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. 12+)*justify no*ĭarius Kellner suffers from depression, bullying by high school jocks, and a father who seems to always be disappointed in him. Playing their drama against the death of a young woman in the past-whose love of knowledge resembles Juniper's, but whose quest leads to tragedy rather than love-gives the story poignancy and depth. Though Dylan is drawn like a moth to Juniper's flame, she soon realizes that he has a strength and grace that her sexier, older boyfriend lacks.

With vividly depicted, believable characters, this is superior fantasy. Fortunately, Juniper and Dylan together find the strength to shield Joanna from the agony of her burning. Events rush to a conclusion as Joanna is tried by the ordeal of water and then burned, with Juniper in danger of being pulled into a 20th-century parallel. Juniper's mother warns Dylan that Juniper can be heedless, but Dylan is too fascinated by Juniper and by his own vision of Joanna's plight to withdraw. Some of these are from the past- experiences of a young mother and herb-wife, Joanna. Juniper, whose wide interests include reincarnation and time travel, drags feckless Dylan Pidgley into her experiments with telepathy because he is a marvelous artist and can draw the scenes she transmits. A 14-year-old finds herself psychically linked with a young woman who was burned as a witch in medieval England.

The Juniper Game by Sherryl Jordan