[Edited to add: I just realized the reader, Lin-Manuel Miranda, is *kind* of famous for the musical Hamilton right now!] Gosh, this was good. The audiobook narrator did a great job. There were times when I felt impatient with the slow pace and the subdued language. "Isn't anything going to happen?" Yet I think this was fitting for Ari's character and situation -- a boy unsure of his place in life, in the "ecotone," between two cultures, waiting to grow up and claim his world. In many ways, this felt like one of the more realistic depictions of a teen boy's life and inner and outer dialogue (lots of short sentences and conversations that were just phrases repeated back and forth while reflection happened on the inside -- an antithesis of the John Green brand of characterization). Ari was shown with both inner turmoil and an inner compass -- a compass which was surely due to his parents. Both sets of caring parents in this book were a joy to read, in a sea of YA books where the plot hinges on dysfunctional family dynamics. 
 (view spoiler)[ I have to admit, I loved the friendship between Ari and Dante. I loved that Dante accepted himself for being gay, and Ari accepted him, even in 1987, when being out as a teen was far less common. And that Ari fought fiercely for his friend and promised him loyalty forever. I thought this was an unusual pairing, a gay/straight male friendship that might have been lost to homophobia in a homophobic time and culture, but wasn't. And how cool to not immediately assume two protagonists are going to be in a relationship. I liked the unexpectedness here. So it actually was a little sudden and disappointed me *slightly* to have them get together in the end, and wrap up so neatly. Still, I wouldn't have wanted Dante to go on being tortured by unrequited love, and I wouldn't have wanted Ari to go on being tortured by unrealized sexuality. I wondered how the rest of the world could have seen Ari's actions and not believed he would do those things for his friend -- how it had to mean capital-L love. I wondered how Ari could be such an introverted thinker and journaler and not have any inkling of his own feelings. I guess when things finally started happening, I had a lot of thoughts about them! (hide spoiler)] 
 Favorite quotes: 
 "I came to understand that my father was a careful man. To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing." 
 "I wanted to tell them that I'd never had a friend, not ever, not a real one. Until Dante. I wanted to tell them that I never knew that people like Dante existed in the world, people who looked at the stars, and knew the mysteries of water, and knew enough to know that birds belonged to the heavens and weren't meant to be shot down from their graceful flights by mean and stupid boys. I wanted to tell them that he had changed my life and that I would never be the same, not ever. And that somehow it felt like it was Dante who had saved my life and not the other way around. I wanted to tell them that he was the first human being aside from my mother who had ever made me want to talk about the things that scared me. I wanted to tell them so many things and yet I didn't have the words. So I just stupidly repeated myself. "Dante's my friend." 
 "I renamed myself Ari. If I switched the letter, my name was Air. I thought it might be a great thing to be the air. I could be something and nothing at the same time. I could be necessary and also invisible. Everyone would need me and no one would be able to see me." 
 "But love was always something heavy for me. Something I had to carry."