Reviews

Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

aliena_jackson's review against another edition

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5.0

How are these books so perfect? Each one is better than the last. I hope we get more of Darius, and soon!

riley_97ri's review against another edition

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5.0

This was an amazing sequel!! So glad I was able to read more about Darius’s story and see his character grow, change and experience new things.
The writing abs story were nice and so easy to jump into I could read it for hours abs not notice the time or how my arm had gone numb!
It really expressed the hardships of first relationships, the highs and lows of friendship and of the times of tension and hardship of family, and how one can be stronger on the other side. And how sometimes you need that support.
A much read
5/5

breakfastgrey's review against another edition

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1.0

I seem to be alone in this opinion, but I thought this book was a massive letdown. It's one of those sequels that isn't just bad on its own, but makes you doubt if the other book was ever actually good to begin with. I did appreciate that Khorram flew in the face of a lot of writing tropes, but I also think he absolutely wrote the wrong book. I would've much rather read Laleh's book. Or even Chip's. Their arcs were so much more interesting.

Darius' book, though? It was overlong, extremely repetitive, and featured a lead whose whiny passivity becomes infuriating by the end. I'm not sure what was author, what was character, and what was supposed to be the depression, but this book absolutely destroyed Darius as a character for me. He doesn't deserve better. His life is pretty freaking amazing and everyone spends the book bending over backwards for him because apparently he's just the best, as we are told every. freaking. page. by every character. We're constantly told how wonderful he is, but there's very little in the plot to actually support that besides roughly a hundred scenes of him making tea for somebody.

And that's not even tapping into all of the plot peculiarities along the way--Laleh's book choices (regardless of her giftedness, those are bizarre books for a 3rd grader to have self selected), Darius' overnight popularity (seriously, all the hot guys are in love with him and all of the kids at school think he's awesome now except for Trent), and the family's inexplicable money problems (despite two parents working extra overtime, one of whom is an architect). Or the fact that 2/3 of this book is some combination of 2 scenes: Chip smiling at Darius or Darius making out with Landon. This was a solid short story that somehow went on for 350 pages.

I'm going to go scream into a paper bag now.

brittyashley's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

botanicals's review against another edition

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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

5.0

ellanapton's review against another edition

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reflective 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? N/A

4.75

courtneysbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

“Being depressed doesn’t mean I’m not happy. It’s like, happy is one color. And depressed is another color. And you can paint happy, and then paint a little depression around the edges.” I liked the first book a little more but this was still a very solid book. I really enjoyed this duology!

This book delves into so many amazing topics and Darius is definitely one of my comfort characters.

sugaliakbar's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted 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

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. 

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booksarebae's review against another edition

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4.0

4.3

not as good as the first, but cute all the same. i miss sohrab