This book did little to right the wrongs of the first book in terms of transphobia. If anything, it makes it worse (SPOILER: Ari deciding he has the right to give a name to the woman his brother murdered for being transgender). As well, the change of Aristotle from a deeply coded bi character to being gay reeks of biphobia. Blatant racism is pushed aside because Ari and his friends challenging it is improper when they are only teenagers (gross!). The book was long winded, bogged down by repetition, and had a bunch of grammatical, spelling, and character errors (the older sisters were renamed). Dante's character was not very sympathetic, whiny and entitled, jealous over nothing; such a change from the boy from the first novel. I was grateful to have switched partway through to the audiobook, where Lin Manuel Miranda was at least able to breathe a bit of life into the novel. The book was quite disjointed and there was too much happening. Things were brought into the story with no context and little warning, so at times I was lost trying to place a character or a circumstance that Ari would find himself in. The book should have been more focused, shorter, more concise. After the first mention of Ari realizing his tremendous love for his mother and father it should have been enough to convey his deep feelings, but instead he continuously repeats this declaration or makes it several more times as though he had never mentioned it before. I became so sick of hearing certain turns of phrase, and the metaphor for cartography came up on several occasions from several different characters (as though they all lived within each others minds and had no individual thoughts). I know it was hard to live up to the ground breaking first novel, as problematic as it is, but it seemed as though Aristotle's character development stalled or even stepped back, leaving him in a kind of no man's land for the whole novel. Just continuously realizing he loves his parents, dante, his friends, with no discernable plot. The last quarter of the book I felt started to turn the novel around. As Ari and Dante must confront their leaving each other for college, their differing lives, their love being tested by distance. I also loved Cassandra's speech about how the world must now be shaped by their generation and it must be their job to do better, to be better. Aristotle was also able to finally see for himself the love and support of those fighting for the rights of the LGBTQ2S+ community and others suffering from AIDs. I wish the whole novel could have been handled similar to Cassandra's speech and Ari's visit to France. What a let down. Also, I disliked immensely the casual way in which Aristotle's mother outed him, and how he forced another student to out himself to friends. Both just assuming their loved ones and friends will be accepting, when this is the 1980s and many people were not (and let's be honest, still are not). Rant over. Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me an advanced eArc of this novel, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
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