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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
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
A really lovely book. As is usual with YA marketed books it's fast paced with blunt prose, but the story is wonderful and wonderfully told. It's definitely a "coming of age" book, and in this case that means not just the MC (the titular Darius) discovering things about himself and who he is as a person and what he wants, but also about the people and the world around him. This book did a great job of balancing the validity of Darius' feelings with the fact that often his feelings are the result of misunderstandings or flawed assumptions on his part. And other characters make bad assumptions about Darius too! People should really talk to each other more and be honest about what they're going through! Also it's gay.
emotional
relaxing
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
Anything I would write here would sound too much like what the reviews read like on the back of the dust jacket.
I can't wait to find out what comes next for Darius.
I can't wait to find out what comes next for Darius.
This was such a warm blanket of a book❤️
I loved learning about the culture and loved Darius’s character. He was so real. The relationships were amazing.
This book was a really soothing read.
(I also loved all the tea)
I loved learning about the culture and loved Darius’s character. He was so real. The relationships were amazing.
This book was a really soothing read.
(I also loved all the tea)
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ooof. You know when you close a book and you just sigh. & you just think 'that was a book written to me... for me'.
This. This was it.
No, I'm not a halfie (I'm fully Persian) & no I'm not unable to speak/feel Persian like Darius, but I'm still a child of immigrants & raised in a Western society. I can understand some of his struggles.
But beyond that, this book made me miss things I didn't know I missed.
I felt homesick? No. Culture-sick. Which was out of my realm of imaginated possible side-effects of reading this book since I feel fairly connected to my Persian culture.
But: I'm away from extended family overseas, I feel the current generations of my Westernised family friends have less connections than the older gens as the elders who initiated the mehmoonis (gatherings) start aging (or have passed away already), + I'm now married & moved-out with a non-Persian so I naturally even have a slightly less daily connection to a Persian lifestyle.
In short, this book made me LONG, YEARN & FEEL so many complicated emotions I hardly thought I had in me.
In the middle of the book, I thought 'oh cute nods to Persian things but this is still a 3-star book because of the slow moving plot(?) or lack of big events... but the sheer emotion it drew out of me by the end was enough to change my mind.
A masterpiece of mental health struggles, heartwarming Persian love, family & complicated self-identity. Could it have had more? Sure. But this was enough. It's okay not to be perfect, as Darius should agree.
This. This was it.
No, I'm not a halfie (I'm fully Persian) & no I'm not unable to speak/feel Persian like Darius, but I'm still a child of immigrants & raised in a Western society. I can understand some of his struggles.
But beyond that, this book made me miss things I didn't know I missed.
I felt homesick? No. Culture-sick. Which was out of my realm of imaginated possible side-effects of reading this book since I feel fairly connected to my Persian culture.
But: I'm away from extended family overseas, I feel the current generations of my Westernised family friends have less connections than the older gens as the elders who initiated the mehmoonis (gatherings) start aging (or have passed away already), + I'm now married & moved-out with a non-Persian so I naturally even have a slightly less daily connection to a Persian lifestyle.
In short, this book made me LONG, YEARN & FEEL so many complicated emotions I hardly thought I had in me.
In the middle of the book, I thought 'oh cute nods to Persian things but this is still a 3-star book because of the slow moving plot(?) or lack of big events... but the sheer emotion it drew out of me by the end was enough to change my mind.
A masterpiece of mental health struggles, heartwarming Persian love, family & complicated self-identity. Could it have had more? Sure. But this was enough. It's okay not to be perfect, as Darius should agree.
**Warning: this text may contain spoilers**
"I was one tiny pulsar in a swirling, luminous galaxy of Iranians, held together by the gravity of thousands of years of culture and heritage. There was nothing like it back home-maybe the Super bowl."
I have literally never read a book that so fundamentally understood and successfully portrayed what it is like to experience childhood depression. After being misunderstood as a rule ALWAYS, I wish I could give this author a hug and thank him for what he's done with this book. It was elegant and emotional, but not too, too devastating to undertake (like a Shaun David Hutchinson) because the author created such a safe atmosphere surrounding the main character. Seriously, thank you. And please live long and prosper.
And all the Trek . . . Through this book, I feel like the author has transmitted his Katra to me via telepathic link. Anybody? Nobody? No? Ok...
I'll just say what the Picard might say for now: "Part of having feelings is learning to integrate them into your life...learning to live with them. No matter what the circumstances ... Sometimes it takes courage to try...Courage can be an emotion too."
This author and his MC have courage. Oh no, I'm "excreting excess stress hormones."
I aggressively love the chapter titles.
Trekkies who love YA must read this book. The main character compares literally everything to Star trek, even lettuce and fans. It's amazing. I get so gleeful whenever he compares a food item to Klingon blood wine.
[my sister] looked up at Sohrab and back to me. She could sense the tension hidden between us like a cloaked romulan warbird.
Takes some time to get used to the main characters narration style, so hang out for a while. And I actually have some questions about how . . . affectionate this person is. It's not just him either: it's everyone. At first I thought it might be a cultural difference, but that includes his supposedly distant father who is white. Distant fathers are not like this.
This kid's got a complicated relationship with his Dad, but it's the most important relationship in this book. He's always talking about intermix ratios in calibration of their relationship. It's great.
"My dad was basically the ubermensch."
Every couple pages, this kid says a nerdy space thing and I involuntarily say, "cool."
I don't seem to be able to help it. :O)
"Dad say beside my on the edge of the bed, generating a gravity well to try and pull me out. Standard parental maneuver alpha."
Now, this is also an author who gets how it is to be depressed as a teenager:
"'What are you despressed about?' . . . I hated that question . . . Because the answer was nothing . . . Nothing really bad had ever happened to me."
"'Don't cry, Darius,' Dad tried to wrap his arm around me, but I leaned away.
'I can't help it, ok?'
Dr. Howell used to say that depression is anger turned inward. I had so much anger turned inward, I could have powered a warp core. But without the proper magnetic field strength, it exploded outward instead."
I feel you, kid. People are the worst.
"I didn't really want to die. I just wanted to slip into a black hole and never come out."
Loving the History and culture in this one, and the MC's loving jokes about them:
"Persians have mastered the ancient noble art of the awkward family photo. In fact, we probably invented it. True non-fractional Persians refuse to smile in photos. Unless they are tricked into it. Or they've been talked into it by a combination of pleading, guilt tripping, and high-level Tarufing.
I love his Abba-loving grandmother:
"I loved my grandmother. Before, she had been photons on a computer screen. Now, she was real and full of the most amazing contradictions."
Book-ruining spoilers ahead---------------------
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-----
-----
-----
-----
-----
-------
----
----
---
---
--
---
---
There was one thing that bothered me during the whole book, but it was finally resolved, thank God.
So at first I thought maybe I was imagining that the main character was seriously attracted to his best friend. I wasn't, apparently.
"...his skin was a volcano, with sweat running down every valley. My face was experiencing some extreme thermal flux of its own."
"His flat chest rose and fell, rose and fell, and his stomach muscles rolled with each breath. I knew if I got close enough to him, the intense thermal radiation he was emitting would scorch me."
"'You really love Sohrab, don't you?'
'He's the best friend I ever had.'
Dad looked at me for a long moment, like he knew there was more. But he didn't ask. Instead, he pushed the hair off my forehead, kissed me there, and rested his chin on my forehead. Maybe he knew, without me saying it out loud, that I wasn't ready to talk about more."
The ending of their relationship is elegant and unresolved. And that's completely appropriate.
"I was one tiny pulsar in a swirling, luminous galaxy of Iranians, held together by the gravity of thousands of years of culture and heritage. There was nothing like it back home-maybe the Super bowl."
I have literally never read a book that so fundamentally understood and successfully portrayed what it is like to experience childhood depression. After being misunderstood as a rule ALWAYS, I wish I could give this author a hug and thank him for what he's done with this book. It was elegant and emotional, but not too, too devastating to undertake (like a Shaun David Hutchinson) because the author created such a safe atmosphere surrounding the main character. Seriously, thank you. And please live long and prosper.
And all the Trek . . . Through this book, I feel like the author has transmitted his Katra to me via telepathic link. Anybody? Nobody? No? Ok...
I'll just say what the Picard might say for now: "Part of having feelings is learning to integrate them into your life...learning to live with them. No matter what the circumstances ... Sometimes it takes courage to try...Courage can be an emotion too."
This author and his MC have courage. Oh no, I'm "excreting excess stress hormones."
I aggressively love the chapter titles.
Trekkies who love YA must read this book. The main character compares literally everything to Star trek, even lettuce and fans. It's amazing. I get so gleeful whenever he compares a food item to Klingon blood wine.
[my sister] looked up at Sohrab and back to me. She could sense the tension hidden between us like a cloaked romulan warbird.
Takes some time to get used to the main characters narration style, so hang out for a while. And I actually have some questions about how . . . affectionate this person is. It's not just him either: it's everyone. At first I thought it might be a cultural difference, but that includes his supposedly distant father who is white. Distant fathers are not like this.
This kid's got a complicated relationship with his Dad, but it's the most important relationship in this book. He's always talking about intermix ratios in calibration of their relationship. It's great.
"My dad was basically the ubermensch."
Every couple pages, this kid says a nerdy space thing and I involuntarily say, "cool."
I don't seem to be able to help it. :O)
"Dad say beside my on the edge of the bed, generating a gravity well to try and pull me out. Standard parental maneuver alpha."
Now, this is also an author who gets how it is to be depressed as a teenager:
"'What are you despressed about?' . . . I hated that question . . . Because the answer was nothing . . . Nothing really bad had ever happened to me."
"'Don't cry, Darius,' Dad tried to wrap his arm around me, but I leaned away.
'I can't help it, ok?'
Dr. Howell used to say that depression is anger turned inward. I had so much anger turned inward, I could have powered a warp core. But without the proper magnetic field strength, it exploded outward instead."
I feel you, kid. People are the worst.
"I didn't really want to die. I just wanted to slip into a black hole and never come out."
Loving the History and culture in this one, and the MC's loving jokes about them:
"Persians have mastered the ancient noble art of the awkward family photo. In fact, we probably invented it. True non-fractional Persians refuse to smile in photos. Unless they are tricked into it. Or they've been talked into it by a combination of pleading, guilt tripping, and high-level Tarufing.
I love his Abba-loving grandmother:
"I loved my grandmother. Before, she had been photons on a computer screen. Now, she was real and full of the most amazing contradictions."
Book-ruining spoilers ahead---------------------
----------------------------
-----
-----
-----
-----
-----
-------
----
----
---
---
--
---
---
There was one thing that bothered me during the whole book, but it was finally resolved, thank God.
So at first I thought maybe I was imagining that the main character was seriously attracted to his best friend. I wasn't, apparently.
"...his skin was a volcano, with sweat running down every valley. My face was experiencing some extreme thermal flux of its own."
"His flat chest rose and fell, rose and fell, and his stomach muscles rolled with each breath. I knew if I got close enough to him, the intense thermal radiation he was emitting would scorch me."
"'You really love Sohrab, don't you?'
'He's the best friend I ever had.'
Dad looked at me for a long moment, like he knew there was more. But he didn't ask. Instead, he pushed the hair off my forehead, kissed me there, and rested his chin on my forehead. Maybe he knew, without me saying it out loud, that I wasn't ready to talk about more."
The ending of their relationship is elegant and unresolved. And that's completely appropriate.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
This book gave can excellent example of how depression is different for everyone, how suicide isn’t the only way to lose someone to it, how we can try to love someone and help them but if we aren’t listening to them it can be in the wrong way, generational depression, etc.
Well written loving characters. Full of Persian culture, loved it.
Well written loving characters. Full of Persian culture, loved it.
Ouch. This one hurt.
I thought there would be more of the budding relationship between Darius and Sohrab. But this book is really about family, depression, and the diaspora of being half American and half (really anywhere) but specifically Iranian here.
I thought there would be more of the budding relationship between Darius and Sohrab. But this book is really about family, depression, and the diaspora of being half American and half (really anywhere) but specifically Iranian here.
I thoroughly enjoyed this YA story! It's about identity, depression, family, friendship, complicated father-son relationships, and personal growth. The characters felt real and flawed, the dialogue felt authentic, and I loved seeing Iran through this family. I am so glad I stepped into this world, and can't wait to recommend this one to patrons at the library!
A candid and moving coming-of-age story about a young man living with depression and visiting his family in Iran. Darius is someone you want to succeed, even if he gets in his own way. I appreciate what Adib Khorram brings to YA lit, and I hope he writes more!