Book Review: Darius the Great Deserves Better//One of my most anticipated releases of 2020!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! Sorry I kind of disappeared this week, school has been eating up so much of my time! When I’m not in front of my computer “attending” school, I’m in front of my computer doing homework, or I’m sleeping. It feels like there’s very little in between these days. Anyways, I’m back today and I’m reviewing a book that I was so excited to read as soon as I heard it was coming out, and that is Darius the Great Deserves Better! Note: This post may contain mild spoilers for the first book in this series, Darius the Great is Not Okay.

First off, I would just like to say that Darius the Great is Not Okay is one of my favorite books of all time. In fact a couple weeks ago in school we had to talk about one book we thought everyone should have to read, and this was the book I chose. It was just so relatable, even though I’m nothing like Darius, and I read it during a really hard time in my life and it was just so moving. So needless to say, I had VERY HIGH expectations.

Were they met? For the most part, yes. This book has a pretty similar structure to the last book, where it was just a period of time spent in Darius’s head, hearing his awkward monologues and thoughts about himself and the people around him. And I was very happy with that.

Darius the Great Deserves Better follows Darius as he seems to have everything he wants. He has a boyfriend, a job at the place of his dreams, a spot on the soccer team, and he can always call his best friend Sohrab. But as the year progresses, he wonders if he really has what he wants. His job isn’t as great as he expected, Sohrab is distant, and after becoming better friends with someone who he underestimated, he’s not sure if he has the perfect boyfriend either.

This book made me so happy! After Darius and his father reconcile more in the last book, it was really nice to see them bond and be candid about each other’s mental health. The family relationships in general throughout this book were just so well explored, from Darius figuring out how to get along with his grandmothers, to helping Laleh when she gets bullied at school, to realizing why his mom is so lonely after coming back from Iran. Especially since the last book focused really heavily on just Darius and his dad, it was really nice to see more of his other family members.

Also, the romance in this book. I feel like the cover makes it seem like this book is about a love triangle, but really romance isn’t the main thing going on in this book. This book is about Darius figuring out what he wants out of friendship and romance and what he is comfortable with. This book explored bullying a lot more, since his new friend Chip is best friends with Trent, the guy who has made Darius miserable all of his life.

I also loved how this book explored Darius not loving his dream job. I think it is really important that we see him learning that just because it is something he’s always wanted doesn’t mean it is the right fit for him. Darius becoming more confident and able to say no was also amazing to see. One of the other things I loved about this book was how supportive his soccer teammates were. It was really refreshing to see a sports environment that was not toxic and was full of friends who always lifted each other up.

Overall, I am so glad this book exists and that I was able to read it! Is this book on your TBR? Have you read this book? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!

PS: Sorry this post jumped around and was kind of rambly. I just loved this book so much!

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