Scan barcode
A review by flyingfox02
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Let me get this out of the way because it irked me quite a bit. There's a mention of Israel on page 15, "Whether it came from Egypt or Israel or somewhere else entirely, one thing is certain: falafel is not Persian." How could you as an Iranian-American author even entertain that discourse? Left a bad taste in my mouth honestly.
Anyway, rant over. Aside from that I thought this was a very solid coming of age novel. We follow Darius, a 15 year old boy, who has a massive Star Trek and LOTR obsession that he references those two things for pretty much everything. He's also dealing with clinical depression and being picked on at school and feeling like never good enough for his father and a plethora of other teenage problems. However one day he gets to go to Iran with his family, to see his mother's family for the first time. He gets to meet his maternal grandparents, make a new friend, and starts to find himself and you know all that stuff.
I really liked how the book deals with the topic of depression, it was very nuanced and well done. I liked how it talked about father issues because uhh um anyway. I loved how Darius loves his grandmother. I also liked the first person narration in this novel. Normally I'm averse to that in contemporary writings, especially YA, so it was a nice surprise.
I found the nerdy language to be a little bit over the top but I'm just being curmudgeony. Younger me would've probably appreciated it.
Anyway, rant over. Aside from that I thought this was a very solid coming of age novel. We follow Darius, a 15 year old boy, who has a massive Star Trek and LOTR obsession that he references those two things for pretty much everything. He's also dealing with clinical depression and being picked on at school and feeling like never good enough for his father and a plethora of other teenage problems. However one day he gets to go to Iran with his family, to see his mother's family for the first time. He gets to meet his maternal grandparents, make a new friend, and starts to find himself and you know all that stuff.
I really liked how the book deals with the topic of depression, it was very nuanced and well done. I liked how it talked about father issues because uhh um anyway. I loved how Darius loves his grandmother. I also liked the first person narration in this novel. Normally I'm averse to that in contemporary writings, especially YA, so it was a nice surprise.
I found the nerdy language to be a little bit over the top but I'm just being curmudgeony. Younger me would've probably appreciated it.