This book is not set in an alternate reality. So when I started listening to this book I was expecting an alternate reality type story where the majority of the population is homosexual and so being straight could be perceived as being weird or different. In case you don't know this about me by now, I tend to go into books without having read the blurb at all (or at least not recently enough to remember what it said). I listened to the audiobook version of this book for free through Audiofile Sync's summer reading program for teens. This witty, smart, coming-out-again story will appeal to gay and straight kids alike as they watch Rafe navigate feeling different, fitting in, and what it means to be himself. who doesn't even know that love is possible.

And most of all, he falls in love with Ben. He meets a teacher who challenges him to write his story. 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. To have it be a part of who he is, but not the headline, every single time. And while that's important, all Rafe really wants is to just be a regular guy. 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. He likes to write.Īnd, oh yeah, he's gay. Rafe is a normal teenager from Boulder, Colorado. The award-winning novel about being out, being proud, and being ready for something else.

Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg