Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Parts of this I really liked. The family dynamics were great. Lots of quippy dialog and great writing. Dante and Aristotle are incredibly likable.

There is a lot of teenage angst along the lines of “No one understands me. I don't understand anyone. My parents are weird,” that the protagonists thankfully grows past. They go through a phase of reading intense manly literature (Heart of Darkness, War and Peace, etc.) I feel like it needed either a longer ending, or an epilogue. There is a long lead up to Aristotle and Dante becoming a couple, but then they kiss, and the story ends rapidly. There's also a pretty strong characterization of Aristotle being asexual - the way he hesitates to describe his feelings toward Dante as romantic, the way he talks about kissing and masturabtion, how he feels alienated from other boys who have seemingly bizarre feelings towards girls and sex. It would have made a great addition to further explore that and how it would affect their relationship, but instead Ari's parents literally tell him that he is in love with Dante, and then there is a tidy kiss scene that closes the book. Feels like a missed opportunity.

Over all I enjoyed it, it is also an excellent audio book narration.

All these amazing - amazing books that I've been reading lately. It's hard to deal with the love.
This book was wonderful. Just so wonderful. I couldn't help but just relate SO MUCH to the main character, his line of thought, his personality, his way of dealing with things and not doing things even when he wanted to because he thought it'd be better to not do it, basically his whole being.
I absolutely adored the family aspect. These parents are just amazing people and they make mistakes and don't always act like “adults”, and all of the characters are basically just so real and wow wow wow wow I really just loved every single thing about this book.

I was able to finish this before seeing the movie. At first, with all the dialogue, it took me a little while to warm up to it. But when it hooks you, you're all in! It's such a heartwarming and nostalgic glimpse into young queer love between two Mexican-American kids in the 1980s. It's wonderful to see such a meaningful, diverse perspective on the coming-of-age tale.

Gostei muito da experiência de ler esse livro. Um grande aspecto dessa leitura é a escrita maravilhosa do autor, guiada pelo ponto de vista do Aristóteles, o leitor cresce junto com o Ari, e vamos descobrindo quase tudo no tempo dele. E assim como o Ari, todos os personagens evoluem muito ao longo da história, com destaque especial para própria família do protagonista. Nessa onda, você se sente evoluindo junto com os personagens, já que a jornada deles aqui é muito cativante. Agora que temos um mundo todo de personagens estabelecido, mal posso esperar pra ver como tudo continua numa sequência.

I thought I wouldn't love this one as much as I did, but god.
This book was relatable and heartfelt. It was heartbreaking and touching and it got emotions and thoughs across so extremely well. I found everything believable and relatable and it was just a beautiful book.
Not to mention the gay romance in it, taking a while to take shape which made me beg so desperately for it but it was all worth the while.
This one absolutely deserves 5/5 stars

I think I'm not the target demographic and yet it somehow hit deep.

First things first. I think that marketing this as a love story/romance is misleading, it leads to an expectation of the romance being the main topic of the story. Yes, Dante is in love with Ari. Yes, their relationship somehow develops throughout the book. However, I'd say that it stays more in the background until the very very end.

The main focus is the angsty inner world of the POV protagonist, Ari. It feels iceberg-y. I feel like it's aimed at people who are going through the same thing (or have gone), of endlessly doubting yourself, feeling like you don't belong, that maybe you're not fit for this whole life thing etc. Those people read one sentence and feel a thousand things. I have to admit that at times it hit home too. My favourite relatable moments were winding someone up just so you get any kind of reaction, “I thought that if I chose the right words in the right language, he will hear me” and the most of all “You go to a councilor, dad goes to a councilor. And maybe after that, I'll go to a councillor.”

But I also have to admit that quite often I was at the limit of how much depressing, self-deprecating dialogue and pushing away your loved ones just cause you're angsty I could bear. The sentiment “the problem with my life is that it was someone else's idea”on page 8 pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the book. Don't get me wrong, it is illustrated very well why Ari is the way he is, why he's used to running away from communication and closeness and opening up - his parents have done it to him his whole life. Still, sometimes Ari's behaviour got really fucking annoying. Nevertheless I can imagine that maybe if I had read this 10 years back, I would've found it mostly relatable, so I'm putting this annoyance aside, knowing it's one of the books that I might just have read too late.

That aside, other things I liked was the character of Dante and sometimes I thought his POV might've been more interesting as Ari's often got repetitive and honestly, at the beginning of the book I thought that their POVs are going to switch intbetween chapters, might've been interesting if they did. I liked the portrayal of two families, one troubled, one less so, the gentleness of Dante's parents was so nice. Also the subtle touch on immigrant struggles was cool.

concerning the format and pacing - the chapters are short (and I am a fan of shorter chapters), there is quite a lot of quick exchange dialogue. The beginning was pretty light, the middle section got pretty heavy with all the injury and depressiveness. I felt the ending was the strongest - it made me tear up.

All in all, I don't think I'm going to re-read this or read the sequel. And even though it was at times too angsty for me, I still gotta give it 4 stars.

tropes: troubled family, coming of age, teenage angst, fear of intimacy, inability to connect
lit mentioned: Heart of Darkness, William Carlos Williams poetry, Bless Me, Ultima, The Grapes of Wrath, War and Peace, The Sun Also Rises

Mi primera lectura del año y es una lectura de 5 estrellas. No esperaba que me fuese a gustar tanto este libro. Amo a Ari y a Dante. Se me ha hecho muy adictivo y muy rápido y ligero de leer. Sin duda, recomiendo 100% este libro. No sé cuando leeré la segunda parte pero tengo muchas ganas de leerla.

My review is low because there's just something about this genre that I don't like. Maybe because I'm a 32 year old woman, I can't relate to young boys coming of age stories. And there's something about reading about a 16 year old boy's urge to masturbate that turns me completely off. I wanted to stop listening to this audiobook at 82% because of it. But I pushed through. The ending was very sweet, but it felt too rushed. The best thing about this book was that it was narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

This will probably top of favorite books for 2013. The story of Aristotle and his friend Dante is one of teenage searching for the secrets of the universe. The uncover those secrets over the course of two intense summers during high school. I could not put this book down and I am happy to have discovered Benjamin Alire Saenz.