Excellent YA Contemporary
"Darius the Great is Not Okay" is an excellent contemporary YA book for many reasons. I love how the book explores and explains Persian culture. I have learned so much about it and ended up looking up pictures of many of the places that are mentioned in the story. I love it when books include real places because I can better imagine where the characters are and what they are doing.
Darius is such a unique and complicated character. You start out seeing him as a super nerdy kid, who references Lord of the Rings and Star Trek like a pro. Then you find out that he has been diagnosed with depression and you begin to see how that effects his everyday life. Sometimes Darius is a little frustrating because he automatically expects the worst. Even when meeting Sohrab, he immediately thinks that there's no way they can be friends. But Sohrab is exactly what Darius needs, not only because he is a good friend, but because he understands Darius and encourages him to try and talk things out with his father and even grandfather.
While this story is mostly about the friendship between Darius and Sohrab, it is also about how Darius and his father try to heal their relationship. I would recommend this to anyone who has ever had to deal with depression or trying to reconnect with different family cultures.
Darius is such a unique and complicated character. You start out seeing him as a super nerdy kid, who references Lord of the Rings and Star Trek like a pro. Then you find out that he has been diagnosed with depression and you begin to see how that effects his everyday life. Sometimes Darius is a little frustrating because he automatically expects the worst. Even when meeting Sohrab, he immediately thinks that there's no way they can be friends. But Sohrab is exactly what Darius needs, not only because he is a good friend, but because he understands Darius and encourages him to try and talk things out with his father and even grandfather.
While this story is mostly about the friendship between Darius and Sohrab, it is also about how Darius and his father try to heal their relationship. I would recommend this to anyone who has ever had to deal with depression or trying to reconnect with different family cultures.