*ATTENTION. This book review will contain some minor and major spoilers from "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe", if you are not okay with this you can go now, and read other reviews, watch funny cat videos on YouTube, or do something actually useful with your precious and limited time you've got of life instead of wasting it on the Internet doing absolutely nothing, if you're okay with this review containing some spoilers you are now allowed to proceed with whatever level of caution you estimate appropriate*
Hello boys and girls, here’s your friend Sebas wishing you’re having a lovely day.
This day and for this special entry I want to talk about a little bit more romantic inclined kind of book, that’s right, we’re taking a break from fantasy, sadomasochism, horror, and entering into the depths of love. Besides, it’s a luck that we’re in the “Back to School” season because this book has that exact transition in it, the change a 15-year-old teenager goes from vacation-life to school-life, yeah, that horrible part of life we call "The end of Summer Vacations". Here I'm talking about "Aristotle and Dante discover the Secrets of the Universe" (Wow! That's a long name for a book.). Actually, I'm currently re-reading this book, and that's something, since I'm not used to re-read anything, at all, usually when I'm done with something, I'm DONE with something, but not with our sweet "Ari and Dante" (that's how I'm calling the book from now on since I don't want to write that name ever again), no, not with them. Now I 'm sure whoever hasn't read the book but is here right now is getting a little confused, so let me throw some enlightenment into your ignorant hearts by leaving somewhere here, as always, the synopsis:
Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.
And that was the synopsis, but as always the official synopsis just won't do it, I have to add something myself *sigh*, so now I'm facing the obligation of doing some plot-writing myself just for you, my sweet readers, a part of this review I'll be dropping somewhere here:
The year is 1987, It's summer in El Paso, we're presented to Mexican-American, 15-year-old, Aristotle Mendoza, a non-talkative, almost friendless, socially lost, bitter as f*ck teenager whose only goal in life is to survive, that until he meets Mexican-American, 15-year-old, talkative as it gets, super friendly, social chameleon Dante Quintana, an artist, a walking dictionary, the strangest teen to ever exist, the complete opposite of Aristotle. But of course being complete opposites won't stop this two boys from creating one of the awesomest friendships I've ever read, and that's because they do have something in common, on their own, they're two teens trying to find out who they are and what they want, but together, they can find the answer for any mystery, they can move forward any obstacle, they can discover the secrets of the universe.
And that was the synopsis, my synopsis, not the official one, and I do know it's a little bit too small, but "Ari and Dante" is a very simple story..., okay maybe not so simple, but most part of the story is placed in Aristotle's head, just him and his thoughts, like the introvert he is, and I really don't know how to put that into a synopsis so I'm telling you that here, in the "Post-Synopsis" part of the review. Now that we are finished with the synopsises I'm going to proceed with my thoughts on the book:
°First of all, I'm going to talk about what I liked about the book. One of the aspects I liked about it is the micro-chapters it has, not all of them, but the writer didn't hesitate on leaving just a half page as a complete chapter, I'm not saying it's exactly a good thing but since I finished them so quickly I didn't get tired and couldn't wait to begin the next one. Another thing I liked is how the writer worked the characters, they're not perfect, they're actually really flawed and you can see that, you can see the changes of mood when certain situations come to place, like a friend moving out, getting rolled over by a car, or falling in love with your best friend (I told before there were going to be some spoilers here, you can't get mad at me), and you can see how all the characters have believable feelings about the situations depending on how it affected them, it helps at the moment of picturing the book in your head, it makes it feel more real.
°Now for what I didn't like. ...There's actually nothing in here, I loved the book, if there's something I can complain about is that I felt I finished the book too quickly but that could be because I just finished "Game of Thrones", you know what reading a 50 thousand pages bible about dragons and kingdoms can do to a man.
Finally, as a little side-note, I feel I need to adress this thing right here, you remember my last review, the one I made of Asylum, you remember how I praised the writer for how she managed her introvert character, well that's sh*t compared to this, Benjamin here didn't just got it right, he nailed it, The way he described Aristotle's thoughts, his changes of mood, the way he felt about different stuff, I can tell he got it right, because it felt like if he was literally writing about me, I felt so related to the character, like a literary version of me, wich, as the big egocentric narcisist I am, I loved.
Rating: 5/5
*A really great book I recommend you all to read.