Picking up where Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe left off, this novel follows Ari’s life and his and Dante’s developing relationship through the rest of the summer and their senior years of high school. Ari and Dante are in love, but even as their relationship becomes more intimate both are struggling with internalized homophobia, knowing their lives and their love will face added challenges because they are gay. These heartrending feelings are tempered by the abundance of love and support they receive from their parents, Ari’s sisters, and friends they learn they can trust. For loner Ari, these friendships prove especially lovely and surprising. He knows Dante is steadfast; he wasn’t expecting Carmella, a girl he’s disliked for a long time, to be so, too. AIDS—about which so little is known at this time in the 1980s beyond the grief for those left behind—and the increasing activism of the gay community are two larger social elements of a story in which insightful, introspective Ari also struggles to resolve anguished feelings about his older brother, who murdered a trans woman and has no remorse. This quiet, immersive novel about two Latinx teens on the cusp of adulthood, growing and changing before readers’ eyes, combines beautiful writing with incredible depth of thought and feeling. (Age 14 and older)