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audio teen fiction (9+ hours) - #2 in series, but works as a standalone, also works as a Heartstopper readalike

Introverted baseball captain (and scholarship student) Ben Carver at an all-boys' prep school doesn't think he's gay (which his stern, disapproving dad would definitely not support), but he does still have strong feelings for his best friend Rafe (who is gay and makes no secret about harboring romantic feelings for Ben). Ben is also really attracted to Hannah, and finds himself trying to choose between his best friend and his girlfriend. Side plots include cheating on tests, dealing with misogynist/homophobic locker room talk, a friend coming out as gender-fluid.

Excellent narration with lots of funny parts (the pranks! I'm glad I don't go to an all-boys' school, but these kids are hilarious), an enjoyable book with a queer/questioning romance (including incidentally genderfluid and asexual supporting characters). This book was longer and more complicated than you might expect of a teen queer romance, but I appreciated and enjoyed how the author took the time to let the various storylines develop and resolve themselves, and also gave Ben's feelings (about not believing himself to be gay or bisexual despite being in love with Rafe) a chance to be heard -- everyone's coming out story is different and it was nice to see his be more complicated than you usually see in a teen novel (he will likely join a PFLAG or GSA when he returns to school after the break and hopefully he'll find a label that suits his feelings better). ( )

FROM SYNC: Dan Bittner’s narration develops the unique personality of 17-year-old Ben, a secondary character in Konigsberg’s earlier book OPENLY STRAIGHT. At the end of that story, Ben has pushed away Rafe, his best friend with whom he had a brief lover relationship. In this follow-up, Bittner quickly reveals Ben’s intelligence and introspection. His delivery continually contrasts Ben’s sensitivity with the insensitivity of others—his gruff and domineering father, his macho baseball teammates, and his elite classmates at the boarding school to which he’s earned a scholarship. In a complex portrait, Bittner captures Ben’s confused central conflict—is he gay, or straight, or is he only “gay-for-Rafe”?

FROM AMAZON: In this companion to Openly Straight, Ben confronts pressure at school, repression at home, and his passion for two very different people in figuring out what it takes to be Honestly Ben.

Ben Carver is back to normal. He's working steadily in his classes at the Natick School. He just got elected captain of the baseball team. He's even won a full scholarship to college, if he can keep up his grades. All that foolishness with Rafe Goldberg the past semester is in the past.

Except...there's Hannah, the gorgeous girl from the neighboring school, who attracts him and distracts him. There's his mother, whose quiet unhappiness Ben is noticing for the first time. School is harder, the pressure higher, the scholarship almost slipping away. And there's Rafe, funny, kind, dating someone else...and maybe the real normal that Ben needs.

Perfect for fans of David Levithan, Andrew Smith, and John Green, Honestly Ben is a smart, laugh-out-loud novel that will speak to anyone who's struggled to be "honestly ____" in some part of their lives.

This was a good book While it follows the book Openly Straight, it can stand on its own, but would not be as strong as it is when seen as follow up to Openly Straight.
One of the things I find often occurring in books, movies and other portrayals of children or teenagers is that the author frequently assigns them perceptions, judgments, levels of insight and wisdom that are far beyond the ages of the characters involved. Twelve years olds, for example, simply do not and cannot sound like Freud or Aristotle. Sometimes that stretch is the characterizations of young people is so extreme as to entirely ruin the book.
In these two Konigsberg books, and especially in Honestly Ben’s last chapters, this flaw, to some extent, also occurs, but not so badly as to detract from the plot or credibility of the story. Konigsberg had a story to tell and these works do that really well.
Adolescence is a time of great confusion, insecurity and anxiety for young people: no longer children but not yet adult with bodies that really are capable of new and bewildering adult things. All of that is captured here. But in these books, Rafe and Ben have to confront the additional puzzle of having feelings for others of their same gender. Rafe has accepted those feelings, but Ben still struggles with them even as Honestly Ben comes to an end.
Konigsberg understood this. He understood the terror of leaving the familiar, of abandoning expectations and beliefs about yourself and your orientation and then accepting the new realities. Rafe accepts and even embraces these realities,but acceptance still terrorizes Ben.
How hard is this acceptance of sexuality?
Many gay people, men and women, enter into heterosexual marriages and long term relationships, even have children, while still unable to see who they really are. Like me, probably most people know someone who is in that situation, someone who is wounded and scarred by being abandoned by someone else who came to the truth about themselves too late.
These are good books. They help readers, both gay and straight, see the pain of the struggle that some people wrestle with much more devastatingly than others.
Some people think to that the only books that are really worthwhile, that really teach you things are the self-help and non-fiction books, and others think true insight is only found in fiction targeting adult readers. Books like HonestlyBen demonstrate clearly that well crafted YA books have much to teach readers of any age. ( )

Loved this sequel to "Openly Straight" even more than the first book. Ben is such an interesting character, and it was so great to get a novel from his perspective where his family relationships could be explored. As much as I loved Rafe and the original drama between the two of them, the developments here were even more interesting to read as now things have been taken to a whole new level and Ben has to decide what it is he really wants.

This sequel raised some great questions about language and privilege and how things we say and take for granted that we may not be aware of can be hurtful. My favorite parts were of course all the Rafe/Ben, but I also loved the parts with Toby and co. ( )

This series is both funny and heartwarming, which is exactly what I like in YA fiction. I'll definitely be reading more Bill Konigsberg ( )