This tear-jerker will leave readers wanting to follow the next chapter in Darius’ life.Īfter surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.

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. Can Bean reconcile her memories of Gus with Lexie’s experiences? Are Henry and Bean’s gothic fantasies truer than they had imagined?ĭarius Kellner suffers from depression, bullying by high school jocks, and a father who seems to always be disappointed in him.

When Bean accidentally discovers that Lexie has a whopper of a secret and that her family’s emotional landscape is more complicated than she dreamed, the news sends shockwaves through her family and Henry’s. When Gus dies suddenly, Bean grieves deeply, while Lexie is liberated: She dyes her hair and gossips late into the night with her best friend Claire and Henry’s reclusive mother, Sally. Bean’s years of eavesdropping have gleaned just three key words: attacked, pregnant, Bill. Bean and her lifelong best friend, Henry, both fatherless fans of Days of Our Lives, imagine grandly soap-operatic scenarios for their respective missing dads, though they both pine for the simplest information about them. A touching family melodrama about the corrosive nature of secrets and the cleansing power of honesty.įifteen-year-old Pearl, known only as Bean, has her peculiar family figured out: Her mom, Lexie, is an emotionally distant but highly functioning alcoholic, while grandfather Gus is loving, gentle and ever-present.

Pearl by Jo Knowles