Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Darius the Great Is Not Okay

This was not a guaranteed 5⭐️ book. Not until about the last 30%, when I realized the characters had wormed their way into my heart. I want to give Darius, and his parents, and his grandparents, and his sister, and Sohrab, and even Chip a big ol hug. They all need it.

Content Warnings

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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emotional 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

4.0

I’m kicking myself so hard right now because this book was so hyped when it came out four years ago and at any point during the last four years, I could have read it… and I didn’t. For some reason I don’t even remember, I avoided Darius the Great is Not Okay. Maybe, at the beginning, just because it was a contemporary YA and it took me some time to get acclimated to that genre? Either way, I’ve been missing out, and the steady theme about living with depression that runs through Darius the Great is something I needed to read years ago.

Let this be a lesson – be openminded about your books. You never know which ones you’ll end up loving.

I deeply appreciated Khorram’s discussion of depression in this book. This is one of those moments where the line in the sand is drawn and it become abundantly clear who is writing from personal experience vs. research – Darius’ depression consumes him in a way I think only someone else living with depression could write… and this is something I know a little bit about. I am grateful to Khorram for his vulnerability and creating a character who is so full of life and so consumed by storm clouds. Sometimes there are stereotypical moments, but that’s normal… right? Seriously, I can’t think of a single way Darius’ depression could have been handled better, and it was huge.

While there is a little bubbling romance deep under some interactions in this book, Darius the Great is Not Okay is largely about the relationship between fathers and son and how complicated that can be. It’s about growing up and growing distant. It’s about mental health and health and family. These moments of untraditional discussion within the story brought it to the next level while making it that much more relatable. I am not a fractional-Iranian (Darius’ words) or a male-indentifying person or a teenager, but there were a whole lot of revealing moments in this book for me. If that’s not good writing, I don’t know what is.

I connected with the mental health aspects of this book, so I will admit I didn’t focus as closely on some of the other pieces, like Darius’ relationship with Sohrab, but the soccer games were an interesting piece that helped Darius find purpose and strength. We also see him grow a little in empathy, although I do think he has more to learn. The trip to Iran is interesting, as well as the range of faith in the book. I loved the day they spent at the ruins of ancient Persepolis. My historian’s heart flowed over!

Altogether, Darius the Great is Not Okay is a wonderful read. But it’s twice as good – and twice as important – if you live alongside depression. The representation is fantastic.

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jessi21's review against another edition

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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

5.0

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ana1s'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

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!

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mellvynm's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted 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? No

4.5

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intonewrealms's review

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emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-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

3.5

CW: depression; side effects from medication; suicidal thoughts; body confidence issues; (undiagnosed) anxiety; chronic illness

Darius has always lived in the uncomfortable position of being seen as too different by his American classmates but also too American when compared to other Persians. His mum said she didn’t see any point in speaking Farsi to him growing up but this clearly isn’t truthfully the reason because she has spoken it to his little sister, who is now pretty fluent. That leaves him and his dad united in feeling awkward at family gatherings, but united is perhaps not the word as Darius feels a world away from his dad most of the time too, except when they perform their nightly ritual of watching Star Trek together.

When his babou gets very sick, the family travels to Iran for the first time. Here Darius gets to be the Persian version of himself, Darioush, however it’s still a lot more difficult than he had anticipated. He really loves his sister, in the playing doll tea parties together not just the being a macho older brother way, but he struggles with intense jealousy over the fact that she fits in perfectly both at school in America and in Iran. He’s struggled with depression since he was young, but here in Iran he feels even worse about it because there is constant confusion from those around him about why he is depressed when he has never “had anything bad happen to him” and what his pills are doing to his body.

It was really interesting to learn about Persian culture and Farsi both from what Darius already knew and what we learn with him. I really like the content of this book but I just didn’t really vibe with the style in which it was told. The fact that there was so much repetition really pulled me out of things, and I didn’t personally like the way Darius described everything as ‘level _’, again it was very repetitive. However, that could just be something that bugs me personally, and I am very invested in the story, and intrigued about the next one as I know that it deals more heavily with his sexual identity, which wasn’t ever really a focus here as that wasn’t a part of Darius that he was really exploring at this stage of his life.

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20sidedbi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

4.5

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