Review of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

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

★★★★★

Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, LGBT, Coming of Age, Contemporary, Romance

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.

Review: 

I borrowed this lovely piece of literature from my girlfriend Samantha. I have heard nothing but great reviews for this book and to be honest, I was skeptical. If you make your way around Goodreads, you know there aren't many books above a 4.00 average rating. Well this is one of them. Surely it is too good to be true, right? Quite the opposite. It lives up to all the good reviews and beyond that. I can understand why some would be hesitant or even opposed to the idea that this novel has no plot.

The important thing to keep in mind is that life, especially when a teenager, has no plot. There is no climb to a climax, and no resolution afterwards. Life is ups and downs and small events and big events and things that don't make sense. This story, the story of Aristotle finding his way to himself as a young man captures that perfectly. And in a way, in a subtle way that you don't even realize is happening, it isn't just Aristotle's journey of growth into a better person. Through Ari's point of view, we watch Ari's dad and mom and Dante and Dante's parents grow as people as well. 

If you don't like a lot of narrative, then maybe this isn't the book for you. Because there is a lot of it, even whole chapters of it. But I would encourage you to give it a try. I don't like large amounts of narrative, but this worked for me. Also the chapters vary in length. Some are a page, others are several pages long. If that is a thing that bothers you, beware. 

There were a couple moments towards the middle where it lags, namely during the part where Dante lives in Chicago. I happened to know what the ending was going so I kept reading. Some people may find it too dull. (Though I encourage you if you feel like stopping, keep going because it is so worth it in the end.)

On a side note, I adore the font that the sections and chapters are headed in. It is the little details like that that make me fall in love with a book in terms of aesthetics. 

As a wrap up, I believe this is the kind of book they should be teaching in schools. This is a book I want to have on my bookshelf forever. This is a book I will think about often. 

“Senior year. And then life. Maybe that's the way it worked. High school was just a prologue to the real novel. Everybody got to write you -- but when you graduated, you got to write yourself. At graduation you got to collect your teacher's pens and your parents' pens and you got your own pen. And you could do all the writing. Yeah. Wouldn't that be sweet?” - Aristotle Mendoza, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

I think everyone should read this book. E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E.

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Other Books By This Author:  Benjamin Alire Saenz has written a number of novels, including In Perfect Light and Last Night I Sang to the Monster. 

Review of Color of Home by Rich Marcello

The Color of Home by Rich Marcello

★★★½

Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance

Synopsis: 

Can two people stay connected for a lifetime and each know the complete truth about the other? When New Yorker Nick Satterborn falls in love with Sassa Vikander, he's convinced the answer is yes. Nick Satterborn. Songwriter. Dabbler on the spiritual path. Survivor.

Sassa Vikander. Stunning chef. Seeker on the path of most resistance. Survivor.

Contentment percolates for a time, until the two are hurtled into a life of uncertainty, self-evaluation, and growth. Each dreams heroic dreams of overcoming his/her past, rising out of sadness, rediscovering home, finding peace. Their worlds dissolve and reform. People and events threaten to tear them apart.

The Color of Home is a story of love, of loss, of digging deep down to the bottom of things until maybe, just maybe, Nick and Sassa find the strength to become whole. Their journey offers a unique, honest glimpse into the life and love of a palpably rare relationship of our time.

Review: 

Aha! I've finally finished it! God, I know I'm awful. I meant to post this review when the book actually came out on December 3rd. But unfortunately due to exams and impending high school graduation, I had to put it aside. I think that speaks for the novel. It was interesting, as in I picked up and read it after exams and such, but it wasn't so interesting that I couldn't put it down in the first place. (You know that feeling--when a book is so good that you spend every free moment reading, and even put off other things such as school work and feeding your pets to keep reading it.) 

So yes, I did enjoy this novel. It was realistic adult fiction, which was a change for me. I took great interest in the setting, which was New York City, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine. Also, the descriptions of food (Sassa is a chef) are absolutely mouth watering. I've never been craving a vegeterian dish before, but this book changed that...multiple times.

A little bit of a pet peeve are the names of characters in this book. There are a fair share of normal names, such as Debbie and Jessie and Rachel, but there are also a lot (too many) of freaking bizarre names. Some examples are Ashoka, Adira, Niveille, Myrina, and Halfa. Like come on. I dunno, it is just sort of a pet peeve of mine. 

The people in this novel were real, with flaws and mistakes and imperfections and it was glorious. However I have a problem with the dialogue. We are only witness to the dialogue that is extremely deep and existential. There is no way that the only conversation that these characters can have with each other is always so deep and important and life-revealing. It isn't real. Sometimes people stumble in what they are saying, sometimes they don't quite get the words out right. Sometimes they just have meaningless conversations that aren't always about such heavy topics. That is what makes them real.

This book's plot was so incredibly original for the most part, that I really liked it because it didn't give any indications of having any of the cliches when it comes to "will they, won't they get back together" (in the cliches, they always do end up together.) Instead, this story kept me guessing and I loved that. There was a real possibility that this novel would end in a way I didn't expect. Then the Conan O'Brien incident happened. And it was all predicable from there on out. 

This novel was a good novel, don't get me wrong. But I don't think it was perfect, which appears to be an unpopular opinion. I do very much love the very last line of the book, though. It was wonderful.

I would recommend this book.

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Other Books By This Author: This is Rich Marcello's first novel.

Review of Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield

★★★

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance

Synopsis: 

Becca has always longed to break free from her small, backwater hometown. But the discovery of an unidentified dead girl on the side of a dirt road sends the town--and Becca--into a tailspin. Unable to make sense of the violence of the outside world creeping into her backyard, Becca finds herself retreating inward, paralyzed from moving forward for the first time in her life.

Short chapters detailing the last days of Amelia Anne Richardson's life are intercut with Becca's own summer as the parallel stories of two young women struggling with self-identity and relationships on the edge twist the reader closer and closer to the truth about Amelia's death.

Review: 

I bought this book second hand from our local used bookstore. The cover and title hooked me in, and so I decided to take a chance on it. Unfortunately, I believe that three stars is still a pretty generous rating. There were some really fantastic parts, and then the rest was..mediocre, if not just plain bad. I really hate giving bad reviews because I know a lot of work and heart goes into the story, even if it is badly written. So first, I'll tell you about the good about each point, and then the bad. 

When there were good parts in this novel, they were really good. The opening line, "The night before Amelia Anne Richardson bled her life away on a parched dirt road outside of town, I bled out my dignity in the back of a pickup truck under a star-pricked sky.", was beautiful and I was hooked. The author had intense, poetic description and imagery and at first, it was enchanting. I loved it. But it never really stopped. Everything was described in metaphorical, overly lavish language and by the fourth or fifth chapter, my patience was wearing thin. With a lot of imagery and description came a lot of repetition.

Becca can't wait to escape the small town- Bridgeton- where she lives. She finds the town too small, suffocating....and we are reminded of this in nearly every chapter. The way the town gossips after the murder is mentioned at least 3 separate times, each time taking nearly a page, or more. We get it. Your small town life sucks. And yes, we get it. The girl was dead on the side of the road. It got to the point that in the last couple chapters, when I realized she was going to bring up either of the above points again, I skipped to the next page.

Ooooh so plot. Plot plot plot. This story, as you may be able to tell from the synopsis, had amazing potential. I mean, come on. The parallels that could be made (and some the author did make) and the suspense of finding out the murderer and all that...woah it could have been so cool!....could have been.... Let me explain. The beginning of AAISAG (Amelia Anne Is Dead And Gone) was fantastic. Bam, we are right in the middle of the action. "Dead girl, break up, what the hell is happening every thing is terrible oh no!" It was a great opening! Then, in the middle, the author became lost. There was no plot, just recalling past events in the town and how James (boyfriend? ex-boyfriend?) is gone. And how her parents's marriage is falling apart. And not relevant to the plot at all. Also, the author drops only a couple major hints, and they are not subtle at all, and takes the mystery out of it. However, it does leave you with the question of  "Why?" and "When?" It is enough suspense to hold the reader's interest throughout the drab in the middle. And then, in the chapters leading up to Amelia's death are riveting, suspenseful, and awesome. But then the ending is just....a let down. It had the POTENTIAL to be amazing, but sadly it wasn't. I cared enough about the story to be awfully frustrated with how it ended, especially for James.

Which leads me to James. When the other characters, especially Becca, seemed bland and weakly developed, James was the saving grace. He also happened to be the plot twist of sorts...but wasn't in the novel for most of it. Maybe it is just me, but when one of your main characters is the major plot twist, YOU USUALLY HAVE HIM AROUND IN MORE THAN JUST A FEW DOZEN PAGES. *heavy breathing* Okay, so I got that out of my system. But seriously, if you want to read an amazing character that is multi-faceted and complex and beautifully written. I cared about him, and I was beyond angry at how the story ended for him. It wasn't fair.

Overall, I realize that the novel was kind of sucky. However the good bits (amazing opening, fantastic character, and such) was enough to overshadow some of the bad parts. I am just very sad at the amount of wasted potential and what could have been.

“I have learned that knowing where you're going means remembering where you've been. I'm not afraid of what lurks behind me, or ahead.” 

- Becca Williams, Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone

Maybe I would recommend this...maybe

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Other Books By This Author: Amelia Anne is Kat Rosenfield's first novel. However she has a second one coming out, called Inland, in spring/summer 2014.