Typical teen novel, but more diverse
This felt like a typical YA book, just more diverse.
• I liked the fact that this book tackled so many topics: Persian-American identity, loss, family, friendship, bullying, mental illness, toxic masculinity, and parent-child relationships (and it hinted at some LGBTQ+ storylines that I think will be explored in the next book). However, I wanted to see MORE of Darius’ relationship with his white and also depressed father, as well as more about how his mental illness was treated in Iran. The book was far too short for all the themes packed into it.
• I alternated between the audiobook and the book (I lucked out and was able to check both out from the library), and found that the characters lost a lot of depth when I was reading as opposed to listening. The accents that the narrator did added a lot of character to the story that just didn’t exist on the page. This is a plus for the audiobook narrator and a minus for the actual text.
• There were, however, some genius narrative choices made around how Darius refers to his dad (either “Stephen Kellner” or “the Übermensch,” to convey how Darius feels about his father).
• Despite the book’s plot being fairly formulaic for a YA, I got through it in a little less than two days. I get why it’s so highly recommended, but this just wasn’t for me.
• The cast of characters was so well drawn but everyone was just so… nice. While this made for lovable characters, they were also very unrealistic. Or maybe that’s just all the murder mysteries I read talking.
• I liked the fact that this book tackled so many topics: Persian-American identity, loss, family, friendship, bullying, mental illness, toxic masculinity, and parent-child relationships (and it hinted at some LGBTQ+ storylines that I think will be explored in the next book). However, I wanted to see MORE of Darius’ relationship with his white and also depressed father, as well as more about how his mental illness was treated in Iran. The book was far too short for all the themes packed into it.
• I alternated between the audiobook and the book (I lucked out and was able to check both out from the library), and found that the characters lost a lot of depth when I was reading as opposed to listening. The accents that the narrator did added a lot of character to the story that just didn’t exist on the page. This is a plus for the audiobook narrator and a minus for the actual text.
• There were, however, some genius narrative choices made around how Darius refers to his dad (either “Stephen Kellner” or “the Übermensch,” to convey how Darius feels about his father).
• Despite the book’s plot being fairly formulaic for a YA, I got through it in a little less than two days. I get why it’s so highly recommended, but this just wasn’t for me.
• The cast of characters was so well drawn but everyone was just so… nice. While this made for lovable characters, they were also very unrealistic. Or maybe that’s just all the murder mysteries I read talking.