Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz (2012)

Besides both being 15 and Hispanic, Aristotle and Dante have very little in common. Aristotle is a self described loner who struggles to find any joy in his life, partly because of the strain in his family which has existed ever since his brother went to prison. On the opposite side, Dante is a walking example of someone who is full of life. A single child, Dante has grown up learning to question the wonders of the world, but embrace them at the same time. While they only live a block away from each other, they go to different schools; Dante at private and Aristotle at public. Still, none of that matters. On a hot summer day before their junior year, Aristotle decides to go swimming. The only problem is: he can’t swim. So here comes Dante, offering without any bias to help Aristotle. From the moment they meet, they form a unique, but extremely strong, friendship. Still, as they dive deeper into their friendship, questions arise concerning how they can stay separate, but still connected. Documenting of a year of time and discoveries, including sexuality, cars, art, and family affairs, Aristotle and Dante must decide if their friendship something that is wanted by the universe.

This is the most magical book I’ve ever read, which is pretty impressive considering this is not fantasy at all. In fact, I’m pretty sure Benjamin Alire Saenz took every magical notion in the world and created Dante, who I completely fell in love with. He was so unapologetically himself and always said these random notions of a genius. And, honestly, Aristotle really needs him, and he came to Aristotle at just the right time. However, don’t think it was a one-sided friendship. At the same time that Dante taught Aristotle to enjoy the little wonders at life, Aristotle brought Dante to the reality that sometimes things aren’t alright. Because of that, there was really great character growth without the book, which takes like a day to read. Now don’t get me wrong, this is not a short book (depending on your definition on a short book), but the writing is so good, you can’t help but read one page after another after another. I couldn’t get enough of this story, and I read it in about two days. In fact, the only negative attribute of this book is that once you read it, you only wish you could read it again (which you might).

My new favorite, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe tells the story of a friendship we are all apart of.

5 Stars