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A review by breakfastgrey
Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram
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.
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.