Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Darius the Great Deserves Better

This book actually changed my way of thinking and perceptions. The characters in this book, the way they are potrayed, it felt awesome. All of the characters are not loveable.
Darius has the best parents in the whole world. They are very expressive towards Darius and his little sister, Laleh. Especially Darius's dad, he is very affectionate. He kisses Darius, hugs him.
And also Darius's mamou and babou, they are the best. Actually, I really missed them in this book. Yes there were mentions of them. They face times with Mamou weekly. And yeah, Also Sohrab too.
And Chip is Darius's friend now.
As usual, Trent is the most Hateable character in this book. OMG! He is an asshole... Literally. He bullies Daruis, calling names, having homophobic comments right in his face. I really wanted to beat the shit out of him.
There were sad moments too.. The most important one was when,

Babou died. I really cried and wept hard. The way Darius was remembering his Babou and also his mom and Laleh.

And the second one was when

Landon and Darius broke up. I didn't cry. But I was sad. There should have been more communication with them. There should have been more understanding. Landon made it clear, that sex is important to him, but he should understand that he can't force Daruis into sex. That's not how it works. There should have been a proper talk about it.

There were so many words that felt like a quote.
Daruis always has self doubt and overthinking because of his depression. And the way him and his father share it, was a great thing to read. And mom sharing her worries. But overall, it was a great ride.
I'm glad that I read this book. And yeah, you should read the first book called "Daruis the great is not okay", to understand this book and characters more.

Content Warnings

dreamer01's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

clementineecho's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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annakh16's review

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emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

Protect. Darius. at. all. costs! The title of this book is spot on. He does deserve better.

I’m glad this sequel was good. There is a wide range of (often tough) themes handled beautifully - grief, depression, family, first relationships, sexuality etc etc. It is lovely seeing such a complex and nuanced young character.

I also found the accountability refreshing - it wasn’t all “forgive and forget” (which I feel like happens sometimes in YA), but the characters had all the necessary conversations, which were also written very well. There were some great life lessons in there.

I would’ve liked to see more of some characters - Sohrab and Steven especially - but I think putting them aside was needed to make space for the new plot lines, so I get it. We still got some sweet moments with both. I also found Darius’ feelings about his relationship with Landon very relatable personally.

This series will stay with me, I’ll miss it. The sequel definitely cemented this as a new favourite YA contemporary.

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evelynyle_88's review

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Adib Khorram, you did it once again! I decided to listen to this beautiful story about Darius Kellner to continue my journey with him, his family and his friends... I feel like this story gave me comfort.

Knowing that there's Landon in his life at the start of the story... I could picture how happy he was. But, I sometimes felt Landon was too pushy toward Darius.

Darius really deserves better than the love he got from Landon. And I'm glad this quite heavy story ended well for all of them; including Darius. Great job, Mr. Khorram! You made me love Darius even more!🩷

Content Warnings

archiveofrasa's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective 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? Yes

3.75

I think I missed Iran from the story, that's probably why this book didn't hit as hard for me as the first one did. I still found a lot of things interesting and it still maintained the nuance of the first book, but there was also a lot more going on. I also read this in one sitting just a few hours after finishing the first book, so perhaps the speed at which I read it affected my perspective. I'm glad with how it ended and how a lot of the topics were handled, it was really nice to see in a YA contemporary, especially for a gay boy of colour. Darius absolutely deserves better.

I'm almost sad to see that the story ends here, because I would've loved to see more fo the main cast of characters, they are genuinely still so interesting to me.

Content Warnings

thebookpaiges's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

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