Beautiful story

Where was this book when I was 17!? This helped heal very real and deep wounds I didn’t even know where there. Funny, gut wrenching, heart ache and triumphs are all in this wonderful journey our young protagonist starts. Love, from a foot tapper.

12 people found this helpful

Perspective

Great writing and eye opening perspective. Although sometimes painful, this story seems so valuable for sharing a view that is impossible to get from the straight side. I also appreciated that the character is in high school and how being gay affects his view of the world.

6 people found this helpful

I love this book

This book is wonderful. I was just thinking about the fact that I haven’t heard a book in awhile where I actually care what happens to the characters. I love these beautiful kids. I want them to be real. I think think they are real. I chose this story because it was the Audible Pick if the Day. I know I wouldn’t have tried it otherwise; I wouldn’t have waisted my credit on it because I normally read thrillers. This story tugged at my heart strings and made me laugh out loud. It’s beautiful.

4 people found this helpful

Not a romance novel

I grabbed this with my monthly credits as 1) a romance novel, 2) a queer romance novel and came out of the experience pretty disappointed. After thinking about it, my disappointment is because this is not even slightly trying to be a romance novel and shouldn't have been marketed as such because this is a story about how Rafe comes to terms with both being gay and how people and the world change to respond to that fact. I came into being pansexual as a straight-presenting cis man in my later twenties so perhaps I am not the target audience for a coming-of-age story of a teenager who only fancies men, so if that is you, I hope this rings much more true for you, but definitely don't go into this expecting a gay romance Toby, Alby, and Ben are all great characters that we don't get to see enough of. The only sexual experience with Ben gets yada yada'd "I mentioned the bisque", which, aside from two kisses, is the only physical romance we get. The relationship with Ben and where it leads is totally unresolved as is the potential for conflict and growth with the school's homophobic atmosphere and jocks. Bryce is brought up as a very interesting character who suffers from depression and is one of the few black students in a mostly-white school, yet he exeunts stage left very early and both his race and character are largely irrelevant to the remaining story aside from 2 short scenes which leaves a lot of room for narration, introspection, and conversation unfulfilled in my opinion. It's just odd that we spent the entire book talking about making space for and accepting people who don't fit into labels around cliques or sexuality so that they can feel like full human beings, but we couldn't find any space for the one black kid in junior year other than to use him as a plot device for our two white characters to forge a relationship over his exit now that his bed next to Ben is empty which gives us a chance to get closer to our love interest. It's like, we went out of our way with the Mr. Scarborough scene to point out how being the only black character in a school of whites would be isolating and contributing to his depression, but we still dumped the character unceremoniously just to give our romantic characters a chance to smooch In the positive things I have to say, the characters are written pretty much how I might expect sixteen year olds (I had to look this up because I had no idea how old juniors were as a Canadian, it's grade 11 fyi.) to act, however, there is a use of the R slur for neuroatypical people by one of the characters that was totally unnecessary imo, as well as several uses of the F slur (not the fuck word) so prospective viewers should be forewarned. I also think the narrator did a great job with voices differentiating the main characters (toby, alby, rafe) and I only had a few small instances where I had trouble discerning who was speaking because of terse back and forth dialogue Finally, when I came back to review this, I see this novel is part of a series but I must say that even though the book ended seemingly very abruptly I'm not interested in seeing how it progresses but I hope that Ben can find some support and found family in his journey, wherever it leads him.

3 people found this helpful

Dissapointing

Don't buy this if you want a good story, much less a romantic story.

This book is little more than a vehicle for the author to express his opinions on how gay people should behave and feel about their own sexuality.

It's essentially the "if you're not flaming gay, you're really just repressed or self hating" argument stretched over way too many pages.

I felt betrayed when I realized this, having already become attached to the plot and characters, who were never really done justice as they were clearly playing second fiddle to the author's "message."

Only positive thing I can say is the narration was decent (but I don't want that to factor into my overall rating, lest I understate the disappointment this novel proved to me.)

100 people found this helpful

so much more than a coming out novel

I was not prepared for the questions this brought up. outstanding and unique perspective.

2 people found this helpful

Not a Romance

I hated this book. It was not a romance. It was some sort of Bildungsroman with a very unsatisfying ending. I hated the main character, who was supposed to be somehow brave because he wanted to leave labels behind. I only saw him as a freaking coward. He supposedly wasn't in the closet, he just wasn't being open about who he was. But of course he lied repeatedly in the book, claiming to be straight. In the end, the whole thing was just horrible. Don't listen unless you like this sort of mind-freakery.

1 person found this helpful

Really good but...

The story was amazing but it feels like it's missing something. Unsure if I want to read the sequel but I will think about it.

1 person found this helpful

Hated to have it end.

What did you love best about Openly Straight?

Mr. Konigsberg has a great style that make an audio book really easy to listen to. The story grabbed me right away to see if Rafe's experiment would work.

What other book might you compare Openly Straight to and why?

I love Haley Walsh's books. But really hard to make any kind of comparison.

Have you listened to any of Pete Cross’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The is the first I've heard from Peter Cross. I found it well paced and he did a great job with voices for each of the characters.

Any additional comments?

I had hoped for a happier ending for Rafe and Ben. It kind of wrapped up quickly. I hope Mr. Konigsberg's next one take me where i'd like it to go. I'm hooked, though..

1 person found this helpful

Great novel

This is a lovely, warm, moving, fun coming of age novel. If only real-life adults were as kind and open to learning about themselves as these complexly drawn main characters.

1 person found this helpful