Khorram’s debut novel is filled with insight into the lives of teens, weaving together the reality of living with mental illness while also dealing with identity and immigration politics. For the first time in a long time, Darius learns to love himself no matter what external forces attempt to squash his confidence. Sohrab teaches Darius what friendship is really about: loyalty, honesty, and someone who has your back in a football (soccer) match. But all that changes when Darius meets Sohrab, a Bahá’í boy, in Yazd. When he arrives in Iran, learning to play the Persian card game Rook, socializing, and celebrating Nowruz with a family he had never properly met before is all overwhelming and leaves Darius wondering if he’ll ever truly belong anywhere. He’s mocked for his name and nerdy interests at Chapel Hill High School in Portland, Oregon, and doesn’t speak enough Farsi to communicate with his Iranian relatives either. Iranian on his mother’s side and white American on his father’s side, Darius never quite fits in. When Darius’ grandfather becomes terminally ill, Darius, along with his parents and younger sister, travels to Iran for the first time in his life.
Freesia uses an aggressively vapid, too-hip vocabulary, in which something really good is “de-vicious” and a kiss is a “face link,” to heighten the fun.įreesia’s plenty spunky, and so is this hilarious book.ĭarius Kellner suffers from depression, bullying by high school jocks, and a father who seems to always be disappointed in him. With constantly clever comic writing, Snow disguises her serious examination of the dangers involved in immersion in fantasy and living by whim. Finally, she tries to return to the virtual world, but this time, she knows it’s only a computer program. Thrown into her local high school, Freesia does no work and can’t connect with her former best friend. Yet glitches occur as the program generating this virtual world begins to crash, sending Freesia back to reality, where her parents and sister appear to see her only as annoying. Everyone on the island, including Freesia, looks beautiful and goes to parties every night. Foreign-language classes focus on food instead of the language, which is never taught. She orders her teachers around, never bothering to study any subject. On her island world, Freesia needs only to place an order in her portable bubble device to get her perpetually smiling mother to serve her breakfast, to choose from the hundreds of outfits she owns, or to communicate with friends and watch her enemies. Freesia lives on a seemingly magical island where every whim is answered in this nifty sci-fi comedy.
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