Benjamin Alire Sáenz

The highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an achingly romantic, tender tale sure to captivate fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H.K. Choi. In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, two boys in a border town fell in love. Now, they must discover what it means to stay in love and build a relationship in a world that seems to challenge their very existence. Ari has spent all of high school burying who he really is, staying silent and invisible. He expected his senior year to be the same. But something in him cracked open when he fell in love with Dante, and he can’t go back. Suddenly he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies of all kinds, and making his voice heard. And, always, there is Dante, dreamy, witty Dante, who can get on Ari’s nerves and fill him with desire all at once. The boys are determined to forge a path for themselves in a world that doesn’t understand them. But when Ari is faced with a shocking loss, he’ll have to fight like never before to create a life that is truthfully, joyfully his own.

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World

blue

Volgens de wetenschap zijn we allemaal energieën en zijn we allemaal verbonden met elkaar. En als er een energie in het universum is dan verdwijnt die niet zomaar. Die energie gaat van de ene levensvorm naar de andere. Je vader maakt nog deel uit van het universum. 

Het was niet makkelijk, maar veranderen was waarschijnlijk nooit makkelijk. En het werd me steeds duidelijker dat ik niet moest wachten tot er iets veranderde - ik moest zelf zorgen dat het gebeurde. 

Ieder mens lijkt op een land. Je kunt muren om je heen bouwen om jezelf te beschermen, maar muren kunnen ook leiden tot een eenzaam en verdrietig leven. We kunnen ook besluiten om mensen een visum te geven en ze binnen te laten.

Ja, door woorden kon je elkaar beter begrijpen, maar ze konden ook verkeerd opgevat worden. Woorden waren niet perfect.

Ik was alleen maar bezig geweest met mijn eigen gevoel en voor de rest had ik nergens bij stilgestaan. Godver, mijn wereld was heel klein geweest.

'Te veel nadenken bestaat niet. De wereld zou een stuk beter zijn als iedereen meer nadacht en minder zei. Er zou minder haat zijn.'

Misschien vind ik wel nooit een grote passie, zoals jij die hebt. Maar als ik oud ben wil ik mezelf niet afvragen of mijn leven de moeite waard is geweest. Want als ik gewoon een fatsoenlijke gast ben geweest, een goed mens, dan is mijn leven een goed leven geweest. 

Tijd bestond niet meer, en hoe de wereld ook over ons dacht, we leefden niet in de wereld van anderen.

Ik dacht altijd dat ik onzichtbaar voor hen was. Maar het was andersom. Zij waren degenen die onzichtbaar waren voor mij. 

Omdat ik niet in staat was om hen te zien.  

Mijn moeder had gezegd dat zij ook maar mensen waren, mijn vader en zij. En ze had gelijk. Misschien was dát een teken dat ik volwassen aan het worden was en dat ik begon te erkennen dat mijn ouders mensen waren en dat ze dezelfde dingen voelden die ik voelde, alleen voelden zij ze al veel langer dan ik en hadden ze geleerd hoe ze met die gevoelens om moesten gaan.

Hayleigh Vanderhoff

The world is not a safe place for us. There are cartographers who came and made a map of the world as they saw it. They did not leave a place for us to write our names on that map. But here we are, we're in it, this world that does not want us, a world that will never love us, a world that would choose to destroy us rather than make a space for us even though there is more than enough room. 

Gabi🌸🌷

There's no such a thing as thinking too much. The world would be a better place if everyone did more thinking and less talking. There might be a lot less hatred.

And what was it about human beings that wanted to measure love as if were something that could be measured?

He was the map of the world and everything that mattered

And you will know that you matter more to the universe than you will ever know

You taught me how to swim in stormy waters- 

hannah

"You know," I whispered, "I was going to ask you to marry me. But they won't let us do that. So I thought maybe it was best just to skip the wedding and get straight to the honeymoon."

"Yes," I said. "I thought I'd take you to Paris. We'll spend our time writing our names on the map of the city of love."

I walked Dante home in the cold. We took the backstreets and I held his hand and there was a silence between us that felt better than a conversation. I kissed him in front of his house, and he combed my hair with his fingers like my mother did. And that made me smile.

One day you're going to fill these pages with words that come from you. I have a feeling that you will have a long relationship with words. Who knows? They might even save you.

People say that love is like a kind of heaven. I was beginning to think that love is a kind of hell.

kristin :)

Don't ever let anybody tell you that war is something beautiful or heroic. When people say war is hell, war is hell. Cowards start wars, and the brave fight them.

not everyone you love is meant to stay in your life forever. i don't have any regrets.a lot of people live their lifes in their mistakes. i'm not one of those people.

selma

Everywhere there was love. And I wanted to reach out and grab it. 

Ik had hoge verwachtingen omdat ik het eerste deel tweemaal had gelezen en het boek de tweede keer even leuk vond als de eerste keer, ik had die zelfs de tweede keer in +- 3 dagen uitgelezen. Dit is niet om te zeggen dat ik het tweede deel niet interessant vond, het is wel zo dat ik minder vaak de neiging had het boek weer open te slaan. Hoewel ik de sentiment van dit boek apprecieer, miste ik iets. Na 25% te hebben gelezen realiseerde ik me wat ontbrak, ik miste iets waar ik naar uit moest kijken. In het eerste boek was ik nieuwsgierig naar hun relatie, ik wist niet of ze vrienden of vriendjes zouden worden en ik was geïnteresseerd in de groei van hun relatie, ongeacht of het een vriendschap of de liefde wordt. In het tweede deel miste ik dus een soort bestemming waar we naar toe werkten.  Waarschijnlijk was het daarom dat ik me minder gemotiveerd voelde om verder te lezen. Nu dat ik dat uit de weg heb, laat ik me focussen op wat ik wel leuk vond. Ik vond het leuk om samen met Ari & Dante te leren wat het echt betekent om iemand lief te hebben. Van iemand houden is makkelijk, maar wat houdt de liefde juist in? Ik vond het ook leuk om samen met hen de pad naar volwassenheid te betreden en al de uitdagingen die daarbij horen te confronteren. Ik apprecieer het commentaar in dit boek; de auteur besprak (beknopt) racisme, homofobie, vrouwenhaat, rouw, AIDS, volwassen zijn, mannelijkheid, vrijheid, veteranen, politiek en nog meer. Ik vond de dynamics tussen de ouders en de ouder-zoonrealtie echt interessant om te lezen, ik kreeg inzicht in het ouderschap. De momenten waar beide families samenkomen waren dan ook mijn favoriete scènes. Om dan terug te komen op het negatievere, ik vond de editting niet goed; er stonden veel te veel foutjes in dit boek. En hoofdstuk 19 vond ik weer verwarrend; hoezo was rico opeens dood? Dat kwam zo uit het niets, ik weet nog altijd niet hoe hij gestorven is. Maar all in all, het was een goed boek!

beautiful. the writing the story the message, everything about this book is so beautiful

ang 

this is not just a queer romance book, this is a whole trip inside someone's mind, and this someone is a queer teenager that is becoming a man. 

this book is about the issues that a lot of gay people have during their life, mostly during their adolescence and when they find out their sexuality 

this book is about all the issues of '80 society but mostly about the issues of OUR CURRENT society

 I still like the first book more. There are many lessons one can learn from this book but I agree with other reviews where some metaphors and dialogue feels so forced. 

yousr abu sboulah

BENJAMIN ALIRE SÁENZ I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THE LAST 40% OF THIS BOOK. YOU WILL NOT BE SEEING HEAVEN FOR YOUR CRIMES.

“Between the living and the dying is the loving.”

There’s so much more in this book than there was in the first one. I didn’t know why I stopped reading this when I was so close to the end, but reading it from the beginning again was definitely the best thing I could have done.

I think I stopped reading because I didn’t want it to end. 🥹

This book deals with so much, and the message is so powerful. There’s so much hate in this world, and this story serves as a powerful reminder that we are all human—and if we just loved each other a little more, this world would be a much kinder, better place. ❤️

“No one asks to be born. And no one wants to die. We don't bring ourselves into the world, and when it's time for us to leave, the decision will not be ours to make. But what we do with the time in between the day we are born and the day we die, that is what constitutes a human life. You will have to make choices—and those choices will map out the shape and course of your life. We are all cartographers—all of us. We all want to write our names on the map of the world.”

Jacob Edmonds

“Between the living and the dying is the loving.”

Wow. This book. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

There’s so much more in this book than there was in the first one. I didn’t know why I stopped reading this when I was so close to the end, but reading it from the beginning again was definitely the best thing I could have done.

I think I stopped reading because I didn’t want it to end. 🥹

This book deals with so much, and the message is so powerful. There’s so much hate in this world, and this story serves as a powerful reminder that we are all human—and if we just loved each other a little more, this world would be a much kinder, better place. ❤️

“No one asks to be born. And no one wants to die. We don't bring ourselves into the world, and when it's time for us to leave, the decision will not be ours to make. But what we do with the time in between the day we are born and the day we die, that is what constitutes a human life. You will have to make choices—and those choices will map out the shape and course of your life. We are all cartographers—all of us. We all want to write our names on the map of the world.”

Shivam

0-1

I realize that writing a book or creating art in any form must take a lot, which is what makes me rarely hate a book as intensely I did this one. Finishing this one has put my enjoyment of the first book in serious doubt.

It's good for books to let loose and not have a tight narrative and, in fact, I actively seek ones written in that manner. This one however, is not only way too long, it has almost no sense of time or order. It introduces new plotlines in an insanely cheap manner. Things seem to happen just because the author wants one of the characters to let loose a corny 2 page long monologue on some important social issue that they seem to be going through on a list. Nothing will be left out but nothing important will be said either. None of it has any bearing on the story. Our main character would ponder over the idea for a page or two, throw it away to pursue another one before returning to it again, all of it done in the service of delivering good dialogues on a social issue with no other affect whatsoever.

I wouldn't say there isn't good writing here. There's actually a lot. What's wrong is it's delivered solely for the purpose of being printed inside the book and the characters and events have to adjust to make way for that beautiful quote alone. The characters who actually speak them have personalities as developed as that of a stick figure. The effect? I cannot seem to care about any of these pretty passages. You will be force-fed the metaphor of "diving into the waters of the world" and "mapping out your own world" so many times that at some point even rolling your eyes would feel redundant.

I expect some saccharine, unrealistic dialogue. I'd rather read a book or watch a movie that doesn't have any, but I still expect to find some before going in a book. The dialogues here though, look like they're written by someone who has watched nothing but soap operas and television commercials. 

All of the side characters speak the full name of the protagonist in a cloying manner at some point to gush over how quirky and different he is acting. The love interest's family starts performing as if they are in a play as soon as he steps into their house. The side characters who did not exist until then magically appear to drive the point home that the protagonist used to be such a loner and that he has changed so much. Everywhere this guy goes, he seems to meet another gay person (or someone who knows a gay person), which again allows the writer to switch off everything else and launch an elaborately written passage about the issue. I could not care less.

Shaq H

Daphne

Anjorin Molayo 

I feel like a part of me is missing now that i finished this book. 

this book is sad, not as sad as the first book, but it’s still very sad. the way Ari couldn’t be out and proud about being gay. the homophobic comments made by his classmates and his own brother, and what it did to him and Dante just starting their adult lives. 

I still prefer the first book than this. If you loved the first book, you should definitely read this, as it explores heavier topics.

Yochanan Vered 

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe did not need a sequel, but somehow this was the perfect follow up. Sáenz has a way of writing that feels incredibly real. Reading this felt like simply watching a boy’s life play out, rather than following a strict plot, and that sounds like it shouldn’t be a good thing, but it was oddly beautiful. 

The ending was pretty cheesy in my opinion, but it didn’t ruin the rest of the book for me. It was great seeing Ari’s evolution and him forming stronger connections to his parents and friends. This book gave closure for a lot of unanswered questions from the first book. Like I said, it didn’t need a sequel, and those questions didn’t necessarily need answers, but if was still great to have them. Reading this really felt like the story had already finished and now I was just seeing the aftermath. 

Despite having both their names in the title, this book is about Ari. Dante was really the worst part to me. This book was about Ari using the lessons he learned in the first book to live his life in a brighter way. This was a book where the morals have already been told, and it’s just a matter of the character implementing them now. There’s something comforting about seeing a character continue learning and growing after the initial plot has already come to a close. Like I said before, this felt less like reading a book and more like getting a glance into a person’s life. Not every book can accomplish making a reader feel that way.

ingrid 

kayla 

Julie Rubens

It was a good book! I didn’t like it as much as I liked the first book but it was definitely good and it had some great life lessons!

Saffy

i think i had too much expectation for this book, and i think it actually exceeded it but at the same time… it doesn’t? i like it. the younng love remains fresh, and more relatable than ever. i also noticed how they tackled a lot of serious issues tooooo which i understand why they do that but i don’t see myself intrigued with that /that/ much. i guess it kinda irks me. but overall, my aridante remains the same.. the kind.. loving.. youthful.. and tender aridante. i love it i love it i love it. i cried at the end because their love, their journey, is indeed worth fighting for. and i am glad they get to map the city of love, with their love.

Julia Moran 

I feel that the first book was perfect and didn't need a sequel but I enjoyed reading this very much, I'm thankful that I was able to get to know better these characters I love. This book made me feel a lot of emotions, Thank you Benjamín for these beautiful words that now live in my heart.

No words. Just going to sit with this feeling and carry Ari and Dante in my heart forever.

Ari has spent all of high school hiding who he really is, staying silent and invisible. He expected his senior year to be the same. But something in him cracked open when he fell in love with Dante, and he can't go back. Suddenly he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies and making his voice heard. And, always, there is Dante - dreamy, witty Dante - who can get on Ari's nerves and fill him with desire all at once. 

The boys are determined to forge a path for themselves in a world that doesn't understand them. But when Ari is faced with a shocking loss, he'll have to fight like never before to create a life that is truthfully, joyfully his own.

Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World

Wawa

i don't know what happened. i couldn't believe it ended that way. i hate to admit this but i really feel disenchanted with saenz's writing and the sequel altogether. i was at first enthused about ari and dante, but now, finishing the story—i don't know what to make of it. i had a number of things to disagree upon, one of which was saenz writing bernardo as a lost cause. i honestly didn't know what this achieved, it looked really bad for me—it kind of delivers the idea that people are incorrigible, one-dimensional, as if someone's transgressions define who they are. ari's parents inventing this concept about bernardo is personally disappointing and so wrong. i didn't really like how saenz made him look. i also wished the aids thing were more subtly told because the book frankly seemed like an AIDS campaign, i love this for the gays but book-wise, i wish it could've been written more creatively. i don't know if i read this at a bad time in my life, but it just didn't slay. i do not like this review but it is what it is.

(i still like ari and dante though, and some parts of the sequel, but largely i didn't like the story as much as i wanted to)

shaymaa

It is immensely captivating. Benjamin Alire Sáenz has created one of the most beautifully written characters ever. Some parts of this book were a little slow for me, but I still adored it. I loved how we got to see these characters evolve and find themselves. We got to see other sides of them; creative sides, maybe even more mature sides. We explored their pain, love, yearning and growth.

Daymaris Arca

OKAY! So here’s the thing. I love Ari and Dante but was this book necessary? No. It ruined my perfect satisfied feelings of Ari and Dante’s relationship and just left me with bad feelings overall. The plot was boring. I had the hardest time finishing this book. If it wasn’t for my book date with ARLINE I wouldn’t have finished it at all. Maybe is it because I read it during my finals and directed all my bad energy towards it? Maybe? But maybe it just made my bad energy WORSE. Either way going to forget this book existed and focus on the first one. The only reason it has two stars is because of my love for Ari and Dante.

this book truly surprised me with how much more it had to offer than i ever thought it would have. it truly taught me about love, friendship and loss. the most important thing i took from it is that it's okay to be afraid, even you love someone. 

truly a masterpiece and an incredibly sequel to the first book. the characters hurt, love, learn and grow so much. such a real and deep piece of literature, books like this are unfortunately very rare.. 

jael 

this book truly surprised me with how much more it had to offer than i ever thought it would have. it truly taught me about love, friendship and loss. the most important thing i took from it is that it's okay to be afraid, even you love someone. 

truly a masterpiece and an incredibly sequel to the first book. the characters hurt, love, learn and grow so much. such a real and deep piece of literature, books like this are unfortunately very rare.. 

I liked this one but I think it could stand to be a little shorter, the first probably third and the last couple chapters were my faves, very sweet, but the middle dragged a bit for me and I was thrown off by some of the writing. I also wonder if there will at some point be a third installment w the way he left the ending. much 2 think…

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World

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