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The award-winning novel about being out, being proud, and being ready for something else. Pre-order the companion novel Honestly Ben now (out 3/28/17)!
Rafe is a normal teenager from Boulder, Colorado. He plays soccer. He's won skiing prizes. He likes to write.
And, oh yeah, he's gay. He's been out since 8th grade, and he isn't teased, and he goes to other high schools and talks about tolerance and stuff. And while that's important, all Rafe really wants is to just be a regular guy. Not that GAY guy. To have it be a part of who he is, but not the headline, every single time.
So when he transfers to an all-boys' boarding school in New England, he decides to keep his sexuality a secret -- not so much going back in the closet as starting over with a clean slate. But then he sees a classmate breaking down. He meets a teacher who challenges him to write his story. And most of all, he falls in love with Ben... who doesn't even know that love is possible.
- Sales Rank: #29158 in Books
- Brand: Arthur A Levine Books
- Published on: 2015-04-28
- Released on: 2015-04-28
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .80" w x 5.20" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 336 pages
Features
From School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up-Rafe is gay, but he hopes no one will notice at his new all-boys high school in New England. He's not in the closet exactly. Back home in Boulder, his stereotypically progressive and understanding parents championed his coming out in the eighth grade. Since then, Rafe has been unable to escape being the poster boy for Gay Pride. Tired of labels and limitations, he hides his true self in order to fit in and be just one of the guys. For a while it works, and he plays football, pals around with the jocks, and blends in with the straight guys. His best friend back home is furious with him for changing, and things really get complicated when he falls in love with Ben, the intellectual, brooding jock with whom he experiments one night. In the end, he just can't keep up the charade, and coming out of the closet for a second time results in the creation of some new friendships, but also the loss of some others. The book is peppered with Rafe's journal entries for a class, the only place where he's honest about his sexuality. His teacher's responses, while encouraging, don't add much to the plot. The book tackles issues of sexuality and coming out from an interesting angle, but at times the central message (honesty is the best policy) is a bit heavy-handed. Recommend this one to fans of Brent Hartinger's Geography Club (HarperCollins, 2003), Michael Harmon's The Last Exit to Normal (Knopf, 2008), and Julie Anne Peters's Define "Normal" (Little, Brown, 2000).-Nora G. Murphy, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, LaCanada-Flintridge, CAα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Now a junior in high school, Rafe, who has been out since he was 14, is thoroughly sick of being labeled “the gay kid.” So he does something bold: he leaves his Colorado school to enroll in a private boys’ academy in New England, where no one knows he’s gay and he can be a label-free, “openly straight” part of a group of guys. Does this mean he goes back into the closet? No, he tells himself, not exactly: “It was more like I was in the doorway.” But is he fooling himself? Can you put a major part of yourself on hold, and what happens when you then find yourself falling in love with your new (straight) best friend? Lambda Literary Award winner Konigsberg (Out of the Pocket, 2008) has written an exceptionally intelligent, thought-provoking coming-of-age novel about the labels people apply to us and that we, perversely, apply to ourselves. A sometimes painful story of self-discovery, it is also a beautifully written, absolutely captivating romance between two boys, Rafe and Ben, who are both wonderfully sympathetic characters. With its capacity to invite both thought and deeply felt emotion, Openly Straight is altogether one of the best gay-themed novels of the last 10 years. Grades 9-12. --Michael Cart
Review
Praise for Openly Straight:
Winner of the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor
YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
"Funny, unexpected, peppered with terrific dialogue -- and best of all, achingly honest." -- Ned Vizzini, author of It's Kind of a Funny Story and House of Secrets
"For anybody who ever wished they could be someone else (and who hasn't?), Openly Straight provides a fun and intriguing, twisting-and-turning romp through sexuality, identity, friendship, and love." -- Alex Sanchez, author of Rainbow Boys and Boyfriends with Girlfriends
"Bill Konigsberg hands a great high concept to a really compelling narrator and presents us with a terrific read. Openly Straight is smart, funny, and unflinching. Read this book." -- Chris Crutcher, author of Deadline, Whale Talk, and Period 8
"Konigsberg's lovely novel invites us to walk with Rafe through his season of assumed identity and his costly emergence into honesty. It's beautiful. It's a story of salvation." -- The New York Times Book Review
* "Lambda Literary Award-winner Konigsberg has written an exceptionally intelligent, thought-provoking, coming-of-age novel about the labels people apply to us and that we, perversely, apply to ourselves... Openly Straight is altogether one of the best gay-themed novels of the last ten years." -- Booklist, starred review
* "Readers and discussion groups looking for new and deeper ways to think about what it means to live honestly in a world that sorts by labels will find this fresh and evocative." -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review
"For a thought-provoking, creative, twenty-first-century take on the coming-out story, look no further." -- The Horn Book Magazine
"An original, thought-provoking, hilarious story about the importance of embracing your true identity, and the cost to yourself and others when you don't." -- Julie Ann Peters, author of Luna and Keeping You a Secret
"Openly Straight sports a sharp plot with a twist, sympathetic (and totally hot) characters, and universal appeal. It's a must-read for openly everyone!" -- Lisa McMann, bestselling author of the Wake Trilogy
Praise for Honestly Ben:
"To characterize Honestly Ben (even though labeling feels so wrong after reading this book), I would first call it hilarious. But also touching! And absolutely necessary." -- Jay Asher, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why and What Light
* "Konigsberg has again done a remarkable job developing characters and inviting readers to consider the meaning of friendship with all its rewards and challenges. Extremely well written, this novel of ideas is deeply satisfying and as honest as its appealing protagonist." -- Booklist, starred review
* "Well-rounded characters take readers from serious, thoughtful discussions to typical teen pranks with ease . . . Equal parts serious and funny as it addresses homophobia, hazing rituals, and cheating while also delighting readers with a slice-of-life tale set at a private academy." -- School Library Journal, starred review
* “Konigsberg again realistically explores what happens when one’s self butts up against . . . the world’s expectations and assumptions . . . The result is a refreshingly honest exploration of modern relationships and an understanding that love can take many shapes and forms.” -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Honestly Ben is funny, complex, joyful, heartbreaking, and exceedingly wise all at once. A teenager with any question about the right way to live couldn't ask for a better read." -- Geoff Herbach, author of Anything You Want and Stupid Fast
"It's hard to write a good sequel, keeping what people loved about the first book, but adding something fresh and new. Not surprisingly, Bill Konigsberg pulls it off wonderfully in Honestly Ben." -- Brent Hartinger, author of Geography Club and Three Truths and a Lie
Praise for The Porcupine of Truth:
Winner of the Stonewall Book Award
Winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Children's/Young Adult
A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection
"Words like 'brilliant' are so overused when praising novels--so I won't use that word. I'll just think it." -- Benjamin Alire Sáenz, author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
"Bill Konigsberg's The Porcupine of Truth is at once heartwarming and heartbreaking, a funny and thought-provoking road trip with remarkable friends Carson and Aisha, who share tough lessons about mending fractures, forging bonds, and discovering grace. Undeniably human and unforgettably wise, this book is a gift for us all." -- Andrew Smith, author of Grasshopper Jungle and Winger
* "Konigsberg weaves together a masterful tale of uncovering the past, finding wisdom, and accepting others as well as oneself." -- School Library Journal, starred review
* "Konigsberg... crafts fascinating, multidimensional teen and adult characters. A friendship between a straight boy and a lesbian is relatively rare in YA fiction and is, accordingly, exceedingly welcome." -- Booklist, starred review
"Equal parts funny and profound." -- Kirkus Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
61 of 62 people found the following review helpful.
Brilliant. Complex. Emotionally solid.
By Ulysses Dietz
Books are very much a matter of taste. YA books are a sub-set of that, and I happen to love them, generally.
But this was a special book for me, both as a gay man who came out in the 1970s and as the father (with another man) of two teenagers. (Straight ones, just for the record.) Having read Konigsberg's "Out of the Pocket," which I liked a lot (did not love, to be clear), I took his recommendation to look into the next book. Very glad I did.
From the very beginning, the book's core premise was destined to make me squirm - Rafe Goldberg, a loved, self-assured, well-adjusted gay seventeen-year-old decides to move away from his bubble of liberalism and go to a New England all-boys prep school so he can shed his label - "the gay boy." He yearns to be "just one of the guys." And he succeeds. He's just butch enough to pass in a setting where no one knows him, without his hippy parents proclaiming gay pride every time he walks into a room. He is thrilled to be "normal."
Oh, Lord, was I uncomfortable from the get-go. Because I went to prep school in New England, and I never, ever managed to be "one of the guys." I tried to start over again at my Ivy League college (still in the 1970s) and that failed in the first twenty-four hours. So I hated what Rafe did. I hated what he wanted to do, because he could do it and I couldn't when I was his age.
But I trusted the author. I thought I knew where Rafe's journey would take him, and I was almost right. I was right in that I knew that Rafe was a great guy - a good kid - in spite of the dickish thing he was doing. I know that teenagers make poor choices for what seem like good reasons. I know that the boys Rafe interacts with at prep school are archetypes - and, having teenagers, I know that there is a great deal of truth in these archetypes, so yelling "stereotype" is beside the point. All teenagers are trying out roles, trying to see who they want to be; figuring out who they are.
Rafe, and Ben and Toby and Albie and Claire Olivia - even the jocks - felt pretty spot-on to me. I've had the dubious pleasure of reliving high school these past four years through my kids(arrgh) and my own memories support Konigsberg's setting pretty closely. Rafe and Ben are the only two characters who get to develop deeply. But the secondary characters are vivid and compelling - and you watch as Rafe labels them - all the while trying to avoid his own label! - and then begins to appreciate them (or not) according to who they really are.
And my favorite YA books are the ones in which parents matter. Rafe's parents matter, and are living proof that supportive loving parents are just as annoying as distant disapproving ones. Except that they love you, and that, in the end, is what makes all the difference for Rafe. Rafe makes a journey of self discovery (NOT of self-acceptance). And he takes us with him, in one of the gentlest, most intimate YA books I've ever read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
My first book by Bill Konigsberg will definitely not be my last!
By wendy r
Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg, A Standalone LGBT YA Romance
I chose this book because I read the excerpt and it sounded dissimilar from any other romance book I have read. I was hoping for an interesting new voice for life as a young, gay man. This book provided that perspective and considerably more.
Rafe Goldberg was tired of being “the gay kid.” He came out when he was 14 years old to wonderful parents and a welcoming community in Boulder, Colorado. His mother was very involved in a gay rights group and he began speaking to high schools about coming out and being proud of who you are. However, Rafe was starting to feel like no one saw him when they looked his way. He was concerned that he was nothing but a label in the eyes of others. So for his junior year of high school, he decided to transfer to an all-boys boarding school in Massachusetts. He wanted a fresh start. In order to see what life would be like without labels, he made the decision not to admit that he was gay. This seemed like a wonderful choice when he was fitting in like he never had before. But close friendships started to conflict with his goals. He began to wonder if he could really put a major part of who he was on hold.
I did not expect to feel so much emotion when I began to read this book. From the very first paragraph, I was laughing out loud. Before I knew it, my heart was broken and I was in tears. I think it says a lot about the authors’ skill as a writer that I was pulled into the story without even being aware it was happening. I was invested in Rafe and how his life would turn out. After finishing, I struggled to keep it in my hand when all I wanted to do was launch it across the room. As much as I fell in love, I also felt lost. I consider myself lucky that I read this book when I did. The sequel, Honestly Ben, will be available on the 28th of March. I for one, will do everything in my power to have that book in my hands.
This book can be read by younger teens and adults alike.
I give this book 5 stars. I have already recommended it to friends and family.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Passionate Protagonists, Frustrating Ending
By Ed Valentine
***CONTAINS SPOILERS***
PRO: Rafe, a well adjusted Gay high school sophomore, is tired of Gayness being his defining characteristic. Wanting to make a fresh start he moves across country to Natick School in Massachusetts where he will not divulge his Gayness, where he will be just Rafe. All goes along fine until he falls in love with Ben, a strong, athletic, and thoughtful Straight boy. This set-up promises great plot and character development and delivers on it up to a point. Both Rafe and Ben are richly portrayed and plausible right into the far reaches of their relationship. I was grabbed by the growing tension of their sexual identities and enthralled by their personalities.
CON: After the crisis, however, the plot falls apart. Consider Rafe's situation. He has broken Ben's heart. He has needlessly antagonised the leaders of the soccer team, which he enjoyed playing on just a few months earlier. His only remaining friends are at the periphery of the community.
The Rafe we see at the end is not the Rafe we have followed all along. The Rafe who allowed Ben an hour to catch up alone with Bryce is not the Rafe who interrupts Ben when he is studying for a final. The Rafe who worries that Ben might leave his life appears blithe and oblivious after the crisis. The Rafe who couldn't wait to leave his roommates for talk with Ben, now sees them as his best buddies. This is not character development; this is lack of consistency.
In the last chapter Rafe cavorts with his friend Claire Olivia among the mummers in downtown Boulder, Colorado. Happy in his Gay self once agin, he comes across as so oblivious to the havoc he has left behind at Natick, not to mention the damage he done to Ben, so oblivious as to be cavalier, even flippant. Why should I care about Rafe? . . . and that's the end!
SUMMARY: I started out the story living Rafe's life along side him. By the end I identified with Ben. Their moments together contain so much power that I hung on to every word and gesture. But the story ends just where the hard work of resolution should begin. I feel cheated.
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