Read between 28th June 2016 and 8th August 2016.
I started listening to this audio book purely because Lin-Manuel Miranda narrated it. He was an amazing narrator, able to use inflection so that each character sounds different and authentic. Through him, the characters feel real, like I'm sat watching them in the room or truck with them, a silent observer.
The story revolves around two teenaged Mexican-American boys, Aristotle (or Ari) and Dante. It's told from Ari's point of view, and as such you're treated to a more pessimistic point of view. I feel like this made the books somewhat more relate-able, rather than an alternating point of view between the two boys. I also feel like this book revolves more around the fact that Ari is scared of loving Dante while Dante is completely unafraid, except to tell his parents that he loves another boy. Their mutual friendship and their love is felt throughout the novel, with Ari protecting Dante from a car crash and Dante giving Ari his art book, something that he hadn't shown to anybody before.
Ari is a loner, who meets Dante, who sees the world completely differently to Ari, at the swimming pool. Ari is described as a loner, with an imprisoned brother, while Dante is described as a know it all who detests shoes. They begin a friendship because Dante teaches Ari how to swim, as Ari attended the pool everyday to avoid the silence of his parents. They quickly develop a close friendship, with Dante teaching Ari about birds and poetry and Ari struggling with the affection offered by Dante and his family. Ari later falls ill and his parents nurse him back to health while Ari suffers from intense bad dreams about losing Dante and trying to find both his father and his brother. Sáenz portrays this feeling very well through a dream rather than in conversation as Ari is characterized as a quite person, noted by many characters throughout the novel, and it feels like an epiphany that should come through a dream.
Dante moves to Chicago with his parents for an academic year, and through his letters to Ari, we learn of his continuing story line - he attends parties, tries marijuana, drinks alcohol and kisses girls. I feel like this is Dante trying to hide from himself in some regard as he is fearful of wanting to kiss boys rather than girls and he is trying to distance himself from the truth, before finally admitting it to himself in the next letter to Ari, where he accepts and tells Ari. In contrast, Ari struggles with his growing feelings for Dante, refusing to accept them until the end of the novel until his parents force him to accept it and he wonders why he was so ashamed to admit to himself that he loves Dante. I think this part of the novel was probably my favourite, as Ari finally feels free. Throughout the novel, he has felt hurt and miserable and unable to fully connect with those around him and this chapter gives him an enlightening epiphany which completely transforms his character.
The contrasting family connections also serve to show the differences between the two boys - Dante's family tell each other everything while Ari struggles to talk to either of his parents and vice versa. Ari's father, an ex-soldier from Vietnam struggles with the memories of the war and stays mostly silent. Ari struggles to connect to his father throughout the novel as a result of his PTSD and silence, but over the course of the novel they slowly grow into a relationship again, with his father acting as his father once again and the familial connection restored, but still different. On the other hand, Ari's mother struggles with the reminder of Ari's older, and only, brother who is in prison. This is a point of contention between Ari and his parents throughout the novel as Ari wishes to learn about Bernardo, while everybody refuses to talk about him, contributing to his confusion and his anger.
Dante's father is friends with everyone and struggles when harm comes to either Dante or his wife, and slowly brings Ari around to the idea that he loves Dante. Dante's mother is described as omniscient, and in the novel, she might as well be. You can feel throughout that they truly care for their son, despite Dante's worries that they might disapprove of him over his homosexuality.
One aspect of this novel that I particularly liked was that the parents are portrayed accurately; most YA novels swing from one spectrum to the other in regards to the parental figures but Sáenz managed to portray them as real parents - sometimes they make mistakes and they aren't perfect, but they tried to help their sons, and I feel like that is important.
The two major themes of the book are the boy's struggle with coming to terms with their homosexuality, made more complicated for Ari as his extended family had severed all connections with his favourite aunt (Ophelia, which happens to be the name of one of my favourite characters in Fire Emblem Fates) as a result of her own sexual orientation, as she lives with another woman for many years, and the struggle of cultural heritage, especially the Mexican-American heritage as the two boys feel that neither of them are truly Mexican nor truly American. This is a central theme that runs through the book but remains in the background as a support for other plot-lines, such as hate crime, gender and sexuality, male gender roles and societal expectations that the boys struggle through.
Overall, this was a very good coming of age novel and narrated brilliantly. At the beginning, I didn't think that there was much plot, and the novel itself didn't seem to be moving anywhere, but some wise advise had me reading between the lines and learning so much more about this novel. Sáenz is truly a wonderful author, and hopefully there is a sequel that I can listen to.
Rating = 4 / 5 stars.
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