Openly Straight

Books | Young Adult Fiction / LGBTQ

3.7

(886)

Bill Konigsberg

A funny, honest novel about being out, being proud... and being ready for something else.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.

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More Details:

Author

Bill Konigsberg

Pages

336

Publisher

Scholastic Inc.

Published Date

2013-05-28

ISBN

0545509904 9780545509909

Ratings

Google: 4

Community ReviewsSee all

"So good!"

Tera B.

"very very good book, it was a nice pace about a friends to lovers to not and i like how it wasn’t really about homophobic people but it’s more about labels and being yourself."

hannah <3

"Actually the worst book that I have ever had the displeasure of reading. It was like a car wreck, horrible to see but you cant look away. No clue how it has any good reviews. The main character is the worst possible protagonist. He does the exact opposite of what his brain tells him to do. He is impossible to relate to, and always picks the worst course of action. He is also a complete dick to anyone that cares about him. This book feels like it was supposed to be a romance, but the author changed his mind halfway through. Don't read this book if you have issues with bodily fluids btw. It's actually disgusting. The characters have no chemistry, and nothing of substance happens in the book. We are essentially back where we started, except that Rafe is no longer re-closeted. This author is so bad at writing realistic characters, and he uses really uncomfortable and weird descriptions of them. The only POC character gets removed from the story almost immediately after he is introduced, and him being black is mentioned every single time that he is in the scene. Almost every character is some sort of stereotype. I can probably find infinitely better stories written by a 10 year old on wattpad. Do not waste your time on this book. I actually wish that I could delete it from my memory."