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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: Homophobia, Islamophobia, and Dementia
Minor: Bullying
kitstbr's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
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? Yes
3.75
So, audiobooks aren’t really my thing, because I feel like they’re harder to focus on, but I really liked this one! I liked how the focus of the book was how Darius’ relationships with his family change and how you can see that also shift the way he thinks about himself a little bit.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
thereaderfriend's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Fatphobia, and Mental illness
Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, and Racism
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
Didn't like it at first bc i thought the character was cringy with all the Star Trek references he mentioned but it lessened as the story went on. I’m glad to see depression rep the way it was shown in this story—how it didn’t take up his whole life. The character development was really great. I loved the bonds between his family and his best friend too. Seemed realistic and likeable. Can’t wait for the sequel!callmeluh's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
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
So. I expected this book to hurt, and it did. However, I didn't think it would hurt this much. I've rarely cried this much while reading a book, even more so if it's the first book in the series (which is the case here, I just found out).
The different conversations on depression turned me into a sobbing mess (well, not just these conversations tbh lol). As someone who struggles with depression, it's so nice to feel seen and understood.
Yes, this book hurt, but it also brought me a lot of comfort in a sense, as it made me feel less alone.
Darius the Great Is Not Okay is about depression, but also about belonging and finding your place in the world. It's about reconnecting with your roots and learning about where you come from. It's also about friendship and family. It's the kind of book you wish more people would read, and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves.
The different conversations on depression turned me into a sobbing mess (well, not just these conversations tbh lol). As someone who struggles with depression, it's so nice to feel seen and understood.
Yes, this book hurt, but it also brought me a lot of comfort in a sense, as it made me feel less alone.
Darius the Great Is Not Okay is about depression, but also about belonging and finding your place in the world. It's about reconnecting with your roots and learning about where you come from. It's also about friendship and family. It's the kind of book you wish more people would read, and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying and Mental illness
Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Fatphobia, and Racism
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
ok7a's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, and Grief
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
nerdysread's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
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? It's complicated
5.0
WoW. I’ve read it in french. And it was amazing. Honestly I love Darius, such a great character (no puns intended). Finding your place. But what really touched me is how the book talks about depression, I cried when he talks to his dad. It’s such a great book. And now I don’t know if I can read another book before a while.
It’s really a great book
It’s really a great book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Mental illness, and Racism
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Death of parent and Murder
fortunaisland's review against another edition
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Fatphobia, and Mental illness
Moderate: Racism and Terminal illness
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
decklededgess's review against another edition
challenging
dark
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
4.0
trigger warnings: clinical depression, bullying, racist harassment, suicide ideation mention, cancer
This book...is the first one in a long ass time that got me to cry without warning. I was enjoying this quite blandly over audiobook, ya kno, something to do while driving to and from work and BAM I get to the end and WATERFALL. No warning.
It's an incredibly written book about identity in multiple senses of the word, and struggling to grow up while dealing with clinical depression. I loved the handling of clinical depression, family and ethnic identity struggles as a biracial person in America, and a strained father son relationship.
Darius's struggles were so earnest and painful and the slow build of stress really hits hard at the end.
Looking forward to sobbing more in book two.
This book...is the first one in a long ass time that got me to cry without warning. I was enjoying this quite blandly over audiobook, ya kno, something to do while driving to and from work and BAM I get to the end and WATERFALL. No warning.
It's an incredibly written book about identity in multiple senses of the word, and struggling to grow up while dealing with clinical depression. I loved the handling of clinical depression, family and ethnic identity struggles as a biracial person in America, and a strained father son relationship.
Darius's struggles were so earnest and painful and the slow build of stress really hits hard at the end.
Looking forward to sobbing more in book two.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Racial slurs, and Racism
just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
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: Bullying and Islamophobia
malloryfitz's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Islamophobia, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicidal thoughts