Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Everything Sad Is Untrue

This book made me SOB. I thought the 1001 nights structure was interesting, but I wish it had been more clearly established. There were parts I had to skip because the descriptions were graphic. It was a good book but I could never reread it. Did I mention I l’m sobbing?

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trilobite's review

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funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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samanthabryan34's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I started this as an audiobook and could not get into it. The second half I switched to reading the ebook and that went better! This book is aimed at YA readers and I like how the author writes so casually and authentically. What I struggled with at the beginning is there isn’t a consistent plot throughout the book - it jumps a lot between Persian myths, stories about his ancestors, and then his own memories as a child. I found it hard to follow when listening so I would recommend reading this over listening to it.

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okiecozyreader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I highly recommend this video introducing Daniel and his mother: https://youtu.be/YXNuhG7_hLo

This book won the Printz (ya book award) and is a memoir by Khousrou Daniel Nayari. I have wanted to read this book for a while, and I have had some time recently with my 15 year old son, so I got to listen to it with him. Being in Oklahoma (and my neighborhood backs up to Edmond, Oklahoma which he mentions throughout. It was so fun to hear him talk about places we know - even though many were during a difficult time of his life). I love that he narrates this memoir.

He has had such an interesting life - being born in Iran. His mother’s life was threatened because she became a Christian, and they became refugees - for 10 months in Dubai, then in Italy, and finally in Oklahoma. The book goes in not a linear format, it goes back and forth in memories and how things relate together, ending with a visit from his father to Oklahoma. It is all told almost as if it’s written by him as a high school student - his memories in school and observing the world around him. But it sounds like a teenager - with lots of poop stories and random thoughts. My son thought it had too much rambling at times, but I loved listening to it with him. And I’m even more grateful that Khousrou shared his story with us.

Kind of like how his story is “rambling”, it is somewhat inspired by 1001 Nights:
“In the 1,001 Nights, Scheherazade—the rememberer of all the world’s dreams—told stories every night to
the king, so he would spare her life.” (First page)

Ch 4 (audio)
“So the riddle asks, what makes the champion a coward?”
“Need?”
“Yes. The weakness of needing something.”
—
“…stories get better as they get more true.”
—
“You don’t get to choose what you remember.
A patchwork memory is the shame of a refugee.”

Ch 5
“One, every story is the sound of a storyteller begging to stay alive.”
—
“THE LESSON HERE IS that your happiest memories can become your saddest all of a sudden.”

Ch 8
“Dear reader, you have to understand the point of all these stories. What they add up to. Scheherazade was trying to make the king human again. She made him love life by showing him all of it, the funny parts about poop, the dangerous parts with demons, even the boring parts about what makes marriages last.
Little by little, he began to feel the joy and sadness of others.
He became less immune, less numb, because of the stories.”

Ch 9
“The point of the Nights is that if you spend time with each other—if we really listen in the parlors of our minds and look at each other as we were meant to be seen—then we would fall in love. We would marvel at how beautifully we were made. We would never think to be villain kings, and we would never kill each other. Just the opposite.
The stories aren’t the thing. The thing is the story of the story.”
—
“In a refugee camp, it’s the waiting that will kill you.
The whole point of a refugee camp is that there are actual people trying to kill you.
But really, it’s the slow numbing death of hopelessness that does it. You have to imagine a room that’s just a cement cube—nothing beautiful in it. If you’re not careful, this is also what becomes of the parlor of your mind.” (He references the parlor of the mind a few times and I love this idea)

“DON’T KNOW HOW MY MOM was so unstoppable despite all that stuff happening. I dunno. Maybe it’s anticipation.
Hope.
The anticipation that the God who listens in love will one day speak justice.
The hope that some final fantasy will come to pass that will make everything sad untrue.
Unpainful.
That across rivers of sewage and blood will be a field of yellow flowers blooming. You can get lost there and still be unafraid. No one will chase you off of it. It’s
yours. A father who loves you planted it for you. A mother who loves you watered it. And maybe there are other people who are kind…”

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