Darius the Great Is Not Okay: Chapters 11–14

by Adib Khorram
Darius has always struggled to fit in: he suffers from depression, he is bullied at school, and he can never seem to meet his father's high expectations. When Darius's family travels to Iran to visit his grandparents, Darius finds a place where he belongs, and a true friendship, for the first time.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–10, Chapters 11–14, Chapters 15–19, Chapters 20–26, Chapters 27–36
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. hull
    the frame or body of a ship
    She crashed into Mom and grabbed her by the face, kissed her on both cheeks, left-right-left, and then wrapped her in a hug strong enough to buckle a starship’s hull.
  2. caldera
    a large crater caused by the violent explosion of a volcano
    I was oily and puffy from thirty-two hours of flying, and I still had the caldera of the solar system’s largest volcano smoldering between my eyebrows.
  3. smolder
    burn slowly and without a flame
    I was oily and puffy from thirty-two hours of flying, and I still had the caldera of the solar system’s largest volcano smoldering between my eyebrows.
  4. euphoria
    a feeling of great elation
    Her hand was warm, but her fingers sent shivers of euphoria through my scalp.
  5. lackluster
    not having brilliance or vitality
    Shirin Kellner was an expert chanter but a lackluster storyteller.
  6. alabaster
    a fine-textured white gypsum used for carving
    To be honest, even though I had seen plenty of pictures, I still kind of expected Yazd to look like a scene from Aladdin: dirt streets lined with palm trees, domed palaces made out of sparkling alabaster, laden camels carrying goods to a bazaar of wooden stalls covered in jewel-colored fabric awnings.
  7. laden
    filled with a great quantity
    To be honest, even though I had seen plenty of pictures, I still kind of expected Yazd to look like a scene from Aladdin: dirt streets lined with palm trees, domed palaces made out of sparkling alabaster, laden camels carrying goods to a bazaar of wooden stalls covered in jewel-colored fabric awnings.
  8. bazaar
    a street of small shops, especially in the Middle East
    To be honest, even though I had seen plenty of pictures, I still kind of expected Yazd to look like a scene from Aladdin: dirt streets lined with palm trees, domed palaces made out of sparkling alabaster, laden camels carrying goods to a bazaar of wooden stalls covered in jewel-colored fabric awnings.
  9. seamless
    not having a joint between two pieces
    The houses didn’t look so different either, except they were made of whitish bricks instead of seamless siding.
  10. ornate
    marked by complexity and richness of detail
    Some had ornate wooden double doors in front, with elaborate metal knockers.
  11. oversight
    an unintentional omission from failure to notice something
    There were no cacti anywhere—another oversight on Fatty Bolger’s part, because I looked it up, and cacti are actually native to the Americas.
  12. discrete
    constituting a separate entity or part
    My uncle had two discrete eyebrows—not a single connecting hair between them—which was deeply reassuring, because I had always worried about growing a Persian Unibrow.
  13. encompass
    include in scope
    It is the Primary Social Cue for Iranians, encompassing hospitality and respect and politeness all in one.
  14. mote
    a tiny piece of anything
    The lights were still off, and the narrow windows didn’t let in much of the morning sun. Where they did, thin shafts of light struck the dust motes suspended in the air and lit the photos on the walls.
  15. continuum
    an extent in which no part is distinct from adjacent parts
    Our journey through the space-time continuum, followed by my near brush with State-Sanctioned Torture at the hands of Customs Officer II, had left me feeling disoriented and gross.
  16. abstract
    not representing or imitating external reality
    I stared at the toilet: a perfect porcelain bowl, set in the floor with rose-colored tiles arranged all around in an abstract mosaic.
  17. billowing
    characterized by great swelling waves or surges
    It buzzed a little bit, and I had a brief vision of it experiencing a non-passive failure and exploding into a billowing cloud of smoke and motor particles, but then it got up to speed.
  18. inexorably
    in a manner impervious to change or persuasion
    But by the time I’d gotten my pants off and pulled back the sheets, the fan had danced itself around to face me once more, shaking and shimmying inexorably toward my bed.
  19. unnerve
    disturb the composure of
    I slipped into bed and faced the wall, but I could feel that fan.
    It was watching me. Waiting for me to lower my guard.
    It was deeply unnerving.
  20. impotent
    lacking power or ability
    I had tossed off my covers while I was asleep, and the Dancing Fan lay facedown, its blades pushing air impotently at the floor.
  21. trellis
    train on latticework, as of a vine
    He was staring out into the garden, past the rows of herbs, toward a shed hidden behind a trellised kiwi tree.
  22. inane
    devoid of intelligence
    “Um,” I said. “Hey.”
    And then I realized that was quite possibly the most inane greeting in the history of American-Iranian relations.
  23. meticulous
    marked by extreme care in treatment of details
    When it comes to keeping track of our family trees, Persians are even more meticulous than Hobbits.
  24. devoid
    completely wanting or lacking
    Even the photographs I had seen were usually devoid of human inhabitants.
  25. glower
    look angry or sullen as if to signal disapproval
    I tried to glower at Sohrab, but it was impossible, because he was squinting again and I ended up laughing instead.
  26. phoenix
    a legendary bird that burned to death and emerged reborn
    It has other stories too, like Feridoun and his three sons, and Zal and the Simurgh (which is the Persian version of a phoenix), and King Jamsheed, but none of them are as famous as the story of Rostam and Sohrab.
  27. ingrained
    deeply rooted; firmly fixed or held
    It was also deeply ingrained in the DNA of every Persian man and boy, which is probably why all Persian boys work so hard to please their fathers.
  28. chador
    a cloth used as a head and body covering by Muslim women
    Most of the women had on headscarves and long-sleeved jackets, but some wore full chadors: big black robes that covered them from head to toe, except the perfect hole where their faces peered out.
  29. intermittent
    stopping and starting at irregular intervals
    We sat and drank our tea in total silence, except for the intermittent sound of slurping.
  30. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    I held out my hand, and he shook it, though it was loose and fleeting and felt kind of weird.
  31. nominal
    existing in name only
    Sohrab was our nominal forward, which left me de facto defender, but really, both of us played all over the field.
  32. de facto
    existing, whether with lawful authority or not
    Sohrab was our nominal forward, which left me de facto defender, but really, both of us played all over the field.
  33. latent
    not presently active
    I had to fend off my share of goals, which I mostly did, through some combination of luck, coincidence, and latent memories of my pre-medication training.
  34. vendetta
    a blood feud between members of opposing parties
    It seemed I had misread the situation between Sohrab and Ali-Reza, who had acted like friends, but were clearly engaged in some sort of personal vendetta that could only be settled through soccer/non-American football.
  35. secular
    of or relating to the doctrine that rejects religion
    We celebrated Nowruz and Chaharshanbeh Suri together in big parties, Bahá’ís and Muslims and Jews and Christians and Zoroastrians and even secular humanists like Stephen Kellner, and it didn’t matter.
Created on Tue Feb 26 16:33:30 EST 2019 (updated Wed Feb 27 12:01:18 EST 2019)

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