Darius the Great Is Not Okay Paperback – August 20, 2019

Beautifully written and rich in its exploration of emotions in the dynamics of relationships. One gets to feel and “almost” experience the characters’ situations even in a foreign land and foreign experiences. So much humble love !!

Prepare yourself for Darius the Great is Not Okay.You are about to fall in love with Dairouish, aka, Darius, a bullied, depressed, tea-making- obsessed, Lord-of-the-Rings and Star-Trek: The-Next-Generation-nerd who doesn't feel like he fits in at school, his family, or the world at large. He refers to himself as a Fractional Persian, his mother is Iranian and his father, Steven Kellner, is a blond-haired, blue-eyed white American. His adorable and precocious little sister, Laleh, is fluent in Farsi, and unlike him, converses easily with their Iranian grandparents over Skype.After a particularly humiliating bullying incident in which his bike seat was stolen and replaced with a pair of truck nuts, i.e., blue rubber testicles, Darius learns that the family is going to Iran to meet his grandparents in person. His grandfather is terminally ill.This story tackles chronic depression, body image, antidepressants, bullying, identity formation, cross-cultural issues, loneliness, and the emotional turmoil of growing up.This is not your average angsty, teenage dramedy with a Disney-esque ending.First time author, Adhib Khorram, captures Darisus's sensitivity, confusion, and self-doubt with honesty and humor. He reframes sudden mood swings as Mood Slingshot Maneuvers, crying as Containment Breaches, and bullies as Soulless Minions of Orthodoxy.On finding the right medication:"That was before Dr. Howell switched me off Prozac, which gave me mood swings so extreme, they were more like Mood Slingshot Maneuvers, powerful enough to fling me around the sun and accelerate me into a time warp." (33)Darius is surprised at the depth of his grandparents love for him and his love for them. He discovers the true motivation behind his father's "disappointment" in him.He experiences real friendship for the first time with a boy named Sohrab, a boy who laughs and loves as easily as Darius anguishes and controls. Although the relationship with Sohrab remains platonic, Darius has moments of allowing himself to examine his own sexual orientation.This is a stand alone book, but I would love to see how Darius continues to explore his romantic feelings as a college student and young adult.After reading the book, I knew that I had to hear the correct pronunciations, accents, and inflections. Michel Levi Harris's narration showcases the gorgeous Farsi language and captures the nuanced emotions of the characters.Darius the Great is Not Okay is rich, complex, authentic, and informative.Read it. Listen to it. Or both.

Reading Adib Khorram’s “Darius the Great Is Not Okay” reminded me of how my family used to travel to Vienna, Austria to visit my Tante Anni and other relatives—minus the interrogation. I love Persian people (not the regime) and I love Persian food (especially abgoosht), so this YA book was really fulfilling for me.For some reason, though, a high percentage of the population that contains testosterone is literally fascinated with their own genitalia. The book began with references to testicles and then graduated to penises, foreskins, and circumcision. While many of the references were indeed funny, I just can’t imagine why Khorram, who is a really creative writer, couldn’t come up with something else.The book, at first, was really clean. At first, there was just a single cuss word (sh%$), but near the end of the book, the author increased its usage. Either I’m just old school or the YA standards have changed. Either way, Khorram is a really good writer—so good, in fact, that he could have used other words. If he had chosen to.Overall, the book’s ending was satisfying, but there was one question that the author never answered and that really irked me. On page 287, Darius and his father were having a conversation after which,“…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 top of my head again. Maybe he knew, without me saying it out loud, that I wasn’t ready to talk about more. Maybe he did…”I have an idea about what this so-called secret is, but the author never bothered to address it before the book ended. Adib Khorram is a really good writer and the story was interesting.

A coming-of-age story of self-proclaimed “fractional Persian” Darius (he’s half Persian/half white), a teenage boy from Portland, OR who loves Star Trek and Lord of the Rings, and goes on a family trip to Iran for the first time to visit his mom’s family. Darius is a sweet and sensitive kid who is bullied at home, and makes his first really close friend in Iran with his grandparents’ neighbor Sohrab. Darius and his dad both struggle with depression, but their shared struggle doesn’t bring them together, things between them feel more awkward every day. Darius feels lonely, self-conscious, unsure, and unwanted in his own family, but dotes on his younger sister Laleh. Darius is just trying to figure himself out, deal with his strained relationship with his dad, his grandfather’s declining health, meeting his grandparents in person for the first time, trying to connect with his Persian roots, and feeling like he doesn’t fit in anywhere; too Persian in America and not Persian enough in Iran. His friendship with Sohrab is like a lifeline, and he feels fully accepted for the first time and appreciates Sohrab’s affectionate and understanding nature. This book is not a romance, and doesn’t really get into Darius’s sexuality, but that will be explored in the sequel. I just totally fell in love with Darius, Sohrab, and Darius’s parents and grandparents. This trip is really life changing for him and it was just beautiful to read about. I really didn’t want this book to end and immediately started the second book the moment I finished it. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was amazing. This book is going onto my all time favorite books list, I can’t even express how much I adored it.CW: Discussion of depression and its effects, racist comments, fatphobic comments, body-shaming, bullying

Just the sweetest, most ensuring story. Highly recommend it. It was a bit of a tear jerker, but in a touching way.