Pub Day! Aristotle & Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World

Today is Pub Day for the sequel to Ari & Dante! My request for this book on NG was graciously approved by the publisher earlier this year and I feel enormously grateful to have been allowed to read it early. I want to shout from the rooftops about this book. It. is. a. stunning. sequel. It's so beautiful. It met and exceeded all my expectations. I give it ALL THE STARS. I urge everyone to read this book as well as the first volume, Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. You will not regret it.

➤ GR Review

Ari & Dante are as heart-meltingly wonderful as ever, and the writing is as elegant and profound and poignant as ever. Like the first book, there’s so much beauty here: in the characters, the experiences they go through, the things they learn. This book, again like the first, rather meanders through the story. Even so, I never felt bored or wanted to put it down. The pace isn’t hurried at all but the writing is still compelling. I think that’s one of the wonders of Benjamin Alire Saenz’s style.

Aristotle and Dante are beginning to explore their relationship and sexuality in new and deeper ways. They are stretching their legs as they are about to enter a new world on the cusp of adulthood. Saenz uses the idea of cartography to convey Ari & Dante’s discovery of not just themselves but of the world they’re about to step into as adults and how to find a place for themselves in it.

Saenz employs all kinds of literary techniques like extended metaphors, recurring motifs, foreshadowing, and a heavy use of nature imagery throughout the book but I really liked the simple dichotomies he came up with. Ari is the desert and Dante is the water. Ari is thoughts, Dante is feelings. Ari is a bicycle, Dante is a dictionary. I feel like them acknowledging these dichotomies symbolizes them learning to navigate their relationship as a couple at the same time they’re figuring out their own identities and how to develop as individuals.

Ari struggles with the internalized shame of being gay. I like how this book confronts prejudicial attitudes towards homosexuality and the real life impact that has on those on the receiving end of it. There’s no glossing over the constant threat of violence the LGBTQ community has always faced for merely existing.

This was the most exquisite story and I couldn’t have hoped for a better sequel to the first book I loved so much. Ari and Dante really are diving into the waters of the world for the first time here and it’s a beautiful thing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing the ARC.