Pride Month 2018 Read #4
This one came to be by recommendation from an incredible young person I will call S. I am waiting for delivery of more she suggested and will credit her in the review.
This one...Ari & Dante are two of the bravest boys I have ever read about. It isn't easy as an adult to face who you are and learn to love and accept that person, but as a teenager, with all that comes with being a teen, it can be, it is often, brutal.
We are often kinder and easier on others struggling than we are on ourselves. And there are so many times we can see something in others but not ourselves, not until it is pointed out to us.
That is the story here. Aristotle and Dante meet at the local pool. Dante teaches Ari to swim but as time passes they teach each other so much more. The boys learn about love and hate, trust, facing fear, and perhaps my favorite lesson- sometimes parents are pretty darn awesome!!! Ari & Dante both have amazing parents. They aren't perfect but they love their sons and they want the best for them. Sáenz writes the parent/child relationship so beautifully, the feelings I had were so raw and gave me chills. The parents don't talk down to their sons, they don't dismiss their feelings, they try to help them spread their wings and find themselves. The boys don't treat their parents as disposable or invisible. It is not your cookie cutter teen/parent relationship present in too many books, where the kids are way smarter than the parents and the parents are treated as stupid bookends.
As I neared the end of the book I tried to put it down, it was so beautiful and I had become so emotional I didn't want it to end but I couldn't put it down because I needed to see what was going to be the outcome.
I loved this book and I loved Sáenz's writing style.
(Finished June 14, 2018)
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