Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World: The highly anticipated sequel to the multi-award-winning international bestseller Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

I fell in love with Ari and Dante's relationship in the first book and I really, really wanted to love this one too, but honestly I struggled to finish it. There are some wonderfully profound and poignant thoughts and speeches weaved into the story but there's just way too many of them. Real people don't interact like this 24/7. Imagine finding every single conversation you have with every person you know or meet so intensely deep and personal it brings you to tears, or on the verge of them. That's what this book is like. There's no normal conversation and it feels so forced and unnatural. And the crying ... gosh, I got so weary of people constantly crying! The author has tried so hard to give the characters depth he ended up robbing them of it completely, because they don't feel like real people at all.I could perhaps have looked past it, if only to indulge in the love story that is Ari and Dante. Isn't that the main reason anyone would reach for this book after all? How sad then that for me it failed even on that level. Dante is not really present for a lot of the latter story. If you're particularly invested in Ari's character development it might be satisfying, but if you're here for their relationship you may get a little bored at times. I'm not sure how the author managed to make me feel like he'd let Ari and Dante down, but somehow he did.My final criticism is the amount of grammatical errors this book has! It's not a deal breaker but when you find so many it just seems very sloppy.To sum up, I feel like this was a wasted opportunity and as such ended up being an unnecessary continuation of Ari and Dante's story. Again, I really wanted to love it, so bearing that in mind I would almost certainly have overlooked a few things that didn't quite work. That says a lot about the overwhelming amount of issues this book actually has, and I'm just left feeling very disappointed. What a shame.

3.5? 3.75? Condense it to 400 pages and maybe it would have been the full 4!I have mixed feelings about this book. On one had I really enjoyed diving back into these characters lives, on the other I felt the book was too long and spent a lot of time just throwing down metaphor after metaphor after simile after flowery prose, rather than progressing the story meaningfully.Every character spoke in ebbs and flows of magnificence, punctuated by fantastic extravagance, it was a lot. I think it wouldn't have hit me in the face as much if it were just a few characters, but whenever we get a new friend or companion join these boys, they too talked like an English masters graduate, rather than a teenager in high school.It's been a while since I read Ari and Dante 1, but I seem to remember Ari being a really insular character who spoke a lot in his head, but not necessarily out loud. This book takes place immediately after the first one ends, and it seems like all of a sudden Ari is the master of paragraphs of monologue. It just felt a little disjointed from the first book in tone.That being said, I did enjoy going back into this world. I loved the significance of the parents - we already had that with Dante's parents in book 1, but in here we really see Ari connect with his mother and father, seeing them as people and almost falling in love with them as human beings rather than just parental figures. We also get a bit of closure with Ari's brother who is in prison, so it was good to see that thread tied off.Like I said earlier, there did seems to b times when chapters would happen and nothing necessarily of significance or importance was written in them, but looking past any of those pages, I liked the topics and elements that were explored in here - feminism, the AIDs pandemic, how important teachers are, racism, family and extended family, love - so even though it was surrounded by flower, this book did spend a lot of time on important and interesting topics.

Unfortunately I could not finish this book as it was so frustrating to read. I found the characters and the plot line so ridiculous. But most of all it was the dialogue I could not stand. Nothing about it felt authentic. If there was pain in this book, I could not find it. Even when painful events took place everyone seemed totally OK. I found it unrealistic and silly in the end. It is a real shame as I really enjoyed the first book and read that in one sitting.

AMAZING sequel. longer than the first book and touches on much deeper subjects - I am just in awe of this story. There’s a movie coming soon!! so excited!! overall beautiful book and cover and came in perfect condition

Finished this book last night & oh my goodness... I loved it. The book layout makes it so easy to read, I finished it in 3 days. A rollercoaster of emotions. Highly recommend!!