The Authentics

Summary: Daria Esfandyar is a fifteen-year old Iranian teenager living in L.A. She loves her friends and her family, but more than anything she prides herself on staying true to her Iranian heritage, unlike Heidi, her former best friend. She is so proud, in fact, that she self-appoints her friend group as “The Authentics.” Unfortunately, everything changes for Daria when she makes an unsettling discovery while working on a school project. Family relationships are strained, friendships are tested, and Daria has to discover what her identity truly means to her. 

Critical Evaluation: The Authentics is Abdi Nazemian’s first young adult novel, and therefore it’s expected that in some areas he succeeds and in others falls short. First and foremost, the book follows a unique plot as a teenage girl who is passionate about her heritage discovers she is adopted. Despite adoption being a common practice, it still isn’t a topic that’s found very often in literature. Combined with the anxiety she experiences over redefining her cultural heritage, the story is, one might say, very authentic. Young adults who struggle to hold onto bits of their cultural identity while also living in America will relate to Daria, even if they haven’t been secretly adopted.

The Authentics succeeds and falls short in the same category, characters and their development. Positively, the story contains a cast of characters that cover a large span of cultures and identities. Daria’s friend group of Kurt, Caroline, and Joy consists of multiple ethnicities and sexualities, and Daria’s own brother is gay and dating a Chinese man. The novel also does a good job of exploring what happens when these identities clash. Unfortunately, Daria herself is a character that at times is hard to like. Her asides about the people around her often feel unnecessarily snarky. While her feelings surrounding her identity are no doubt relatable, her harsh opinions may be off putting to teens reading, and though she does experience growth, it is rushed in towards the end of the novel. For example, Daria snaps at her mother saying, “she’s not my mother,” however quite shortly after accepts her new identity as being adopted (Nazemian, 2017, p. 227). There is also a romance that never quite fleshes out, and feels forced into the novel. 

Despite these awkward moments, ultimately The Authentics is an important story about what it truly means to be yourself, and what it means to be a family. It questions how we define the relationships in our lives, and how they ultimately define us. 

Reader’s Annotation: More than anything, Daria is proud of her Iranian heritage and her authenticity, but a school assignment will soon have her questioning everything she knows about her family, culture, and who she really is.