Darius the Great Deserves Better

by Adib Khorram

Dial Books, 2020. 342 pages.
Review written August 31, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

I was delighted when I heard this book was coming out. Its predecessor, Darius the Great Is Not Okay came out during my Newbery year, when I was reading everything, so I compared it with lots of other books, and still named it my #3 Sonderbooks Stand-out in General Teen Fiction for that year. In the first book, Darius is dealing with depression in the context of bullying and trouble getting along with his father. Then the family makes an extended trip to Iran to see the grandparents he’s never met, because his Babou is dying of cancer. In Iran, he feels like he fits in even less, but makes his first true friend, ever.

In that book, the reader is pretty sure Darius is gay, but it’s never explicitly stated, and Darius hasn’t put it into so many words. This book begins as Darius is with his boyfriend getting a haircut to match the other guys on his soccer team.

So Darius came out as gay in between books, though he hasn’t told his grandparents in Iran. Relationship issues are a big part of this book, and Darius’s boyfriend wants to have sex, but Darius isn’t ready. This involves discussion of body parts that I don’t even have, so I didn’t relate to it quite as much as the first book, but I still love Darius and his over-willingness to examine his feelings. Because a book narrator who examines his feelings makes the reader realize their own feelings are not so unusual.

Darius is getting along better with his father, but his family is under stress because of the money they spent to go to Iran, and they’re working extra hours. So they decide to have his father’s parents come stay with them – Oma and Grandma. Darius hoped they would have some insight into being queer, but they aren’t very forthcoming. I was interested when I found out that Oma is a transgender woman, and she didn’t come out as transgender until after her grandson Darius was born.

It’s hard to explain why these books are so heart-warming. Darius is someone I can’t help caring about. He’s so authentic, and cries much more often than he’d like to. In this book he’s dealing with romantic problems, which are perhaps more typical problems for an American teen. He handles them with thoughtfulness and sensitivity, but also enough mistakes that you root for this kid.

The cover does give away that there will be some romantic decisions to make, but they didn’t show up in the way I expected. And it does point out that romantic quandaries are universal, whether you’re gay or straight. I hope this isn’t the last book about Darius the Great.

adibkhorram.com
PenguinTeen.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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We Used to Be Friends

by Amy Spalding

Amulet Books, 2020. 362 pages.
Review written March 23, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

This is ultimately a sad book. It’s about the Senior year in high school of two lifelong best friends and how by the end of the year, they weren’t friends any more.

However, although I’m not generally a fan of sad books these days – I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this one. The story is gripping and you get to understand who the girls really are and how this could have happened, even though it wasn’t what either of them wanted.

I hope that a lesson readers will take away from the book is that people who love you can’t read your mind if you don’t tell them what’s going on, but also that you probably need to be receptive. Anyway, it’s not a book about lessons – but it’s a book with friendship dynamics that seem very real, so don’t be surprised if readers pick up some insights.

The story is told out of chronological order, in a way that makes you very eager to know how each part happened. The chapters alternate the perspectives of the two girls, and the book opens with James (one of the girls) headed off to college, wishing Kat were there to say good-by. And then we scoop back to the beginning of the year, when Kat found out her boyfriend had slept with another girl. It’s not too many chapters in when Kat replaces him with a girlfriend.

The skipping around keeps things intriguing. I was honestly amazed that the author pulled off the non-chronological order. I did go back and read the first chapter after reading the last one. Right at the beginning, James mentions that they wrote letters and put them in a time capsule four years ago – “back before Kat’s mom died, or my mom left.” We find out more about those things later in the book.

This is a novel about friendship in high school. And life. And pressures. And secrets you never meant to be secrets. And popularity. And how you care about people. It’s refreshing and it’s fun, besides being touching. And Amy Spalding tells a really good story.

theamyspalding.com
amuletbooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/we_used_to_be_friends.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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The Gravity of Us

by Phil Stamper
narrated by Michael Crouch

Listening Library, 2020. 9 hours, 21 minutes.
Starred Review
Review written June 26, 2020, from a library eaudiobook

Here’s a story of Cal, a teen who already had a large social media following on “Flash Fame” and plans to be a journalist, who has his whole life uprooted when his father is chosen to be an astronaut for NASA’s mission to Mars.

The whole mission has its own reality show, Star Watch, which is basically responsible for the fact that the project got funding in the first place. But Cal is uneasy about their lives going under a magnifying glass when they have to leave New York City for his father’s opportunity and go to Houston.

Cal knew all about the other astronaut families from Star Watch, so he already knew that Leo was incredibly handsome. But he didn’t know that Leo’s sister follows his Flash Fame posts and Leo thinks he’s cute. Their romance makes Cal begin to think Houston might not be so bad.

But as Calvin comes into conflict with Star Watch and their coverage turns more negative, can Calvin use his own following to turn things around?

This story was engaging and wonderful to listen to. I enjoyed that nobody batted an eye or made a big deal about the boys’ gay romance, and it was a nice romance with believable obstacles and misunderstandings along with the excitement and joy. On the audio, the Star Watch portions had a full cast, which did make it sound like you were listening in on a professional show.

I was a little drawn out of the story because they used dates in the present for the Star Watch broadcasts. They started out at the end of 2019, and progressed to hearing a date in August 2020. I wish they had set it about five years in the future, so it would be easier to believe it could really happen. Since obviously, NASA hasn’t put any of this in place yet, and what’s more, the book of course made no mention of any pandemic. So that was a glaring reminder that this is fiction.

But as fiction goes, this story gave me realistic and thoughtful romance, a believable family situation with – this was a surprise – parents who fight a lot at the beginning who grow together when the father gets his dream-come-true job, and even inspiring thoughts about the space program. Add in a teen protagonist figuring out what he wants out of life and working to save the day, and this all came out to a wonderful listening experience.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/gravity_of_us.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an eaudiobook from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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