Honestly Ben, written by Bill Konigsberg, reviewed by Bethany Bratney

Summary:  Ben Carver has always been one of the quieter boys at Natick boarding school. His family farm in New Hampshire is a place where emotions are suppressed, not freely expressed. Returning to Natick after winter break, Ben is hoping for a fresh new semester. He became engaged in an unexpected romantic relationship with his best friend, Rafe, during the previous semester, only to have Rafe admit that he had identified as gay all along, causing Ben to break things off feeling confused and betrayed. Now Ben has met Hannah, who attends a nearby girls’ school and seems interested in Ben for all of the reasons that make him feel like an outsider. And he has been voted captain of the baseball team and honored as the likely candidate of the school’s top scholarship, provided he can keep his grades up. Things will really turn around for Ben this semester if he can just forget about Rafe, but that is proving to be harder than expected for Ben.

Straight Talk for Librarians:  There were several concepts in this book that really worked for me. I loved how Ben’s character was pushing against traditional and sometimes toxic concepts of masculinity. He challenged teammates who made sexist or objectifying remarks and had in depth conversations with Hannah about aspects of the patriarchal society that bothered her. I also really appreciated how Konigsberg depicted the stress that Ben was under in a high-stakes education environment, in the running for a competitive scholarship and leading the baseball team as captain. It felt very realistic to me and I think students at my school will really relate to those dynamics. The big issue for conversation in this book is Ben’s attraction to his best friend, Rafe, his process of understanding those feelings and his need to combat some internalized homophobia in order to express them. Some aspects of this issue were handled really well, like the depiction of Ben’s thought process as he tried to make sense of having feelings for another male, which were entirely new to him. There were other aspects that I felt conflicted about, like Ben’s thoughts about bisexuality and his ultimate decision to identify as straight, but attracted to Rafe, often referred to as the “gay for you” trope. On one hand, I thought Ben really considered the many labels that he could apply to himself and consciously chose not to embrace the term bisexuality, which I see and validate as Ben's authentic feelings in that moment and he desire to not use a label that doesn't seem to fit him. On the other hand, I recognize that this trope can be problematic, especially in the bisexual community, and can be seen to reinforce some negative bi stereotypes which makes me hesitant to recommend it heavily. Ultimately, I intend to add this book to my collection, but I would recommend that other libraries add other titles to their LGBTQIA+ offerings first before considering the inclusion of this book. It seems that there are other titles that more successfully accomplish what this book attempts to do.