Darius the Great Deserves Better

The first Darius book changed my life. This book was a perfect sequel to the first. Darius Deserves Better perfectly expanded upon the world Darius lives in and gives us a window to see into more of his life outside of Iran, and his experiences as not only queer but also as a queer person of color. I adored the way Khorram verbalized the feeling of being in a relationship for the first time and not being quiet able to communicate every emotion. Darius is an incredibly relatable protagonist and it’s nearly impossible to not root for him. The ending was amazing as-well, which is rare since i usually don’t like the endings of books. I highly recommend this novel to anyone and everyone. Lastly; I love that you can read this book without even having to read the first one, I feel as if you read deserves better before is not okay, you would be able to fill in the small gaps since this sequel does a good job of filling the reader in and since the plot line revolves around different themes.

I was so looking forward to this one but boy oh boy, I was disappointed. I still loved their family dynamics but other than that nothing seems to work together. Just my opinion.
Well, at least the ending got me hyped up again.

In the sequel to “Darius the Great is Not Okay,” we find Darius back from Iran and so much has changed. He is out to his family and at school. With an internship at his boyfriend’s dad’s tea shop and a position on the soccer team, everything seems to be going great. But when his dad is called away to work and his two grandmothers move in, Darius tried to balance work, soccer, family, and his boyfriend.

I loved the first book about Darius, set in Iran, the special (non-romantic) relationship with Sohrab, and a very interesting exploration of depression and mental illness. I didn’t like the second novel as much. I was struggling to connect with Darius as a character. He seemed to have everything going for him, but he wasn’t ever happy, and only thought of himself. His boyfriend would make dinner for his family, got him a job at a tea shop and wanted to take things to the next level, but Darius just seemed to whine the whole time. With the introduction of another potential love interest without any real connection who also was a former bully, I just didn’t understand. The specific references to Star Trek and tea were fun in the first book, but I found the constant details distracting. I feel this book, and the main character of Darius, was too safe. The author didn’t want to risk too much pain (maybe because this is based on him) so the novel is free of much drama, substance, interest. This isn’t a terrible book to spend a weekend with, but I was disappointed overall. ★★★☆☆ • Hardcover • Fiction - Young Adult, LGBT • Published by Dial Books on August 25, 2020. ◾︎