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ana1s's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
3.5
The best parts were dariuses character growth, the immersion into Iran's culture and the family dynamics. Looking forward to an evolution of his relationship with Sohrab!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Racism
Moderate: Fatphobia
Minor: Islamophobia
martapsalvado's review against another edition
emotional
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
4.5
I really loved this book 🧡 It is very character-driven, not a lot happens, but you get to really know the characters and see how this trip changes them, and specially how they change each other. It's about family, friendship, self-identity and, in the author's words, "how depression can affect a life without rulling it".
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Bullying, Terminal illness, and Fatphobia
Minor: Suicide, Islamophobia, and Self harm
yoursupremereads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Khorram has written something truly special with this book. Centered around a young queer Persian boy going to his mother's hometown to see his grandparents for the first time, Darius The Great Is Not Okay does a lot of work in a short amount of time. Add to it that the main character Darius is a complete nerd/weeb who interjects with sci-fi puns and comparisons in every chapter kept me smiling the whole way through. Khorram also did something incredible in giving Darius a new best friend that results in one of the best platonic male relationships I've seen in a book in a while. This story also tackles mental illness, but in a way that doesn't define Darius as his one facet, it's there, he acknowledges it, it is forever present, but it's just a sliver of who this sweet boy is. Plus, he loves tea, his abject love for tea is downright adorable. And Khorram takes the time to teach you not only about different kinds of tea that Darius loves, but also about Persian tea and customs that Darius is getting to learn about with you the reader while going to see his grandparents. All in all. A precious story and another wonderful addition to the YA queer canon.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Body shaming, Grief, and Mental illness
Minor: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Islamophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, and Death
imstephtacular's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Dementia, Bullying, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, and Body shaming
Minor: Alcohol, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Islamophobia, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism
jamieschecter's review against another edition
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? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Bullying
Moderate: Cancer, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Body shaming, and Death
Minor: Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Cursing, and Forced institutionalization
maybe_perhaps's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Islamophobia, Mental illness, and Racism
Minor: Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts
emmazan's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Dementia, Islamophobia, and Homophobia
Minor: Bullying
bendersreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Islamophobia
Moderate: Fatphobia, Cancer, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Religious bigotry
just_one_more_paige's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Funny story about how this one found its way onto my shelves. One of our major vices (if you will), nutritionally, is pop tarts. We eat a lot of them. If you are curious, my partner is a “brown sugar cinnamon” person. And I alternate between “chocolate chip cookie dough” and “unfrosted strawberry” (I know, I know – it’s gross). Anyways, some time in the past year or two they ran a promotion that each box of pop tarts bought and logged through Kellogg’s website got you a choice of a free book. It was a limited selection, but I found a couple great ones (including purchasing my own copy of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, which is a phenomenal read). And I had heard a few good things about Darius the Great, so I chose that one as well. It sat unread for a while, as books often do around here, but I just got to it and goodness I’m glad I did. Between Mexican Daughter and this one, talk about some powerful YA lit.
Darius lives in Portland, is in high school (and is better with Star Trek and LOTR than he is with social life), works in a tea shop (he's obsessed with tea), and is clinically depressed (inherited from his father). When he travels with his family, for the first time ever, to Iran to visit family there because his grandfather's health is failing. When he arrives...things are so different. He doesn't speak Farsi nearly as well as his younger sister, he is struggling to connect with family he's only ever met through a computer screen, and he is really feeling the full, distancing, impact of being a "fractional Persian." But he meets a family neighbor, Sohrab, who is around his age and things start to feel different. Sohrab shows him around, invites him to play soccer, gets him an Iranian National Football Team jersey, makes everyone speak English so Darius doesn't feel left out and just generally turns out to be Darius's first really close friend. As the trip goes by, Darius also starts to forge some deeper connections with his family (maybe, even, his dad?), with his country of ancestry in general, and faces some tough truths of growing up along the way.
Like I said, this was a really powerful story. And yet Khorram still manages to present it in the most wonderfully authentic adolescent voice. Darius' is such a unique story-telling voice, with lots of science and fandom metaphors/descriptions and that classic sarcastic teen vibe. It's the perfect example of addressing the real, and truly serious life events that young adults must deal with, while simultaneously keeping it true to their appropriate emotional and development stage. Basically, what I'm saying is that the writing is awesome (and, as I also listened to the audiobook - the narration was fantastic as well).
Topically, the book had a great balance of lighter stuff and heavier stuff. There's making friends and (healthy) sibling relationships and personal hobbies (tea and Star Trek and soccer), overall humor, traveling and sightseeing and learning about one's heritage/culture, and more. But there were also quite a few moments that were deeply emotional. As a primary point, the familial effects of depression were so well explored. Between what the reader can only assume (and it is later confirmed) is his father's guilt for "passing on" depression to Darius and the complication of depression for Darius at an age that is already emotionally fraught, it's really no wonder that the relationship between Darius and his father is strained. It also made their moment of openness together with each other at the end that much more impactful (I for sure shed some tears). The other major theme was the cultural split for Darius. Since he was born in the US (and had never been to Iran before), plus he didn't learn/use Farsi growing up like his sister, but he has a "weird" name and loves tea, he really felt a certain way about his "fractional" Persian status. And that was only exacerbated by being in Iran, at least to start. But then after some time there, and some bonding with Sohrab, he was able to pull out the parts of himself that connected with his Persian heritage even more, to find his "True Persian" aspects. It was touching and, overall, a well done representation of straddling two cultures and feeling separated from each, as a result. I also want to note, because it may not have been a major point, but it was something that I took away, that Khorram does a nice job exemplifying how societally constructed/implemented certain striations are (cultural and racial and religious). We all know the ones in our own countries because we are socialized into them (like Darius being called a terrorist by classmates). But then in Iran, he doesn't realize/have a reference for how people discriminate against Sohrab based on religious reasons, because it's foreign to him...and therefore not obvious. And it's just a great way to show just how much these differences don't actually mean anything - they're all superficial and shouldn't have any bearing on the way people treat or interact with each other. Anyways, it wasn't as central a point, but it was striking for me.
This was a spectacular novel, objectively, not just in a YA sense. But there is a great YA feel to it as well. I laughed at it, I got emotional with it, and I appreciated the tough and sometimes less talked about topics Khorram addresses (especially regarding mental health). Overall, a really moving and heartfelt celebration of family, identity, and Iranian/Persian culture, history and tradition in all its forms.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Terminal illness
Moderate: Islamophobia and Bullying
malloryfitz's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Islamophobia, Mental illness, and Racism
Minor: Suicidal thoughts