I kind of expected a straight up love story. Maybe with a few problems of social acceptance or bullying, but this novel actually got a lot deeper. I wasn't expecting Ari's brother to play such a big role in the novel. He's not even introduced really, and yet Ari spends half the book wondering about him. Most of that time I was wishing for Ari to move on. I didn't fully understand why he couldn't go visit him or even just try to forget about him entirely. Of course it all comes together in the end. Given how his brother was sent to prison, Ari's feelings of misplacement and emptiness make sense. His own brother committed a crime against someone who was gay. Like him. Maybe he knew it all along that he was gay, who knows really. To me though, it makes a lot of sense.
Another issue which becomes clear in the novel is the awkwardness between Ari and his father. To be honest I feel like it was resolved a little too cleanly to be realistic. Nonetheless, I didn't expect him to open up that much, if at all really. I think that's what I enjoyed most about the book. It surprised me. I was surprised that Ari and Dante weren't immediately dating, and that it took till the last page to get Ari to admit he was gay. Moreover, the genre surprised me. This wasn't really a romance novel at all, but more of a coming of age story. And I'm actually okay with that.
I think this book provided a much deeper look into the main character's mind than any of the other books. It follows a very interesting path and makes the book one of my favorites that I have read.
ReplyDelete