The Music of What Happens

Starred review from November 1, 2018

Gr 10 Up-Max is a popular high school athlete who spends most of his free time with his two best friends, playing video games and joking around. Max has a secret, though, that he hasn't told anyone, not even his buddies, and he's trying to be the fighter his father raised him to be. Jordan is attempting to help his mom with their food truck. Jordan hires Max to work the food truck with him, and two boys who thought they had nothing in common find that they are more alike than they thought. This story has an easy, conversational tone, and the high jinks of the two boys and their separate groups of friends, in addition to their budding romance, provide much-needed relief from the intensity of the scenes in which each of them is dealing with his individual struggles. Some readers may be turned off by Max and his buddies and their "locker room talk," occasionally resorting to homophobic slurs. Max grapples with understanding whether he has actually been raped and what he should do about it; the consequences of the rape also cause him to question the lessons his father taught him as a young child. While the author makes clear what happened to Max, the assault is not described in graphic detail. In spite of this novel's focus on heavier topics, its readability and relatability will make it popular among most teens. Give to fans of Benjamin Alire Saenz's Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. VERDICT A first purchase for public and high school libraries.-Jenni Frencham, formerly at Columbus Public Library, WI

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2018
Two Arizona teens run a food truck and fall in love with more than just cooking together. "Dude Bro" Max is a "closet foodie" and keeps his culinary aspirations secret from "the Amigos," his close-knit duo of friends. But a chance encounter at a classmate's struggling food truck sees heroics-prone Max volunteering as an employee. Though the classmate, Jordan, is a jock-hating "emo kid," the pair proves that opposites do indeed attract--even in the cramped confines of a food truck. As it turns out, the two also make excellent (if a bit unorthodox) business partners. They earn enough money to pay off debts from Jordan's widowed mother's gambling addiction. Alternating first-person narration delves deeply into the complicated inner lives of the two boys as their relationship blossoms. Flashbacks reveal Max's trauma following a rape at a college party. Meanwhile, Jordan fights his feelings of inadequacy and his growing resentment toward his mother. As Max is biracial (Mexican/white) while Jordan is white, Konigsberg (Honestly Ben, 2017, etc.) effectively reverses the white savior narrative to instead position a character of color as the one offering help--although ultimately the narrative questions what it means to be a savior at all in the context of this mutually supportive and healing relationship. The result is a story with imperfect characters who are, refreshingly, called out on problematic behaviors and aim to do better.A fresh addition to the menu of queer teenage love stories. (Fiction. 13-adult)

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February 25, 2019
Konigsberg (The Porcupine of Truth) explores how conventional ideas about masculinity trap young men into believing they must act a certain way. Handsome, smart, and athletic, Max is good at a lot of things, in particular hiding his feelings and smiling through anything (“Warrior up,” his dad used to say). Shy, unathletic Jordan doesn’t have much to smile about: his father died, his mother is a mess, and they could soon lose their house. Both guys are 17 and go to the same school, but Jordan sees Max as just another “Dude Bro”: it never occurs to him that Max is gay, too. When Max ends up helping Jordan reinvent his father’s food truck business, the two become friends. Jordan can’t imagine that someone like Max could like him; Max struggles to face the truth about sexual violence that he experienced in the past. Both want their relationships with their friends to be more honest, but they don’t know how to change things. Konigsberg ups the stakes as the teens improve their food truck game, become more vulnerable (Max) and more confident (Jordan), and learn to ask for what they want, making for a fun, romantic, and moving novel. Ages 14–up.

Starred review from November 15, 2018
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Jordan is the skinny emo kid who sits in the back of Max's AP language and composition class. He also works in a food truck, which Max, a baseball jock, discovers when he walks up to check out the menu?just in time to witness Jordan's emotionally fragile mother's meltdown. When Max asks if he can help, he finds himself with a new summer job, working the truck's grill. At first, he and Jordan are uneasy around each other, but things change when they come out and gradually become friends and then boyfriends. Readers' understanding of the boys grows as the perspective moves back and forth between the two. Jordan, it turns out, is self-hating, believing that no one could love him or believe he is a true boy. Max uses his dazzling smile to cope with his problems, while telling himself he is a warrior. They sound like an odd couple, and so they are, save for the one important thing in common: their love for each other. Konigsberg's character-�driven novel is expert in revealing the boys' growth and changes, as well as examining their innermost thoughts, the evolving nature of their relationship, and the music of what happens in their lives. In this ambitious novel, Konigsberg demonstrates once again why he is one of the major voices in LGBTQ literature.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)