Aristotle is a fascinating character. He's also incredibly easy to relate to. I remember being fifteen or sixteen and trying to figure out the universe, my parents, the secrets in my family's lives. I remember wanting to know everything but, at the same time, being afraid of what I would be told. Aristotle's struggle with the secrets of the universe felt real because I had been there. I think most of us have.
I totally see how this book got all those awards.
We were supposed to read the first half of the book, but I ended up reading the whole thing. Admittedly, part of it was that I wanted to get it over with so I could work on other homework this next week, but a large part of it was because I wanted to keep reading. The growth throughout the story was believable, which I think can be pretty hard to do. I wanted to see what would happen next to force Aristotle to face his fears or confusion or anger and how he would deal with it, and then how it affected and him and the people he cares about.
I really liked the family moments in this book, and not just with his parents. There was the moments with Dante's parents, the moments when he thought about his brother, the revelation of Aunt Ophelia (I would have liked more on her). They were emotionally complex, not full of angst like A LOT of young adult novels these days. I appreciate that and applaud Mr. Saenz.
So, that's that.
Happy Saturday!
I completely agree with you on all of that. It was very relatable and the parts which stood out to me and spoke to me most were the parts which dealt with family. As an LGBT book I probably will forget about it, but as a coming of age story, it's very inspiring and a great read. I took an LGBT lit class and read quite a bit of LGBT lit and so I think this really is just a book about a boy and not a book about issues relating to the LGBT community. There's a little in there, like the stuff with his aunt and Dante getting beat up for kissing a guy and their parent's acceptance of them, but that wasn't until the very end of the book.
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DeleteI was surprised as well at the complexity Saenz spun into his characters. Each of them offered deep and three-dimensional views of what real people struggling with real problems could be going through. And just the right amount of teen-angst to keep that YA audience trucking through. I mean, the audience has to empathize a little, right?
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