Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

This was such a sweet and adorkable YA story about dealing with depression and a feeling of not belonging as well as learning to accept who you are and finding your place in the world.

Darius is a biracial Persian/American teenager (or a “Fractional Persian” as he calls himself) with a mother who was born and raised in Iran and an American dad. In school he’s a bullied outcast and, even though he and his dad share the love for Star Trek, Darius feels like he’s constantly a big disappointment to his athletic and successful dad (“Teutonic Übermensch” as Darius describes him) who can’t understand why Darius doesn’t just stand up for himself in school. When the family takes a trip to Iran to visit his terminally ill grandfather, the feeling of being lost and outside and like he doesn’t truly belong anywhere gets even stronger. On top of that, Darius suffers from clinical depression. But when Darius meets Sohrab, the teenage neighbor of his grandparents, he finally gets a true friend and everything changes.

I really enjoyed the exploration of Persian/Iranian culture and the authentic and careful description of Darius’ depression. I also adored the tender friendship between Darius and Sohrab, but I had perhaps expected it to be a little bit more romantic since this book is labelled as a LGBTQ story. But it was more like it was softly hinted that Darius might be queer than it being fully addressed, or the friendship with Sohrab ever going further than being a truly trusting relationship where they could be themselves.

At first, I also really loved the special writing style, since it was truly giving Darius a unique and quirky voice (for example he never referred to the water boiler as that, but giving it names like “Smaug, the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities” or “Smaug, the Irrepressibly Finicky”), but after a while it got a little too repetitive and took focus from some of the important feelings and events happening.

But all in all, this was a gripping coming-of-age story dealing with depression and teenage awkwardness in a sweet and quiet way. Adib Khorram truly has a talented and unique voice and I can’t wait to read more of his work.

Rating:
4 stars

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​Author info:
Adib Khorram