I don't think I'll ever have enough words to describe how beautiful this book is, which is ironic, really.
I didn't think it could be possible to love this as much as I loved the original, but I'm so happy to have been proven wrong.
Aristotle and Dante is a sequel that feels so very much needed, and growing up with these characters, watching them go through their own journeys and discoveries feels completely intimate and personal, and I found myself laughing out loud, as well as crying alongside them.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s writing style is perfection. This book is living art, and the most beautiful thing I think I've ever read. Every line feels lifechanging, in the best possible way.

I urge everyone to read this book. It's a book about love, a book about hate, and a book about every feeling in between. And it's a book I don't think will ever stop living inside me.

(The biggest thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK Children's for providing me with this eARC, of such a completely gorgeous novel.)

This is the extremely highly anticipated sequel to "Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe", a popular YA book about two boys who discover their feelings for each other during the 1980s in America. It’s one of my all-time favourite queer books, so when I saw this one on Netgalley, I clicked “send request” faster than I have ever before. And wow, I was not disappointed.

It did take me a little while to get back into it - in fact, this book took me a whole week to read, which for me is essentially a year - but by the halfway point, I was much happier with the pacing, and loved getting to see Ari and Dante again. The narrative is very theatrical, and by that I mean it definitely isn’t realistic - people do not say the amount of deep, heartbreakingly profound things every four seconds that everyone in Ari’s life (including himself) does. But it’s what I know and love in this universe, and it certainly makes for some beautiful moments between all the characters. This book is different from the first, which is to be expected, but something about it just feels slightly inconsistent. Saying this, I still loved it, it just doesn't have quite the same feeling as the first.

It pulls together lots of the loose ends from the first book - expect answers surrounding Ari’s dad, his brother, and his personality/friends. His character progression is something I really loved. There’s some super important life messages in here and I can see how this will inspire a whole new generation of queer youngsters, just like the first book did for me.

Overall, this is a beautifully written queer novel about two boys discovering what it’s like to be gay in a world set against them. I really believe this series is for absolutely everyone!

'Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe' is one of my all time favourite books. I read it in 2018 and it became an instant favourite, and I have reread it every year since. When I found out there was going to be a sequel I was so excited but I knew that I couldn't have high expectations for 'Aristotle and Dante Dive Into The Waters Of The World' as I knew it wouldn't mean as much to me as the first book did. However, I did love this book, just in a different way to how I loved the first one.

This book is similar in terms of the short chapters and the writing style which reads as if you are stuck inside Ari's head and I loved everything about the way it was written. Because of the short chapters and the writing style I flew through this book so fast and didn't realise that it is almost 500 pages long until I looked it up online. I loved seeing Ari's changes throughout the book and him coming to terms with the changes in his life. I feel like Ari's character development was well done as you see him becoming more confident and growing as a person.

I loved seeing Ari and Dante as a couple rather than friends, but I feel like this book focused on every single other relationship apart from the one between Aristotle and Dante and there were barely any scenes where it was just the two of them and no one else.

I did really enjoy the exploration of Ari's other relationships, especially the ones in his family. In the first book, Ari is not close to his mother, father or sisters, but in this book you see him becoming closer to his family and seeing them have deep and meaningful conversations and being there for each other. As well as this, you also see Ari making more friends at school and becoming closer to these people and I thought it was wonderful to see Ari finally have this close group of friends that he didn't have in the first book.

I feel like 'Aristotle and Dante Dive Into The Waters of the World' is a good book but in a different way to the first book and I can't explain why. I did really love it but I don't think that it holds as special a place in my heart as the first book did, but I never expected it to do so. However, I think if you loved the first one and want more of Aristotle and Dante you should definitely check this one out.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Children's UK for providing me with an advance copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DIVE INTO THE WATERS OF THE WORLD is amazingly good! I forgot how much I love
Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s writing. The story is full of so much heart and emotion that it’s going to stay with me for a long time. The perfect sequel.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of The Universe has been one of my favourite books for years and is one I reread every year so from the moment that there were whispers about a sequel I’ve been anticipating it’s release and after what feels like years I can say the wait was 100% worth it. I’ve never clicked request a book so fast!
Ari and Dante has always been one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time and so being able to dive into this book with characters I love so much and experience a new story with them for the first time was amazing.

I don’t even know what to say about this book other that that I absolutely adored everything about it. It made me smile so much but it also broke my heart and made me cry but it was also, like with the first book, such a beautiful story. It covered many important topics such as love, friendship, dealing with loss and grief, racism, homophobia and the AIDS epidemic. This books followed on right from where the last left on and we follow Ari and Dante as they learn to navigate their way in the world and try to map out a space for themselves. It allowed us to see both Ari and Dante change, grow and become more comfortable with themselves and the people around them which was so lovely to see.

Ari and Dante will always be characters that have a special place in my heart and if you’ve read the first one I have no doubt in my mind you will also love this and if you haven’t read the first one please do.

I feel slightly bad that I've been able to read this book ahead of publication. There are countless people out there who have read the first book long before me and who have had to wait years. I only read the first book at the beginning of this month. I have no idea why I left it so long, I've owned a physical copy of it since near enough publication, but for some reason I put it off and put it off and just left it looking pretty on my bookshelves. But then with the sequel looming I thought it was a good time to read it, and so I did and my goodness I absolutely fell in love. So when I logged on earlier in the week and saw that this had been uploaded I just had to read it straight away and this has single handedly become one of my favourite books of all time.

It takes the first book and builds upon it in such a way that I was so in love with. Aristotle and Dante are growing as people and I loved every second of it. Their worlds are expanding, their views changing and I related to it all so, so much. I felt like Ari was meant to come into my life. I see so much of myself in him, or him in me. It's hard for him to show people how he feels about them. It's hard for him to even like himself, to let others like him or love him. This is something that resonated so deeply with me, struggling to do all the same things, that I felt seen and really saw myself from outside of my own head.

No spoilers either but there's an event that happens nearer towards the end of the book that is scarily close to something that happened in my own life about 5 years ago now and it made me sob. It just came from nowhere (much like it did in my own life) and so hearing how Ari dealt with it just made me love him even more.

I loved the acceptance of their parents as well. This is set at a time when it was even harder to be gay, or different, and the love that both Ari and Dante's parents have for them and one another is just so heartwarming.

I love these characters so much and am so invested in their lives that for me, 500 pages just wasn't enough. I could have happily read another 500 or more. I know Benjamin Alire Saenz said he never meant to write this book and that this is most likely it for our beloved duo, but my goodness I really hope that one day these wonderful characters get to walk back in to our lives because my life felt so much brighter with them. I know they are working on a film and I for one cannot wait to watch it one day! I actually reached out to Benjamin on twitter after reading it and just had to let him know how much his work has affected me. I cannot thank him enough for this stunning book!

5/5 stars.

I was provided with an eARC of this novel by Simon and Schuster (Children's) via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'll start by saying that, immediately after my first read, this book officially earned its place as one of my favorite novels of all time. I absolutely adored the writing, it was such an incredible and moving read, and one I know I will end up coming back to lots. I might even go so far to say that these five stars were the easiest five stars I have given all year so far, I would've given it six had that been possible.

Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World took everything I loved about Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and then did it better still, amplifying it and creating something absolutely astonishing. Not only did it live up to my expectations, it absolutely exceeded them. The book itself was absolutely packed with emotion and so, so much love, and believe me when I say I cried on multiple occasions – some tears of joy, some of sadness and heartbreak. There were so many important themes running through this novel, themes such as being queer and Mexican in America, the AIDS epidemic, friendship, love and grief. The characters of Aristotle and Dante were familiar, of course, but both developed and grew even further over the course of the novel and I really enjoyed getting to see them navigate their lives and relationship together.

Of course, when you think of Aristotle and Dante, one of the first things that comes to mind would probably be their relationship, their love story – one which is, without a doubt, incredible and a joy to read about. However, one thing I really liked about this book was that it didn't focus only on the love between the two of them, but also on the extraordinary amounts of love between Ari, Dante and their friends and families. There was an incredible sense of community present throughout the novel, and the I absolutely adored the portrayal of families, found or otherwise.

Overall, I feel that this book and the words within it have taken control of me entirely; I am sure that they will live within me for the rest of my life and doubtlessly within many others alongside me. This book was five years in the making, and you can tell that Benjamin Alire Sáenz truly put everything into it, resulting in an absolutely breathtaking, masterpiece of a novel. I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity to read this pre-publication, and I am so, so excited for it to be released to the world.

Content warnings: death from aids, death, death of a parent, alcohol consumption, racism, homophobia, mentions of past emotional and physical abuse from a parent, use of the f slur, mentions of the murder of a trans woman.

I don’t quite have the words to describe how incredible I found this book to be. This is going to seem very vague (and probably is a little overly-emotional seen as I just inhaled it all in one sitting) because I don’t want to spoil anything but as of right now, I think I may even have found it even more entirely beautiful that the first one. I loved that this book gives you the opportunity to see what comes after that “happily ever after” moment in a very realistic and human way, and dealt with all of those questions about how Ari and Dante would have handled being gay in the late 80s. This truly felt like a second act, it followed on perfectly with Ari’s narrative from the first book, and getting to see him grow more and more just made sense. The plot doesn’t even feel of paramount importance to talk about, because what really struck me what the raw emotion the writing style gives me. Most of the tears I cried were just at the fundamentally beautiful introspection going on, the one-line thoughts that just absolutely knocked you out. This book had a real sense of affirmation, and just that human life itself can be so beautiful, and there are going to be moments of love and joy and heartbreak but that’s what makes it worth it. You can tell that it was worked on for many, many years because it holds such a sense of wisdom in such a simple form, and that makes it worth all of that long wait. I think I’ll carry what this book and it’s predecessor has taught me for a long, long time because there is so much to be learnt from a tale of such humanity.

Thank you NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this book was amazing!! I binge read it in one sitting, such a quick and easy read and so highly anticipated for so many. This will be an instant best seller!

A gorgeous sequel about love in your late teens and discovering your identity.

This was a great book to follow the first. I love it’s realistic depiction of being in your late teen years. I loved the slice of life aspect. I enjoyed how it showed the ups and downs of first love.

A Hugee thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc!!!!

Such a highly anticipated sequel and it truly lived up to the hype! I’m so happy to be back with these characters <33