Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

25 reviews

stormeno's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, Xenophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Body shaming and Death

Minor: Sexual content

traceyanderson's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Islamophobia, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Classism

clementineecho's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Racism

annakh16's review

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, and Grief

evelynyle_88's review

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!🩷

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, Racism, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

archiveofrasa's review against another edition

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, Racism, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

thebookpaiges's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content, Transphobia, and Toxic friendship

anniereads221's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Racism, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

loveyoulike's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

found the characters just a littttle more annoying than in the first book, but it was still a solid read nonetheless

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, and Mental illness

Moderate: Racism and Sexual content

mswarning's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

4.25

I preferred the first book with Darius exploring Iran and his Iranian heritage. This sequel lagged for me with a lot of tea and tea tasting.

Read for Whateverathon 2022 for host fave (first book in the series), continue a series, and borrow a book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Dysphoria

Minor: Suicide, Transphobia, and Islamophobia