Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Before we begin, let me say upfront that I am not your average YA/children's reader (some of you have undoubtedly heard this before). For one, I don't have the same degree of nostalgia for the books of my younger years as many avid readers have. (I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps I should ask my therapist.) Furthermore, I tend to nitpick many of the common traits of these books that I personally find annoying. I attempt to give these novels a rating that reflects my understanding that I'm reading a book for younger readers; yet I don't think writing for adolescents should be an excuse for sloppy or overly simplistic writing. Still, I read them because I know there are exceptions I want to discover, and because I want to be a widely-read reader. So I say all that to say this: my opinion of this and other similar books is merely the mad ramblings of a cranky, middle-aged man who might tell the neighborhood kids to stay off my lawn if I wasn't so incredibly socially intimidated by them. You can stop reading now.

What I liked... I wanted to read Darius the Great Is Not Okay because I knew it tackled mental illness, religion, and Star Trek. That's enough to make an easy sell with me. Of the three topics, I thought Khorram's approach to religion was the least simplistic: I didn't feel like he was trying too hard to constantly explain matters of faith to the reader, and this is a huge plus. I also enjoyed how the author handled the various relationships within this story. The bonds that Darius shared with his parents, grandparents, and friend (Sohrab) were explored with some care and introspection, providing the reader with different approaches to each.

What I didn't like so much... There were three elements I saw repeated here that I often see in stories written for a younger audience. And of course, they annoyed me. The first was the repetitiveness. There's this thing in children's and YA books where the same terms and phrases have to be drilled into the reader's brain. I don't know why this is, but it's a thing. One such phrase in Darius the Great... (though there were several) was “soulless minions of orthodoxy.” I love that the author gave a nod to Deep Space Nine (my favorite of the Trek series), particularly when the Trek in this novel is very TNG-centric, but there's a point when it's excessive–and that was probably the third utterance of the aforementioned phrase.

The other two patterns I saw in this novel was a need to simplify everything (I know the average reader may not be not fully developed, but must everything be explained?) and a primary focus on plot (this story was better than many, but it was still very plot-centric). But see, here I go being nitpicky...

Overall, I thought Darius the Great... was a better-than-average modern YA (yet seemingly written for a not-quite-YA audience?) novel. It tackles some important topics, even if these subjects are heavily coated in sugar for easier swallowing. I almost gave it four stars. And yet, it never takes on the subject that the book seems to be tiptoeing around the whole time... Darius's sexuality. Perhaps I was looking for something that wasn't meant to be there, but I can't help but feel the character of Darius was not allowed to say what he really wanted to say in these pages.