Parents' Guide to
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World
Common Sense Media Review
By JK Sooja
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Teen boys navigate new love in repetitive sequel.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DIVE INTO THE WATERS OF THE WORLD, Aristotle and Dante continue their relationship and navigate their new love, desire, and dreams. College and life after high school looms, threatening to end something beautiful. Will Aristotle listen to his heart or head?
Is It Any Good?
There are many moments of tenderness, beauty, love, and compassion in this story. But there isn't much story to Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World, and it often reads like a series of montages, conversations, journal entries, and dreams. While many of these are pleasant, lots of them are repetitive and aren't obviously connected or transitioned into and out of well. Some things do happen, but they are often told like a journal entry, and some readers may feel they are being told things rather than shown them.
The content, however, within each montage or conversation, is often positive and sweet, working as model examples of how to have this or that conversation, here are the right things to say and how to say them. The excitement, novelty, and intimidating beauty of new love and desire are openly on display and most of it is beautifully expressed but repetitive. There's also a sense of things never going anywhere. Beyond being about 200 pages too long, some passages explicitly encourage using violence to combat homophobia, and others don't handle non-cisgender or trans characters well.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about strong language in young adult novels. Did you find the swearing in Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World too much or just right? Why?
As a sequel, did you find the continuation of Aristotle and Dante satisfying? Did you find their love believable? Emotionally powerful? Why or why not?
Did you like the structure of how this story was told? Why or why not?
Book Details
- Author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Genre: Romance
- Topics: Friendship , High School
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
- Publication date: October 12, 2021
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 14 - 18
- Number of pages: 528
- Available on: Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: November 3, 2021
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Suggest an Update
What to Read Next
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate