So i just finished the Ari and Dante sequel and here are my thoughts
SPOILERS DUH
Things I loved
susie Byrd love her character
Ari’s growth , I love him so much I’m so proud
Ari’s father, 🥲
Ari coming out to Gina and susie
Ari facing his brother ( I was so nervous reading this )
Ari and Dante camping trip
The kiss in the rain
Cassandra and Ari’s friendship
Sophocles 🥺
Ari writing Dante’s name in uit journal every time
Dantes painting for Ari
The museum kiss parallel
Ari’s mom becoming teacher of the year
The relationship between Ari and Dante’s parents
Cassandras speech at the graduation
Quotes: the kitten had fucking opened his eyes. I can see, Dante i can see.
You’re every street I’ve ever walked. You’re the tree outside my window. You’re a sparrow as he flies you’re the book that I am reading. You’re every poem I’ve ever loved. - Dante
Too young ? Tell that too my fucking heart.
Sometimes I just want to be. Just to be. You know?
How strange and how beautiful, to be sitting in a car and singing with your father
A father and a boy who had lived in different countries in the same house
You know life isn’t easy for everybody. Life isn’t easy for anybody
I hate my life, been there done that
Things i missed
a healthy talk between Ari and Dante at the end, the didn’t acknowledge what happened and they didn’t actually talk it out
More Ari Dante happiness most of their scenes reminded us why they couldn’t be together or that the world didn’t accept them
I missed Dante, I feel like we didn’t see much of him and when we did it wasn’t often in a positive light
I missed Dante growing, Ari grew so much as a person where I feel like Dante kind of stayed the same and slowly faded into the background
Things i didn’t like
the way the ending came to be
So much sadness, the sad things that happened really overshadowed the good stuff for me personally
The balance between happy things and sad things. I understand that life isn’t perfect and not always happy but so much sadness was in this book and feel like there wasn’t much room left for joy. Like it would be nice to have a 60/40 ratio of happyvs sad but it just didn’t feel like that for me
Overal i rate this book 3,6/5
and Ari and Dante will always have a very special place in my heart
45 notes
·
View notes
books I've read in 2021: aristotle & dante dive into the waters of the world (aristotle & dante, #2) by benjamin alire saenz
“I think I might get lost a hundred times, a thousand times, before I find out who I am and where I'm going. but if I carry dante’s name with me, he will be the torch to light my way in the darkness that is aristotle mendoza.”
160 notes
·
View notes
@haline-of-troy I'm just going to be reacting here so u can see it! I've started reading it
I am 4 chapters in and I started crying.
I wanted so much to lean into her and cry. Not because I was ashamed. But because I knew I was going to be a terrible cartographer.
And then I heard myself whisper, “Mom, why didn’t anybody tell me that love hurts so much?”
“If I had told you, would it have changed anything?”
29 notes
·
View notes
dante saying to ari through the phone that he loves him and that he knows ari loves him as well and then ari’s mom tells him “you look so handsome just right now” as if you look beautiful when you know you are loved and when you love. excuse me i’m gonna tear up
11 notes
·
View notes
Ari and Dante headcanons pt 2
(originally a reblog but posting separately now)
Dante’s shoulders often hurt from swimming, and Ari massages them. If they’re alone Dante moans to tease him.
Ari is a natural with kids, and Dante likes to watch him interact with his cousins and nieces and nephews
Ari’s extended family mostly doesn’t approve of their relationship, so when Ari invites Dante to spend Thanksgiving, they get some dirty looks and questions. Ari doesn’t care, he sits close to Dante on the couch and gives them dirty looks back that say “I dare you to say something.”
Dante is much better at Spanish than he lets on, because he’s afraid that if he says he’s fluent in Spanish that people will try to talk to him in spanish and he won’t understand.
Dante is very much a lightweight, and for whatever reason, speaks in spanish instinctively when he’s drunk. Like, speaks it a lot better than he does when sober. (may or may not be based on real events)
They talk about getting married once it’s legal, and decide that Ari should be the one to propose, since Dante will probably be ready to get married earlier, but he’s willing to wait for Ari to be ready. They get engaged after college, and have a small wedding in White Sands, or in the texas dessert. Dante doesn’t wear shoes.
179 notes
·
View notes
Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World
by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
(Spoilers ahead) God I love these characters. I feel like I'm too biased to give any sort of proper review for this book. Love the characters, love the writing style, love it all.
There really isn't much to expand on from that, lol. These characters are so personal to me and their journeys make me laugh and cry and remind me so much of me, both now and when I was younger. I know these books don't really have a proper plot and are more character-driven but I love books like that when they are as beautifully written as this one is. And there are moments that are so heartbreaking, especially with the recognitions of the AIDS pandemic in this book. The character growth from the first book is amazing and I love watching them grow.
My one complaint is the week long break up but I guess it was the realistic thing to happen. I just hate to see my favourite characters upset.
4 notes
·
View notes
Sometimes I had beautiful words living inside of me and I just couldn't push those words out so that other people could see that they were there.
Idk why but this made me cry
3 notes
·
View notes