Darius the Great Deserves Better

A good continuation of Darius's story. This chapter see Darius as a little more confident, and focuses more on his relationship with his family and burgeoning romantic interests. Like the first, Khorram's writing is quietly lovely. It's queer and sensitive and real and focuses on finding identity and navigating relationships. I enjoy these slice-of-life novels for their authenticity and as a break from the sometimes overwhelming and showy YA conventions. This will have a large audience because the first book has been (rightfully) popular. It also feels like a third book might be on the horizon.

there's something about this story, its characters, adib khorram's writing and the way it all comes together that just moves me

of course, with any story where a character has depression, i'm always wary of the depiction. but i think darius the great sets the bar/standard for depression depiction, at least for my personal taste, because it so closely reflects what i experience as a queer POC in america who lives with depression. i cried constantly throughout this book not because its content was sad (well, there were a lot of sad things) but because of darius' words and actions, because so often they resonated with me so deeply.

i love darius so so much, and i'm sad that there isn't currently a darius 3 in the works, but you can bet that i'll be on the look out for any announcements for it till the end of tune

This book. Wow. The conversations that it can open up.

Okay. I did not like the romance part of this book. I never enjoy reading romance novels; that's just me. However, the book uses the romance and discomfort as just part of the overall story. The bigger story is about relationships. We have relationships with those we love/like, our friends, our family, our extended family, etc. Each of these relationships can and will be both messy and beautiful. We can make them better by communicating; when we are not saying what we are thinking or telling people when they hurt us or help us, both members of a relationship fall into traps of assumption, imagination, and expectation.

The story shows, in a tender way, how much better relationships can be when we take the time and courage to be honest and open. Good book.

I was glad to have the chance to see Darius back after I loved the first volume so much! However this second one is quite different, the pacing was really strange and it felt a bit like an “in-between” story rather than a full-fledged one. It leaves you wanting more with way too many things left in the open so I'm a bit frustrated by that. Still it was great to have the chance to follow Darius's live a bit more and this absolutely perfect depiction of what it is to live with depression. I hope we'll have the chance to follow a bit more of this life in the future.