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intothewildewood 's review for:
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
oooooooh, i have mixed feelings lmao.
does it capture the confusion of one's teen years? yeah. maybe even too well because i was also left confused by ari. the back and forth mixed signals about whether they were even friends or not got kind of old, and i eventually just started ignoring them. i understand ari is meant to grow and develop through the text, but i was never fully convinced on an emotional level. even his inner monologues were pretty stoic. considering the context, i get it tho. i even commend it to some degree.
but is it a good love story? not particularly. this is where the emotional convincing i mentioned earlier would have been helpful for me. as it stands, it's like his parents just tell him he's gay and then he says oh yeah you're right i am...and then he's suddenly okay with everything? it felt unrealistic considering how moody he's been. his willingness to adopt a title given to him by his parents is almost ironic after the whole 'other people writing my life for me' narrative he wants to be free of.
ultimately, others' immense love for this book makes sense to me, but i didn't connect to it in a meaningful way.
does it capture the confusion of one's teen years? yeah. maybe even too well because i was also left confused by ari. the back and forth mixed signals about whether they were even friends or not got kind of old, and i eventually just started ignoring them. i understand ari is meant to grow and develop through the text, but i was never fully convinced on an emotional level. even his inner monologues were pretty stoic. considering the context, i get it tho. i even commend it to some degree.
but is it a good love story? not particularly. this is where the emotional convincing i mentioned earlier would have been helpful for me. as it stands, it's like his parents just tell him he's gay and then he says oh yeah you're right i am...and then he's suddenly okay with everything? it felt unrealistic considering how moody he's been. his willingness to adopt a title given to him by his parents is almost ironic after the whole 'other people writing my life for me' narrative he wants to be free of.
ultimately, others' immense love for this book makes sense to me, but i didn't connect to it in a meaningful way.