Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He's about to take his first-ever trip to Iran, and it's pretty overwhelming--especially when he's also dealing with clinical depression, a disapproving dad, and a chronically anemic social life. In Iran, he gets to know his ailing but still formidable grandfather, his loving grandmother, and the rest of his mom's family for the first time. And he meets Sohrab, the boy next door who changes everything.
Sohrab makes sure people speak English so Darius can understand what's going on. He gets Darius an Iranian National Football Team jersey that makes him feel like a True Persian for the first time. And he understands that sometimes, best friends don't have to talk. Darius has never had a true friend before, but now he's spending his days with Sohrab playing soccer, eating rosewater ice cream, and sitting together for hours in their special place, a rooftop overlooking the Yazdi skyline.
Sohrab calls him Darioush--the original Persian version of his name--and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he's Darioush to Sohrab. When it's time to go home to America, he'll have to find a way to be Darioush on his own.
Released August 28, 2018 by Dial Books
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My Thoughts:
Darius the Great Is Not Okay is a stunning debut about a teen boy who travels to Iran to meet his close-to-death grandfather and his loving grandmother – all while dealing with his depression, family issues, and new-found friend, Sohrab.
I had the opportunity to see Adib Khorram speak about this novel at the Young Adult Buzz Panel at Book Expo this year, and I was curious, but there was nothing super compelling to me at first glance. The moment I picked this book up, I was entranced. the other day, I was trying to explain my feelings about this book to my friend, and I compared it to Perks of Being a Wallflower. Minus the sexual assault, add in a foreign country, and it's a similar equation.
Darius is an amazing character to see the thoughts of, as he is struggling with depression and has no one to turn to with his feelings. At times when he has depressed thoughts, Darius turns to the reader for confirmation that what he was feeling is normal. Every time Darius did this, my heart broke, and it made me really feel for Darius as a reader.
I'm very interested in culture, and I knew that this was an own-voices story about Iran, so I was eager to see how this would play out in the book. Adib did a great job at putting little snippets of the culture into the book, and how Darius struggled with being a "fractional" Persian and a "fractional" American. A big struggle for Darius was not being American enough, but not being American enough. This was a big part of Darius finding his place in both aspects.
The friendship between Darius and Sohrab was so innocent and pure – it made me smile every time there was a scene between the two. There were embarrassing moments, like any new friendship, but their friendship was a joy to see blossom on the pages. There were a couple of scenes that I looked and thought "there's no way that would happen in real life", but I think that may have been a culture disparity.
Lastly, the family dynamics were the star of the show. You have Darius and his struggling relationship with his father, who only bonds with him for the 40-some minutes they watch Star Trek at night; you have Darius with his younger sister, who is much more Persian that he is; you have Darius and his dying Babou, who looks down on Darius for not being Persian enough, but Darius has no real relationship with; and lastly is Darius and Mamou, who loves him unconditionally despite his non-Persian upbringing. Each relationship in this was so well-done.
Like I said, this book is very similar to Perks in the sense of how it's written. The main character is so sad and somber, and you just want to give him a hug or a gentle push to keep moving along. The writing was absolutely beautiful, and I will definitely be picking up anything that Adib Khorram writes in the future.
Stars: 4 out of 5 stars
What I Liked: Darius as a narrator, all the family dynamics
What I Disliked: Some scenes between Darius and Sohrab, but otherwise nothing!
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