Review - Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Genre: young adult / contemporary
Pages: 359
Rating: 4,5 / 5 stars
Goodreads

Summary from Goodreads
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.

My thoughts
This was a great book! I thought it captured the thoughts of a teenager very well. Aristotle wanted to be bad boy, but in reality he was just a good kid. He strugled with the question who he was and he tried to find his place in the world. His relationship with his parents was a dificult but loving one. I love how real this whole book felt. Because it felt so real it really grabbed me and I definitely cried over this book.
I think why I connected so much with this story was probably because I myself have dealt with depression and that made it very easy to relate to Aristotle who often felt sad or angry, but didn't know why or how to change it.
The writing style was very simplistic, but beautiful. The chapters were all very short and this really made me want to read on and on, because everytime I would be like 'Oh, let's just read one more chapter, its only a few pages'. I finished the book in two days, eventhough I was really bussy. If it would have been possible I probably would have ended up reading this one in one go.
I really loved Aristotle's snarky humor and when he and Dante were talking it often was very funny. Overal it was a pretty sad read though, but I absolutely loved it! All the characters were flawed but likeable people. They all felt very real and I could easily imagine knowing people like them. After finishing this story I had complete bookhangover. I had no clue what to do next. I was quite surprised that this book impacted me so deeply, because it is not overly dramatic or action packed. I guess this time that's exactly why it impacted me so much, the writer didn't use big word to try and make everything that happened seem more than it really was (what a lot of authors do) but instead used the right words to make it feel real. That's the thing I could keep mentioning, this story felt real.

Also, the book itself is really pretty, I love the cover! (I have a thing for covers with starry skies)