Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Aristóteles e Dante Descobrem os Segredos do Universo by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

127 reviews

sara277's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was such a good story. Wholesome, sad, and precious. I loved reading it, and I loved the writing style. The characters were all so lovable, and there were so many good lines. I think it’ll be a comfort book to go back to. I will definitely check part two and any other writings from the author!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Violence, Grief, and Car accident

mattyb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Grief

Moderate: Drug use, Violence, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Pregnancy and War

alicia_g's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A good book, but it was a bit slow for me at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

thesecretsapphic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Outing, Alcohol, and War

lost_windsock's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was absolutely beautiful. It destroyed me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sorcha's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Grief, and Car accident

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

elliereadsthings's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 A really cute story about a boy falling in love with another boy, what more could you want???

For some reason I absolutely LOVE the parents in this story, they’re amazing. I may even love them more than Dante and Ari themselves.

The start was a little slow, but I swear this book just got better and better the further in I got.

★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

“Dante. I really liked him. I really, really liked him.” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Classism

marla_a's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Car accident, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Grief, Alcohol, and War

twelve_taco's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Absolutely loved this book! First time in a long time I felt like I couldn’t put a story down. The main characters were sad, and cute, and authentic, and awkward, and lovable; but above all, hopeful. Would read this again and highly recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, Violence, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, and Death

Minor: Grief and Injury/Injury detail

nenya's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I must say, as a total, this book was somewhat of a disappointment. It tackled teenage confusion, angst and the journey of sexual discovery but in a - to me - not very groundbreaking way. Rather, most of the time it felt insufferably basic and like I‘d read and seen pretty much exactly that before (which is kind of the case). Furthermore, I mostly disliked the writing style because to me, it made the impression of wanting to be edgy or alternative but just ending up being boring. It also made me feel quite detached from the story (I recognize that this was done on purpose to properly show Ari’s way of thinking and well… it is first person narration after all so that is overall a good thing but in this case, it just didn’t quite work for me most of the time) However, I wouldn’t say that this is a bad book - for one I believe that my expectations were set a bit too high (after all, not every popular book is something for everyone) and I might quite simply be older than the target audience, plus I think there were some things done and represented very well. The relationships Ari and Dante have with their parents for example - they are each uniquely different but yet the same in the sense that these children experience immense parental love and a generally healthy relationship with their parents and are furthermore able to recognize this and reciprocate - which I think is very beautiful and also new to read about, since a good parent-son relationship is not very often written about in coming of age or YA pieces of fiction. It also showed parents as people with their flaws and traumas and how it is a part of growing up to stop idealizing one’s parents and instead seeing them for who they are. 
I also liked reading about the Mexican-American experiences of the two (however, I as a non-Mexican am not qualified to judge about how well this was done. Since the author himself is Latino, I imagine it to be quite authentic and hopefully relatable to a certain audience), because this once again seems generally under-represented in YA fiction. I also have to admit, despite the (for me) unappealing writing and narration style, the characters - and I mean each of them, even the dog (who has my whole heart btw) most definitely have a lot depth, authenticity, show flaws as well as growth and courage. The ending (which I won’t spoil here) also seemed very fitting and I actually liked it a lot more than the rest of the book. Once again, this isn’t a bad or superficial book but it just didn’t really catch me - I think I‘d recommend this to people between the age of 14 and 16/17 (and I mean, everyone is different, so I wouldn’t exclude people older than that, but as someone who is older, it didn’t seem like quite the right book)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Grief, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Medical content, Murder, and War