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Honestly Ben

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Honestly Ben

By: Bill Konigsberg
Narrated by: Dan Bittner
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About this listen

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.

©2017 Bill Konigsberg (P)2017 Scholastic Inc. Dating & Sex Difficult Situations Family & Relationships LGBTQ+ Literature & Fiction Dating Funny Romance

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Critic reviews

"Dan Bittner's narration develops the unique personality of 17-year-old Ben, a secondary character in Konigsberg's earlier book Openly Straight.... In this follow-up, Bittner quickly reveals Ben's intelligence and introspection.... In a complex portrait, Bittner captures Ben's confused central conflict - is he gay, or straight, or is he only 'gay-for-Rafe'? Keeping the plot engaging, Bittner highlights Ben's search for his identity." (AudioFile)
All stars
Most relevant  
just completely incredible. I love Bill Konigsberg. the writing and dialogue is just supreme.

I LOVE THIS

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Thoroughly enjoyable book, easy to follow and hard to stop listening. Particularly good listening to it following the prequel.

Excellent book

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Could even be appreciated as a stand-alone novel which is a lesson to learn for sequels in general, to be able to stand on its own story.

An eye opening read and a fantastic sequel.

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A most excellent sequel. Characters wholly believable. Deserves yet another sequel. So many questions are still out there.

Ben

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loved this song much !! it's a beautiful story and beautifully told. awesome job! thanks

absolutely wonderful

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I was worried going into this because of some other reviews and after my love for the first book.

However, from now on I'm going to judge books for myself, and for me, this was perfect, it was... Honestly Ben. 💖

YES YES YES!

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The moment I finished the previous book (Openly Straight), I knew I wanted to start listening to this one. The characters come alive once more, with Ben’s POV being a refreshing change.

The only issue was with the voice actor - while of course it can’t be helped that a different voice actor, there appears to be little attempt at maintaining continuity with many of the characters sounding very different.

Despite this I strongly recommend that people who read and loved Openly Straight read this book too.

Fantastic sequel, minor continuity issue

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I loved the first one so much, that anything less than perfection would be magnified.

The reader didn't stack up to the first books reader either. some pronunciations were off and some voices were changed entirely (Alby, Steve).

still worth the listen if you've read the first.

let down from the first book

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Openly Straight was really well written and engaging throughout so I bought this follow up without auditioning it first. That may have been a mistake. This feels much more like a first attempt at a novel than a follow up. The narrative wanders at times and loses focus. There are however some touching moments and some good thought provoking scenes but it's just not as polished as Openly Straight which is shame.

Not as good as it could have been

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