I am interested in this book because it takes two people who thought they had very little in common and were strangers and turns them into life-long friends and lovers. I want to explore how life-long unexpected connections are formed in the most unexpected and unassuming ways. Also the names of the characters themselves being names after poets and philosophers peaked my interest immediately knowing the author had to pick these names with intention and meaning. These are the layers I love to dissect the most when it comes to books and storytelling because, I too think about these meanings when selecting names of characters and places when writing a story. It’s the smaller things that can be as easily randomized as thought deep into. This book would be just a starting place too with brainstorming more ideas and themes that I want to discuss in my own creative story and feels like a good place for me to dip my toes into.This book can help me brainstorm and prepare for my own creative writing piece because they already have some themes. I too, I'm interested in exploring further in my piece. Such as friendship, secrets, sexuality, and family dynamics. I maybe won’t touch on all of them but these are the main ones I want to at least try to tackle. I really want to write a coming of age, angsty, but light hearted contemporary story that is fast paced and relatable to a ton of teens. I don’t want it to be overdramatic or too unrealistic. I want to have a meaning, lesson, or big take away from it that I still am trying to learn. My goal is to learn not only the meaning the author wants everyone to learn but the techniques he too used to write such a successful novel. 

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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe takes place in 1987 El Paso, Texas in a normal coming of age setting. The story begins with the daily routine of our protagonist Ari (Aristotle) the day he meets Dante. We get insight into Ari's family dynamic, emotionally distant veteran father, talkative catholic mother, and a brother we are not supposed to talk about. We learn his father wasn't always emotionally far but it was the war that changed him. We then fast forward to Ari meeting Dante at the community pool he goes to, not to swim but float. He becomes fast friends with Dante after he offers to teach Ari how to swim. Days they spent at the pool became hanging  out at Dante's house. We get introduced to Dante's parents Sam and Mrs. Quintana. Dante's parents are very loving and interested in knowing about Dante's life, thoughts, and feelings. Their household is very open communication juxtaposed to Ari's household. Ari feels this on a deep level and is a little envious of this while Dante struggles with feeling "not Mexican enough" due to this lifestyle and successfulness of his parents being a professor and therapist. He feels out of touch to his culture and feels like he can't relate to things because of the way he's been able to live his life. 

After we learn more about family dynamics going on in the book we explore more of Aristotle and Dante's friendship. We see how they waste away their summer days, swimming, reading comics, poems, and conversing about random things. We explore them just being teens in one of the most vividly painted ways with the way Ari narrates. We find beauty in the mundane world of Ari because he finds beauty in spending time with someone he sees as his one real friend.  We even see how they become confident with things they don't want to tell their parents. Like when they naturally converse about Ari's feelings about wondering why his brother is such a taboo subject because his parents won't even bring him up like he's a ghost when he just went away to prison for a long time. In addition, to how he feels being the youngest and having a big age gap between him and his sisters and brother. This is important because Ari is notoriously known in the book for being a listener and taking after his father when it comes to emotions and not wanting to talk about it, but with Dante even though it's a little he is able to reveal his true feelings. We see through the cracks of Dante' bubbly, overconfident, and argumentative personality as he greatly expresses his feelings of disconnect, difference, and privilege he feels away from his culture especially when his relatives don’t like him because he was lucky enough to live a good life. It’s a feeling that doesn’t go away from him. 

There are three main events that happen in the first half of the book. The first being when Ari and Dante stop guys from shooting at birds with BB guns. It was Dante to get involved first but the guys weren’t intimidated by him so Ari stepped in and scaring them off with his presence and threats. This is the first time they’ve seen each other genuinely angry by a situation, the first time they’ve defended each other and had each other’s backs against other people, and the first time Ari saw Dante cry over a dead bird. Ari comforted Dante that night and helped him bury the bird in his backyard. The second main event is when Ari gets the flu after getting drenched in the rain with Dante after burying the bird. Ari is going through it with his flu and having nightmares every night about the birds and Dante. Due to the nightmares his dad opens up to him about his own that he gets because of the war to help comfort him and be there for his son. Dante also visits because he feels at fault and reads to Ari while also showing Ari his sketchbook he doesn’t let anyone see. We learn a little more about sadness behind Dante’s front. The last and major event that happens is when Ari gets hit by a car trying to save Dante who stops in the middle of the road trying to save another bird. They both get hit still but Ari took most of the damage and broke his legs while Dante walked away with a broken arm. Dante again feels guilty for this, the parents are glad they are both safe but entirely grateful for Ari, and Ari struggles with his cast and feeling like he isn’t a hero. It’s a few weeks before school starts and he’s afraid of being noticeable at school when he gets his crunches later on and wants to entirely forget this event happening and not wanting to hear anymore thanks or sorrys from people.  We are then left with the news that Dante's family will be moving soon to Chicago for a professor opening out there for Sam. We leave off with Dante and Ari promising to stay best friends and to write to each other. 

 I really love this book so far for so many reasons. I really love the pacing, short chapters, and the way it’s broken up into six parts. It makes reading a 384 page book feel like nothing and craving more everytime I turn my page. Also the chapters of straight dialogue and conversation are so interesting planned out between chapters it just adds so much depth to the characters following along to their conversations. I also love the way complexity to the characters are written into short monologues to each other or rants they go through inside their head.  One example I can think of that I really enjoyed in the book was when Ari was debating whether to call Dante about how he feels about being kept in the dark about his brother and feeling like he never really got to know his sisters and he’s ranting in his head about all these feelings to the readers and then has a monologue to Dante about what he wanted to talk about and then Dante rants to him, it’s so relatable. The way they think is so poetic you can’t help but love them. Everything about the book has been perfect so far and I’m loving it, I can’t praise the book enough.  This book has made me think about how I want to write rants and dialogue into my story. Also how I want to write relatable characters in my story and what type of conflicts I want them to have. I’ve been thinking about writing to a similar pacing style and using seasons as transitions for my story (maybe).

The second half of the book picks up  on Ari's first day of school Junior year.  We  get introduced to Gina and Susie, two people that Ari doesn't particularly like because they ask him too many questions. He does answer their questions about his leg admitting  to saving Dante but they don't believe him and think he wants everyone to see him as a "hero"  when in reality that's the exact opposite of what he really wants. He wants the whole event to be erased. We then next get introduced to a girl Ari is interested in, Ilena when she writes her name on his cast. Next it's Ari's 16th birthday and he gets his dream car (A red Chevy pickup truck). He tries to enjoy his party although he never really does, he thinks of the people he misses; his brother and Dante. Both of them he tries to not think about. Soon we start receiving letters from Dante catching up on his life in Chicago, he's been experimenting with  drugs, alcohol, and his sexuality. Ari being Ari doesn't reply to all of his letters and does a few when they're apart. He only really keeps Dante updated when he finds a new pet and his first driving lesson. He does start to feel a little left behind in the way he doesn't really experiment and then makes it a goal to kiss Ilena  to keep up with Dante.  Ari does complete his goal of kissing Ilena but  it  leaves him confused. He doesn't  know what he and Ilena are because she plays hide and seek with him. We learn she actually has a boyfriend who is a gang member and saw Ari has someone safe. She soon drops out of school and marries the guy because she got pregnant. This is just one of many real stories Benjamin choses to include in his storytelling.  Dante comes out in a letter to Ari explaining how he realized he was gay, he's vulnerable , scared to tell his family, and  scared Ari won't want to be his friend when he comes back in the Summer.  We have seen Ari grow in a multitude of different ways by the end  of the school year, not only physically has he gotten stronger and taller but he has also mentally loosened up so much he has been able to build on the connections around him.  He grew closer to the girls that once annoyed him Gina and Susie.   

 Summer comes back around which means that Dante is back in town. He visits Dante’s house with his dog, Legs, and they reconnect and Ari assures Dante that they have and will always be friends. Ari takes Dante for a drive after catching up with his parents, he is like family to them. Ari and Dante talk under the stars about Dante’s sexuality and his baby brother his mom is expecting. He feels like he will disappoint them because he won’t marry a girl and give his parents grandchildren but Ari reminds him just how much his parents love him and will always love him.

There are  four major events that happen for the rest of the book. The first being when Dante and Ari kiss as a way to experiment with Ari’s sexuality to see if he maybe might at all be attracted to boys. Ari kisses Dante back but still says it didn’t work for him. Dante cries and they don’t talk for a few days because of the awkwardness. The next major event is when Ari’s aunt passes away for two big reasons. Reason number one we again explore many real storylines Benjamin creates. We learn that his aunt had a wife and that she wasn’t entirely accepted by her family. Ari’s mom and dad stick  by her side and in turn she leaves her house for Ari in the will. During this trip Ari’s mom and dad open up to him about his brother, Bernardo. We delve into Bernardo’s past and how he grew up always getting into trouble and fights. We learn the reason he’s in prison is because he killed a transgender person. Ari’s parents held all of this in because Ari was so young when everything happened and didn’t want to shatter his beliefs of his brother, but they also 

acknowledge the fact that not opening up to him has also been damaging and that they need open communication in their family about everything. This was a big developmental point in the story because there’s a lot of growth between all of them when it comes to communication versus the being of the story. 

Following this event is the next one when Ari and his family return home. Dante is sent to the hospital after being jumped in an alleyway. He’s jumped by a few of the neighborhood boys after being caught kissing his boyfriend, Daniel. Like always he tries to stand his ground and argue back while his boyfriend runs away so he pays the price. Ari is livid by this and feels guilty that he couldn’t be there to protect Dante. In turn he goes and beats up the boys who hurt Dante and gives Daniel a warning because of the fact he didn’t stick by Dante’s side. Ari doesn’t like Daniel and is upset with Dante when he tries inviting him over the same time he’s there. The last main event that happens in the story is Ari’s realization that he is in love with Dante. He realizes that over a beer with his dad as he opens up to Ari about his nightmares and his time in the war. He opens up in hopes his son will stop running away from his emotions. Everyone around Ari clearly knows his true feelings other than Ari and Dante themselves. It’s Ari’s dad that makes Ari admit his true feelings for Dante by pointing out that you don’t save a life, beat people up, and get jealous for someone you don’t love. The book wraps up with both boys admitting their feelings to each other and begging to date each other.

I really enjoyed this book and rate it a five out five. I really enjoyed how the author built his story like a collection of short stories and dialogues and broke them up into different parts and moments in their lives. I feel like I want to take aspects of this into consideration when writing my own books. The pacing never felt too slow or fast and moved like a movie on screen. I can’t praise the book enough especially with how they portrayed real life problems like queerness in a minority family and the mixed acceptance that happens within it. Problems like teen pregnancy gang members in high school, feelings about having family in prison and parents who don’t openly communicate, Benjamin dissects these topics so gently, carefully, and beautifully it feels like a whirlwind of life coming off the page.These are all things I want to explore when it comes to my story

My process so far of story boarding :)

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