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A review by emilyeehaw
Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
hopeful
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
when i found out that one of my favorite YA books was getting a sequel…i was SHAKING IN MY BOOTS. both with fear and excitement. happy to report that this sequel did not irrevocably damage my thoughts and feelings on the first book <3.
that being said, it definitely could have been about 100 pages shorter. the first 250 pages really just read as a slice of life/snapshots of ari and dante book and while that was nice, some scenes could have used some trimming. i also found it weird that there was a pretty big conflict so close to the end of the book, i’m talking like 30 pages end of the book.
i loved ari and dante as characters as much as ever and i did like that this book showed the imperfectness of their relationship but how they worked through it. it felt very realistic to how actual relationships can be.
there were also some weird discussions, often between ari and his friends, that felt vaguely transphobic…a lot of equating genitals with gender etc etc. it made me go 👁👁 several times over.
overall, i do think a shorter book would have packed more of a punch for me and made the story feel less meandering, but it wasn’t anything terrible.
that being said, it definitely could have been about 100 pages shorter. the first 250 pages really just read as a slice of life/snapshots of ari and dante book and while that was nice, some scenes could have used some trimming. i also found it weird that there was a pretty big conflict so close to the end of the book, i’m talking like 30 pages end of the book.
i loved ari and dante as characters as much as ever and i did like that this book showed the imperfectness of their relationship but how they worked through it. it felt very realistic to how actual relationships can be.
there were also some weird discussions, often between ari and his friends, that felt vaguely transphobic…a lot of equating genitals with gender etc etc. it made me go 👁👁 several times over.
overall, i do think a shorter book would have packed more of a punch for me and made the story feel less meandering, but it wasn’t anything terrible.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia