on many things (ex.
3. The immediate and general acceptance of just about EVERYONE when Dante and Ari came out was unrealistic. It was so off and wrong that it was really upsetting. There is no way that the one lady was the only one who when someone came out/was gay was mad.
4. The book felt like it was trying too hard to be prose. There were a lot of "wow what a beautiful line moment" but they felt out of place and forced so that the book could seem of higher literary value because nothing in the plot did that.
5. It felt like the author wrote a sequel because of how well the first book did and they knew he could make a lot of money, not because he felt like he had more to do with the characters.
6. The transphobic behavior of the author once again comes through in his writing. (Also biphobia is gross)
7. The sudden and frequent references to pop culture of the time felt really out of place compared to the first novel(I feel like following the AIDS crisis through book one would have been interesting because doing it in the second book felt really out of place).
Overall I was really disappointed by this book, I'm glad I got it from the library and did not directly financially support the author. God forbid this becomes a trilogy because if it does I will not read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Biphobia