Review: Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

This book follows a boy who decides to transfer to a different high school in order to try a new life. This new life involves not being the gay guy. At his old school he is outspoken about his sexuality and is part of different organizations campaigning for gay rights. His parents are described as basically hippies, very open and accepting, almost too much so, and all his life they have been nothing but supportive. However, he starts to feel it like more of a pressure and less of support. When he transfers to this new school he leaves the “gay” label behind and settles into a new life, feeling free from the constraints of said label. But soon his attempt at living a label-free life starts to go a bit sour. 

I thought this premise was super interesting and it has given me something to think about in terms of labels and showing our true selves. Rafe is tired of the label gay because a lot of people have predefined thoughts on what that label entails, and he is sick of having to live up to it all constantly. But when he leaves it behind, he can’t help but leave out a big part of himself when he meets new people. Even though he told himself he wouldn’t outright lie about being gay unless directly asked, he still feels dishonest playing along when people assume he is straight. You could ask why it is even necessary to label ourselves anything at all, but I do think labels is just part of the human experience. It is easier to navigate a world in which there are labels and generalisations rather than every single thing or person having to be known individually, if that makes sense. I’m not saying we should just go by labels and never get to know someone, but labels can be a quick way to gage whether or not this person or thing is something for you. I also think labels can help you fit in somewhere and know that you aren’t alone and you’re not broken or not normal. While I do think labels can be a good thing we shouldn’t use them uncritically. People can have different notions of what the same label entails, like in the book some people think being gay means you must be feminine boys and like fashion or want to bone every single guy in the world. That of course is not true. Labels can be a quick introduction, but I do think they should be used as starting points to getting to know more about a person or a thing. I hope that made any sort of sense…

As for the relationships in this book I thought most of them were well done, but a few grated on my feelings. Rafe’s relationship with his parents was mostly believable, but a few moments of especially his dad’s behaviour seemed a bit off for me. And the relationship with his best friend, Olivia, grated on me from the beginning. It almost seemed like they were friends, because there was no one else around for them to be friends with, and Rafe sort of relished being away from her. He describes her as really self-absorbed and uncaring about him in the beginning but then at the end he can’t wait to see her again and he loves her so much and she is amazing etc. I don’t know if it’s because the author is male, but I just thought Olivia seemed really one-dimensional and that made their relationship quite superficial, and it almost felt like she was there because there had to be a best friend sidekick. So that really annoyed me, but as I said I did enjoy the book and I gave it 3 stars out of 5.