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. Some secondary characters aside, the cast is largely white.ĭarius Kellner suffers from depression, bullying by high school jocks, and a father who seems to always be disappointed in him. That said, the world-hopping magic will surely earn some readers’ loyalty. The pacing, punctuated by effective action sequences, keeps pushing forward at a good clip, but the story itself is downright predictable, with character-developing revelations and reversals right on schedule, an anemic star-crossed love triangle, and a sequel hook inevitable from the story premise alone. The deeper Liv becomes involved with Cedric, the more she discovers that she might have a connection to the magic between the worlds after all-and the more she puts loved ones at risk. Two months later, Liv spots Cedric again and is dragged into his wrath-dodging life and quest to find the legendary scrolls that will enable the return to his world (and that story-savvy Liv openly declares “the MacGuffin”). Cedric, together with his betrothed and a friend, only barely escapes through a portal to present-day Los Angeles, where they briefly encounter aspiring filmmaker and foster kid Liv. Then, in the middle of the night, crown prince Cedric is woken by wraths who have infiltrated the castle, neutralized the guards, and imprisoned the rest of the royal family. In the parallel world Caelum, magic and monsters are real, and physically gifted Guardians-trained to fight the evil wraths-rule and protect. A teen girl’s destiny crosses with that of a prince from another world.

The Marked Girl by Lindsey Klingele