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Critique de Alba88
This YA novel tackles a lot of important subjects in a quite light and moving way.
(... yes, I cried on more than one occasion towards the end of the book)
First of all, there is Darius' depression, the way mental illness affects his relationships with others and himself. His father suffers from it too, but he refuses to talk about it, which leads Darius to think that he's not ‘good enough' at fighting it. Darius' relationship with his father (who is not Iranian like his mother) is also one of the central topics of this novel; he's constantly trying to make him proud and constantly believing he is not managing, which results in an utter lack of self-esteem.
Darius struggles to understand who he is, he feels not at his place and is frequently mocked at school because of being different, of being the son of an immigrant. When his mother discovers that her father suffers from cancer and decides they are all going to visit her family in Iran, Darius gets a chance to discover a part of himself he is not at all in touch with (he doesn't even speak the language!). This will be a difficult journey for him, but also a cathartic one, because he will finally find a friend, Sohrab. Platonic male friendship, as the author explains afterwords, is also one of the central subjects of this book. Darius has never really had friends and is surprised and moved in finally finding someone like Sohrab, who seems to understand him like no one else.
Overall, I found Adib Khorram's writing quite fluid, and very easy to read (at times even too easy, the sentences are very short and simple), but at times the many repetitions are a bit too emphatic for my taste; I also confess the continual quotes from Star Trek and the Lord of the Ring kind of irritated me a bit. But I enjoy reading it and I found Darius' character very easy to get attached to, as all the other characters. I was also very happy to learn a bit about Iran, the food, the language, and the traditions. I did not fall in love with the book as much as I had with ‘Kiss and Tell', but I still liked it enough to be impatient to read the sequel!
(... yes, I cried on more than one occasion towards the end of the book)
First of all, there is Darius' depression, the way mental illness affects his relationships with others and himself. His father suffers from it too, but he refuses to talk about it, which leads Darius to think that he's not ‘good enough' at fighting it. Darius' relationship with his father (who is not Iranian like his mother) is also one of the central topics of this novel; he's constantly trying to make him proud and constantly believing he is not managing, which results in an utter lack of self-esteem.
Darius struggles to understand who he is, he feels not at his place and is frequently mocked at school because of being different, of being the son of an immigrant. When his mother discovers that her father suffers from cancer and decides they are all going to visit her family in Iran, Darius gets a chance to discover a part of himself he is not at all in touch with (he doesn't even speak the language!). This will be a difficult journey for him, but also a cathartic one, because he will finally find a friend, Sohrab. Platonic male friendship, as the author explains afterwords, is also one of the central subjects of this book. Darius has never really had friends and is surprised and moved in finally finding someone like Sohrab, who seems to understand him like no one else.
Overall, I found Adib Khorram's writing quite fluid, and very easy to read (at times even too easy, the sentences are very short and simple), but at times the many repetitions are a bit too emphatic for my taste; I also confess the continual quotes from Star Trek and the Lord of the Ring kind of irritated me a bit. But I enjoy reading it and I found Darius' character very easy to get attached to, as all the other characters. I was also very happy to learn a bit about Iran, the food, the language, and the traditions. I did not fall in love with the book as much as I had with ‘Kiss and Tell', but I still liked it enough to be impatient to read the sequel!
