Darius vs. Rydr

Darius the Great is Not Okay
From the beginning of the novel, I was interested, but not necessarily sold on the protagonist being a teenage boy. So often teen literature deals with a female lead struggling through life's triumphs but Darius soon becomes as much a heroic lead as his feminine counterparts in other coming of age stories. The struggles that Darius deals with from bullying, acne (ergh the description will make you green), depression, and friendship can be related to regardless of gender, making the journey of the protagonist important rather than who 'he' is. He deals with 'things' comically at times and emotionally at others that I found I could not help but relate to him.
How often does a YA novel teach you something new? I discovered so much about life in Iran and the Farsi language that I never knew I wanted to know but feel that much more involved with the character's development as he too learns about his family and cultural history and significance.
I often need to connect to the characters in what I read and their development will sell me or distract me from thoroughly enjoying a book, for this reason, Darius the Great is Not Okay gets my vote.

As I ramble on about character development and whether or not I like or dislike a novel, Train I Ride had our typical female protagonist struggling through changes and adapting to somewhat obscure situations. Although resourceful character Rydr just didn't captivate me. I made the mistake of beginning to read reviews f this book and there is a tremendous amount of praise for the writing, some saying it is poetically written, it makes me want to go back to see what I missed the first time around. I felt the relationships that Rydr establishes were too quickly created and therefore superficial.Contrary to many reviews, I didn't connect with the plot nor protagonist and having to choose the better of the two novels for this round, Darius was much more believable!

Jan Riemer Staff