Going into this book, I had a feeling I was going to love it. The plot drew me in straight away and after seeing so many rave reviews and 5 star ratings I was sure this book would become a new favourite of mine. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it anyway as near as I thought I would, which I'm really disappointed about.
This book follows Ari, who ventures to the swimming pool one day and meets a boy name Dante. Dante teaches him how to swim and after that the two boys become pretty much inseparable. The book takes place over a few years, and follows Ari and Dante as they grow older and start to discover themselves.
I think my biggest problem with this book was the characters, especially the main protagonist Ari. Ari is very tough, always getting into fights and is angry at everyone - his mother, for not talking about his imprisoned brother, his father - who still suffers from trauma due to serving in the Navy. He doesn't have many friends and is fine with that, he doesn't necessarily like other people.
I don't know, I just didn't relate to Ari at all. I didn't find him particularly interesting either. Most of the time he came across as being rude or obnoxious, especially to his parents. Being inside his head was incredibly annoying. All he did was constantly complain about his life, friends, parents, brother, which becomes very tedious after the first 20 pages.
Another thing I didn't really like about this book was the writing. The writing style was very choppy and abrupt and I don't think it really allowed the characters to come to life. Also, the dialogue was very unrealistic, and at times weird. Some of the conversations between Ari and Dante genuinely made me roll my eyes, I just can't imagine two teenage boys ever speaking to each other the way they do.
I will say that I loved the relationship between Ari and his parents and how it developed through the book. It was so lovely seeing Ari's father finally open up to him and seeing them bond. I also loved Ari's mother, she's such a strong and loving woman and just wanted to best for her family.
Despite the problems I had with this book, I wouldn't say it was bad, it was just very different from what I expected. I think that if this book hadn't been so hyped up, I would've enjoyed it a lot more.
3/5 stars.
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