I’ve called a book “gorgeous” before in one of my reviews, but I don’t think I’ve ever called a book “beautiful.” --- There’s something about the writing of Benjamin Alire Saenz that is beautiful. --- There's an honesty to it. Even when characters are confused, deluded, repressed, and in denial, they're somehow still honest. But even more than their honesty, I think the beauty lies in their vulnerability. They struggle against opening themselves up enough to risk confronting their true feelings, yet ultimately they do so. They share their vulnerable inner selves so that we can connect with them, so that we can know we are like them and they are like us. To borrow a quote from a different book by Saenz, Last Night I Sang to the Monster: --- "But the thing is that I’m in love with Rafael’s story. I think I understand when Adam says that all our stories are different but in some ways our stories are all the same. I never really got that. But when I start to read Rafael’s journal, it’s as if I can see myself. It’s better than a mirror." --- This is a story of relationships. Of Ari's relationships, which are few and often strained. Ari is a quiet, withdrawn, angry, deep-thinking loner in El Paso, who one summer makes his first true friend, Dante. He tells us the story in snippets and episodes, along the way describing his interactions with his parents, Dante's parents, and a few other peers. How he saves Dante's life in a moment of instinctive reaction, pushing Dante out of the way of an approaching car and getting run over himself instead. The long, difficult recovery while in casts and the school year that begins before he's done, the one Dante spends in Chicago while his dad is a guest professor. Of Dante's confession that he wants to kiss Ari and Ari's obstinate refusal to either respond in kind or love Dante any less as a friend. Of the changes he continues to undergo as he struggles to understand himself and those around him, confronting in the process, without any real conscious awareness, his deep-seated self-loathing. --- It's an honest, vulnerable, moving, and beautiful story. One I could relate to intimately--despite my different personal circumstances--that left me feeling more understanding and loving of others and myself.

Two Latino Youth in El Paso 1987 discover friendship and more things in common as they struggle with self identity, relationships, growing into adulthood. The dialogue is refreshing, thoughful, funny and real. Presented in short powerful chapters.

Love it love it love it! Such realistic characters and great chemistry between them.

I highly recommend this book to teen and adult readers alike. It is just so full of heart... which happens to be where all the secrets of the universe reside.

this is a great book. i can relate a little to aristotle.