Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) This Printz Honor Book is a “tender, honest exploration of identity” (Publishers Weekly) that distills lyrical truths about family and friendship. 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.

I can't believe I've waited so long to read this. I adore these characters. All of them.

Deux adolescents qui n'ont pas grand chose en commun se lient d'amitié, ça commence de façon très classique, mais les personnages sont attachants et le récit est plaisant. C'est mignon !

Parts of this I really liked. The family dynamics were great. Lots of quippy dialog and great writing. Dante and Aristotle are incredibly likable.

There is a lot of teenage angst along the lines of “No one understands me. I don't understand anyone. My parents are weird,” that the protagonists thankfully grows past. They go through a phase of reading intense manly literature (Heart of Darkness, War and Peace, etc.) I feel like it needed either a longer ending, or an epilogue. There is a long lead up to Aristotle and Dante becoming a couple, but then they kiss, and the story ends rapidly. There's also a pretty strong characterization of Aristotle being asexual - the way he hesitates to describe his feelings toward Dante as romantic, the way he talks about kissing and masturabtion, how he feels alienated from other boys who have seemingly bizarre feelings towards girls and sex. It would have made a great addition to further explore that and how it would affect their relationship, but instead Ari's parents literally tell him that he is in love with Dante, and then there is a tidy kiss scene that closes the book. Feels like a missed opportunity.

Over all I enjoyed it, it is also an excellent audio book narration.

All these amazing - amazing books that I've been reading lately. It's hard to deal with the love.
This book was wonderful. Just so wonderful. I couldn't help but just relate SO MUCH to the main character, his line of thought, his personality, his way of dealing with things and not doing things even when he wanted to because he thought it'd be better to not do it, basically his whole being.
I absolutely adored the family aspect. These parents are just amazing people and they make mistakes and don't always act like “adults”, and all of the characters are basically just so real and wow wow wow wow I really just loved every single thing about this book.