Bill Konigsberg

Seamus Rafael Goldberg - Rafe - decides to leave Boulder, CO, to complete his junior and senior years of high school at a boarding school in Natick, MA. In Boulder, Rafe was openly gay, and he's tired of that being the only part of his identity that anyone focuses on, no matter how great his parents, teachers, and friends are about it. His plan for Natick is not to say anything - to let others assume he's straight. The only person he tells about his plan is his writing teacher, Mr. show more Scarborough, who asks Rafe to write about his past and present experiences in a journal that only the two of them see. Rafe's experiment makes sense to him, though it angers his parents and best friend from home when they find out what he's doing, and inevitably his dishonesty causes some issues with his new friends at Natick. The reader can certainly understand Rafe's point of view, though - no one wants to be reduced to just one aspect of their identity.

Quotes

"...anytime someone says, 'I gotta be honest,' it's like, get the hell out of there. Because nothing in the history of the world has ever been said after those words that was nice....It's like a polite way to say, 'Do you mind if I insult you now?'" (28)

Having a secret feels exciting at first, but it seems like it always winds up being more of a weight than anything else. (66)

I too had come here to shed a label, and been given another one that didn't fit, and been okay with the mislabeling because at least it wasn't negative. (76)

For me, the whole coming-out thing was about finding a boyfriend. I mean, why else would you come out? Because it's so much fun to be oppressed? No, you come out because you want to find love. (Rafe's journal, 90)

"You didn't do anything wrong."
"I didn't do anything right either," he said. "And I will never forgive myself for that." (Rafe and Ben, 123)

"Experimentation is the way we learn about who we are and who we want to be with." (Rafe's mom Opal, 191)

...sometimes when I get mad, I feel bigger than I am. (209)

Who was I? How could I stand up for gay people while at the same time hiding that part of me? ...Can you just put a part of yourself on hold? And if you do, does it cease to be true? (211)

Being able to pass for something you're not is kind of a curse. (282)

"You can be anything you want, but when you go against who you are inside, it doesn't feel good." (Rafe's mom, 300) show less

Rafe is gay, and he has been out for a few years now. It's great, he's never really gotten any trouble for it and he's even done a few lectures about in school and such, but... ever since he came out as gay, he's always been Rafe who is gay, ever just Rafe. And if there's something he misses and aches for more than anything else, it is to be himself without having his sexuality being the one thing that defines who he is. Because he is more than just homosexual – it isn't something that show more cancels out his personality or interests in any way.

To prove this, he's decided to go to an all-boys boarding school. He won't know anything about his classmates, and they won't know anything about him; and if he decides not to discuss the fact that he is gay, he's going to be just Rafe to them. Just one in the crowd. That's all he wants.

It goes well at first. He makes friends; the first male friends he had for years who doesn't act weird around him. He is just one of them. That's until he meets Ben; with a charming smile that makes Rafe's heart beat just a little faster. Soon, he realises he's in the middle of quite a messy mess... without any real ideas of how to get the hell out of it without losing Ben forever.

I honestly had some trouble with Rafe in the beginning. But it only took me a while to kind of understand where he was coming from. I'm gay and trans – and believe me, both of them seem to be an incredibly vital part of my personality to everyone else. I know how good it feels to be assumed to be a cisman; in a way, it's a lot like Rafe feels when everyone assumes he is straight. It means you don't have to have the discussion or be branded as that guy. If I could be silent about me being transgender, I would probably take the chance to do the same thing Rafe did because I feel like it is something that defines me a lot more than my sexuality; well, at least from other's point of views. So, I could easily see myself in Rafe's struggle.

I also enjoyed other characters – but mostly Ben. He was wonderful and I'm so excited to read the sequel from his point of view next year. I'd like it now, but I guess I'll impatiently wait. He really felt sincere and real and just incredible. I can definitely see why Rafe fell so head over heels for this guy; and I can also see why Ben fell for Rafe. Even though I do feel like the Rafe he saw was a lot more shallow in a way than the real Rafe.

To be honest, even if it we don't all go to this extreme extent; I think all members of the lgbt community have felt like Rafe at least once or twice. It's easy to be defined by your sexuality or gender identity just because it strays away from the norm. And that's not who we are. It's a part of who we are but there is so much more. And I have definitely felt the frustration of being branded as that gay transgender guy.

So, I enjoyed it loads. It was an emotional rollercoaster but it was an important rollercoaster that a lot of lgbt folks can relate to. I also liked the way it all turned out in the end; even if it left me craving for more. In a way, that made it feel a lot more realistic which in turn made me feel more emotionally connected to the whole book. It was a great read and I can't wait for more.

The only thing is the casual sexism; which sadly is quite common in books about cisgays. It's not cool, it's not funny and it's actually real gross – especially when it comes from the female identifiying characters. Fine, make your cisgays sexist but don't put your casual sexism on the actual girls of the book. It's pretty gross. show less

Literary Merit: Excellent
Characterization: Excellent
Recommended: Highly Recommended
Level: High School

I absolutely adored this book from beginning to end. The characters were quirky, sweet, and entirely relatable, and the story deals with very powerful themes like rape and addiction. The main focus is an LGBT+ romance, made all the more powerful and real because the author himself is a member of the LGBT+ community. I laughed, I shed tears, and I thoroughly enjoyed the wacky food truck ride show more this novel took me on.

The Music of What Happens follows two high school boys through an incredibly eventful summer in Mesa, Arizona. Max is self-assured and outgoing, but struggles with his mixed race and "man up and stop being a sissy" father. On top of this, Max is fairly certain his first sexual experience was rape, and is slowly coming to terms with the trauma of the incident. Jordan, on the other hand, lacks confidence in himself, and is dealing with the loss of his father and his mother's severe gambling addiction. In an attempt to save their home, Jordan and his mother take his father's old food truck (Coq Au Vinny) out once more to earn income over the summer. This is where Jordan and Max just so happen to meet. Realizing that she can't handle the stress and responsibility of a food truck, Jordan's mom hires Max to work on the food truck with him for the summer, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. What neither of them realize, however, is that this summer will likely change both of their lives forever.

Without a doubt, my favorite part of this book was its memorable and three-dimensional characters. Max and Jordan not only feel like guys I would want to be friends with, but Konigsberg writes them in a way that makes me care deeply about their hopes, dreams, and struggles. The characters in this book (even minor characters like Max and Jordan's friends) feel like real people, and their relationships also feel incredibly real. Max and Jordan razz and bicker with their friends the same way I bicker with mine, and familial relationships also feel very diverse and realistic. For example, Max has a wonderful relationship with his mom, who encourages him to open up and express his feelings in a healthy way. On the flip-side, however, Max's dad rarely takes anything seriously, constantly telling him to "man up" and "Stop acting like a sissy." Jordan, too, has a complicated relationship with his mother, whose gambling addiction prevents her from being a supportive or productive mother. Jordan finds himself envying the closeness between Max and his mother, a jealousy I have definitely experienced in real life. The characters and their relationships make this story feel very real, like something that could easily happen in today's world, and I loved that aspect of the novel.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this book is that it tackles some extremely heavy issues without ever feeling preachy or overwhelming. The biggest example of this can be seen in Max, who spends the book slowly coming to terms with the fact that he's been raped. Just like many real victims of sexual assault, Max waffles between feeling angry, scared, and blaming himself for the ordeal, wondering why he couldn't get up and walk away while it was happening. He struggles to open up to others about this experience, feeling weak and thinking that he's making a big deal out of nothing. In addition to this, Max later struggles to be intimate with Jordan because of his experience, suffering from PTSD every time someone mentions something sexual or gets too close. Max's journey in this book could be a powerful learning and healing tool for victims of sexual assault, and I love that Konigsberg uses it as teaching tool for consent and safe, positive sex.

In addition to dealing with the issue of rape, The Music of What Happens also focuses on divorce, loss, and addiction, and does so in an extremely realistic way. At first, it seems as though Jordan's mom might be recovering from her gambling addiction, but we find out in the end that she has relapsed, spending all of the money the boys earned to save their house at the casino. This eventually forces Jordan to snap and cut his mother off to protect his own mental health, and I really felt for him in that moment. As someone who has been personally affected by addiction, I know how helpless it can feel to watch someone you love struggle and relapse. While I think this book is great for victims of sexual assault, I think it could also help to heal those who have family members with an addiction, as I found Jordan to be extremely relatable and empathetic.

While Max and Jordan's friends annoyed me sometimes (much like real friends, I suppose), I really enjoyed their friendships. Jordan has two female friends that he refers to as his "wives," and they sometimes have a tendency to walk all over him while ignoring his wishes. Max, on the other hand, has two "dude-bro" friends, straight guys who enjoy horse-playing and talking about sports. Neither friend group is bad, but both say and do things that leave Max and Jordan feeling pressured, judged, or lonely at times. Both characters open up to their friends near the end of the novel, explaining to their friends that they don't enjoy being the "token gay friend" or the "token minority," and I loved that Konigsberg helped to promote communication and healthy friendships, even between boys (who are often told to hide their feelings and never, EVER talk about them). As I've said many times in my reviews, I appreciate strong male friendships, as they seem to be under-represented in literature aimed at young adults.

While I like to leave room in my reviews for constructive criticism, I honestly can't think of anything I would change about this book. I loved Max and Jordan, thought they had an incredibly sweet relationship, and loved that the author used their struggles as a way to quietly teach teens about the importance of consent, communication, and recognizing one's own self worth. Sure, the characters suffer from a bit of that "John Green quirkiness," but they still feel like genuine and real people despite these quirks. What makes this even more authentic is that it's being told from the point of view of a gay man, lending credibility to the story. In his Author's Note, Konigsberg explains that Jordan was based on a boy he once met who was kicked out of his house for being gay. While The Music of What Happens ended up being very different from this real life story, many elements from both Max's and Jordan's lives were pulled directly from reality. This furthered the authentic feel of the novel, and made me fall even more in love with these characters who could easily be real gay teenagers in America today.

After reading this novel, I definitely want to check out more of this author's work, as I adored his writing style and the way he was able to easily connect with his reader on a personal level. I would gladly recommend this to not only questioning LGBT+ teens, but to anyone who has ever struggled with sexual assault, addiction, loss, or low self-esteem. All of these issues are tackled in an extremely respectful way, and might bring some comfort to readers who can relate to such issues. I would honestly highly recommend this book to anyone, as it's a sweet story with very lovable and realistic characters. I'm certainly glad I gave it a read, and can't wait to see what else this author writes in the future. show less

Wow. Opened this pretty much by accident and just couldn't put it down. It's taken me about four hours to read through it and I still want more.

Although this is absolutely howl worthingly hilarious, OS is also surprisingly deep for a teen novel with a young narrator who is just figuring out the basics of his life and identity (Alex Sanchez is mentioned, for example, and compared to that, this is philosophy). In fact, a lot of philosophical discussion takes place in a perfectly logical show more context.

Rafe's decision to reenter the closet because he wants to pull down the barrier his identity represents for straight guys is at once both perfectly logical (as proven by how it WORKS) and completely suicidal, for making up a lie to get closer to people makes zero sense.

It's particularly painful to see Rafe tiptoeing around his new "friends" to make sure he fits in and doesn't give the game away, not just in terms of his sexuality but also regarding his previous participation in sports or his scholastic interests.

Fascinating story, thigh writing. I really enjoyed the angst and the internal reflections Rafe goes through in his own writing pieces inside the story, as assigned by his writing tutor. If you want something a little deeper and more complicated than the usual romance and coming out story, with plenty of relationships, with parents, friends, acquaintances, unavoidable roommates, I highly recommend "Openly Straight". Gotta go look for more books by Mr Konigsberg. Perhaps a sequel...? show less