I really enjoyed Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets if the Universe. I thought the storyline was really great. Showing two sides of two different boys, one who is very open with himself and who he is, very honest, and just comfortable with himself, Dante. And the other one who is more introverted who doesn't really know who he is, or what he wants, Ari. Both boys really close but completely different.
Dante is very open with his sexuality and that he likes boys. Ari, he show interest in one girl but she ends up getting pregnant by a gang member and dropping out of school. He doesn't really seem upset by that but later on starts to figure out that he actually has feelings for Dante, feelings that he's been suppressing that his family helps bring to the surface.
I felt that Ari gave off feelings that he might be into Dante before it confirmed he was. When Dante and Ari go to the desert and its raining and they get naked and run around the truck Ari says if Dante had tried something he didn't know if he would've stopped him. Also when Ari allows Dante to kiss him. I think he wanted those things to happen but he just didn't know a right way to feel about it.
As Ari sort of comes into his own and starts to mature his family starts to share more about his brother, which might explain why Ari likes to fight so much and why maybe a part of him enjoys it. Dante works at a drug store and meets a guy, Daniel who works there also, Daniel and Dante are kissing in an ally and Daniel runs and Dante stays and gets jumped by 4 people, Ari finds who did it, and breaks one of the boy's nose.
I thought this book was great, I thought the their self realizations was really interesting and made the book really nice to read. I really liked this read.

Reading the first half of “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” I am really enjoying it. I think that Ari is a really interesting Character so far. He calls himself a loner, he know he doesn’t really have any friends, and he says that he prefers it that way, but throughout the book it almost seems like he is desperate for love and affection. When he gets sick his father is holding him, and Ari doesn’t want his father to stop. He wants to be close with people but he doesn’t know how to be. Ari’s father was in the Vietnam War, his father doesn’t talk about his time there, and when he talks to Ari its always really short and to the point. Having a male role model that is a loner and doesn’t communicate with others, you’re somewhat like to become the same way. When Ari does get sick and his father is helping take care of him he opens up to Ari just for a second and tells him he Ari that he has nightmares just like him. Ari thinks about it and he wants to ask questions and know more and get closer with this father but he doesn’t know how.

Ari is out by the pool, he doesn’t know how to swim, and a random guy comes to him and says that he can teach him how to swim, that starts the friendship of Ari and Dante. Dante comes from a close family that is very affectionate and Ari doesn’t understand their family dynamic. He seems almost jealous. A part of the book that really sticks out to me is the part when Dante sees these boys killing a bird with a BB gun, and so he run over to where the boys are and demands that they not continue, and how killing that bird was not right, Dante is very upset which upsets Ari. Ari makes the boys go away and Dante is crying because they killed the bird, and Dante wants to burry the bird. While this entire thing is going on Ari has no idea how to handle the situation and why he upset about a bird. Which shows how different the two boys are, Dante cares about everything, he loves everything, and he wants to just be happy, while Ari he cares about certain things and certain people. Ari wouldn’t have care if he saw the boys shooting at the bird. He cared about it because it made Dante upset, and he cares about Dante.