Ben plays for the team and is good but quiet. He and Rafe are not talking, and Ben feels that loss and the loss of Toby and Albie. He gives advice to his brother that if said brother wants to hang out with Julie (the girl everyone calls “dumptruck”) that he can do that.īack at Natick, things are weird. We’re back at Natick, but this time with Ben.īen has spent the winter break at home with his family. Both novels in the series were released as audio books that month, too.Self-discovery is rarely easy for a straight boy in love with a boy. It received three starred reviews: from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and School Library Journal. In March 2016, Konigsberg released the sequel Honestly Ben, which features Ben as the protagonist. It also made YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults list for 2014 the American Library Association Rainbow List The Texas Library Association's Tayshas List (as a top ten title) and was nominated for the Georgia Peach Award.

The novel won the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor in 2014 and was a finalist for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award.

However, Ben is straight and has no idea about Rafe being gay. Rafe finds a best friend and potential boyfriend called Ben. Rafe relishes in being allowed to be a jock and being treated normally in the locker room. In an attempt to live a life without labels, Rafe is immediately taken in by the jocks for his soccer abilities. When Rafe switches to a private all boys high school in Natick, he decides to hide the fact that he is gay, hoping to find a new identity as just Rafe and not just ‘that gay kid’. The novel has been translated into German, Vietnamese, and Portuguese. When he switches to a private all boys high school across the country in Massachusetts he decides to hide his sexuality from his new classmates.

The coming-of-age story focuses on high school junior Rafe who has been openly gay since he was in the eighth grade. Openly Straight is a 2013 young adult novel and the second book by American author Bill Konigsberg. Print ( hardcover and paperback), e-book, audiobook

Honestly ben