Adib Khorram's ONE WORD, SIX LETTERS

Thanks to partners NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing for the digital ARC of Adib Khorram's One Word, Six Letters. 

Adib Khorram’s One Word, Six Letters is inspired, he explains in his Author’s Note, by an actual event when—during an author talk at his school—someone yelled a homosexual slur, presumably aimed at Khorram, in the middle of the assembly.

In Khorram’s fictionalized version of events, the boy who yells the slur is Dayton. He shouted the word on a bet from a friend. He realized that it wasn’t a word he should say, but he also didn’t realize it was all that big a deal. So, Dayton is somewhat shocked that, in the aftermath, he loses the respect of his brother and his two best friends and becomes the target of whispers and stares at school.

Farshid is Dayton’s classmate and has always liked him fine. But now? Farshid feels that Dayton’s shout has set off rumors and whispers in the hallways, considerations of who might be gay. And Farshid is worried that the speculation may fall on him. He undertakes a regimen of boxing and weightlifting and extreme diet restriction to ensure that he looks the part of “being straight.”

Khorram’s narrative, alternating between the two boys’ points of view, developing each perspective with nuance and empathy. He makes no excuses for Dayton’s decision but does allow him to grow and learn, to seek new friends, to consider the suspicion with which he is now viewed. Farshid—who I found to be the much more sympathetic character from the beginning—is similarly complex, wrestling with his sexual identity and imagining the reactions he could face from his family and friends if he faces the truth he suspects he knows.

As in his other books, Adib Khorram excels at crafting a story meant for young adults but rewarding for any reader. One Word, Six Letters is a worthy read delving into issues we should all be considering: of casual cruelty, of empathy, of friendship, and of the ways that we can grow.

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