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Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'
ARISTOTELES Y DANTE DESCUBREN LOS SECRETOS DEL UNIVERSO by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
51 reviews
meeklovestoread's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Car accident
Minor: Cursing, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol
danajoy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
This book feels so intimate. You're in Ari's head. He's complicated and sensitive.
I love the adult cast in this too.
Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer
goosecaboose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cursing, Medical content, and Medical trauma
There’s a good chunk of possibly triggering things in this book, however, I get triggered moderately easy and didn’t have any problems. This book is definitely worth it.jlohnes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Drug use, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Alcohol
Minor: Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
a_sleepy_berry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Outing
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Death
avagrossman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
a lot of important topics are covered yet it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Violence, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Minor: Murder
adam_ski's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
An absolutely a beautifully written story that follows the protagonist through his journey of life and the valauble lessons he learns on his way to find the greatest mystery of the universe.
Graphic: Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Car accident
Moderate: Bullying, Violence, and Medical trauma
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Murder, and Alcohol
Mostly appropriate with some key elements of the story potentially triggering - including a car crash and physical abuse (caused by homophobia). A side character also suffers from trauma after a war. Also includes some minor mentions of drug use, alcohol consumption, the death of an animal, and a mention of a murder that happened years before the story begins. The story is on the whole happy and hopeful, albiet not appropriate for some.anxieteaandbiscuits12's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Outing
Minor: Animal death and Bullying
elizlizabeth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I feel like the author has some shit to unpack because afaik he 's part of both the communities portrayed in the book (mexican-american and gay), but the whole thing is plagued with cliches and stereotypes of what it means to be either and both. I don't usually get upset when I see my culture written slightly off because at least it might come from a place of either ignorant admiration, or outright malice. For this book though, I feel like Alire-Saenz is coming from a place that's trying to be admiring and respectful but because of whatever issues ends up projecting hatred and malice.
See, it's hard to tell if he's celebrating being of mexican descent because he's constantly using the "rapist, violent, gang-member, drug addict, macho" stereotype to both make a joke or advance the plot; most of those are completely unnecessary and (at least for me) not funny at all. And don't even get me started on the sexist jokes.
I also can't tell if the author's celebrating being gay and in love because bad things keep happening to people in the plot just because they're gay. Which is I understand, a reality for many of us, but the way it's handled here is clumsy if not malintentioned. Gayness it's used not as self-discovery but as a curse and a source of drama to keep the stakes high with no resolution. Not to mention that if I wanted to really rock the boat, I could make a case of how this whole book was queer-baiting and not LGBTQA+ rep because
Very dissapointed by the conclusion of the book too, as the premise was that Ari was searching for the "secret" that would reveal what's "wrong" with him, and somehow he finds out that what was wrong with him was that he was gay. Sure, that's a healthy message.
Even if I were to ignore all of the above, the writing is objectively bad, dwelling on platitudes to land some quotable moments. I honestly felt that the characters were cut short from being fully distinct and even contradict themselves because the author wanted to keep them a blank canvas to make the reader project onto them. Recommend it to your toxic gay friends to make them worse, y'all.
Graphic: Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Medical trauma, Lesbophobia, and Outing
One mexican-american character gets described as a "hungry coyote". Use of other negative stereotypes to mexicans are recurrent throughout (ie. they join gangs, they are obsessed with their cars, they know how to hotwire cars because they're mexican, etc)One of the characters gets outed while unconscious and without his knowledge. This is not discussed later, but it's implied that the outed character is not upset for it.
hellscape_princess's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Hate crime, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Transphobia and Murder
Minor: Pregnancy and Outing