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The Music of What Happens cover art

The Music of What Happens

Written by: Bill Konigsberg
Narrated by: Joel Froomkin, Anthony Ray Perez
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Publisher's Summary

From the award-winning author of Openly Straight, a story about two teens falling in love over a summer that throws everything possible to keep them apart.

Max: Chill. Sports. Video games. Gay and not a big deal, not to him, not to his mom, not to his buddies. And a secret: An encounter with an older kid that makes it hard to breathe, one that he doesn't want to think about, ever.

Jordan: The opposite of chill. Poetry. His "wives" and the Chandler Mall. Never been kissed and searching for Mr. Right, who probably won't like him anyway. And a secret: A spiraling out of control mother, and the knowledge that he's the only one who can keep the family from falling apart.

Throw in a rickety, 1980s-era food truck called Coq Au Vinny. Add in prickly pears, cloud eggs, and a murky idea of what's considered locally sourced and organic. Place it all in Mesa, Arizona, in June, where the temp regularly hits 114. And top it off with a touch of undeniable chemistry between utter opposites.

Over the course of one summer, two boys will have to face their biggest fears and decide what they're willing to risk - to get the thing they want the most.

©2019 Bill Konigsberg (P)2019 Scholastic Inc.

What the critics say

"Through the empathetic performances of two narrators, we meet gay Arizona high schoolers Jordan and Max, and their families and friends.... Froomkin and Perez's heartfelt portrayals ensure that listeners are in sync with the characters as they deal with everything from a traumatic sexual encounter and mental health issues to toxic masculinity and figuring out how to be true to oneself." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about The Music of What Happens

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very good book

Loved the relationship between the two main characters. Bit of a sound problem at the beginning. The performances are impressive.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Cute but expected

One of the voice actors made all the other character sound like they had an IQ of 10 when speaking but overall the performance and content is quality. Kinda a typical gay YA story……but ITS CUTE, kinda heart breaking easy listening with some great quotable moments

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting contemporary narrative

The narration is great. The author did an amazing job narrating the contemporary life in the 'community'.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Be warned - Narrator is distracting.

LOVED the story, so let’s put out there straight way. Anthony Ray Perez did an excellent job of narration. Joel Froomkin; not so much. I found the latter’s reading to be so mismatched to the character - sounding about 20 years too old to be a teenager, especially the god-awful attempt at a Latino accent when quoting Max that it’s borderline offensive. It’s almost as if the two narrators didn’t even meet each other to discuss how best to work this out. The audio for Jordan’s part is off too and you’ll find yourself turning it up and down as you flip between the chapters as Joel Froomkin spent his half of the reading screaming into the microphone. If you can get over the “Jordan” readings, the story is a very potent piece of YA fiction that addresses very serious questions of assault, consent, race, masculinity and queerness in today’s society.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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This book will stay with me

I picked this book on a whim and am so glad I did. What I thought might be a light romance turned into a thought provoking story that had so much more depth to it.
Moved me to tears a couple of times and made me smile big at other times while in my car listening.
Quite beautifully written with a lovely pace to it. I like that it wasn't "all tied up with a bow" in the end which leaves me to imagine what the future holds for the two main characters.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Get a physical copy.

In regards to the story it's self, it's not the best, not the worst. there are many genuinely cute moments, but all of them are over shadowed by some really strange characterization. Jordan goes from calm to manic to calm within sentences, Max feels like a completely different character from Jordans perspective compared to his own, the list goes on.

In regard to the voice acting, it needs a massive overhaul. Anthony Ray Perez plays an excellent Max. I thoroughly believe that any flaws in his performance were probably a directors choice, not his own. Joel Froomkin is terrible. His microphone is constantly too loud (and even peaks at times) and I actually had to turn down my volume for some of his chapters. Though I will admit that he does capture the mess that is Jordans character.

TLDR: The audiobook isn't worth it, but a physical copy is if you can look past some of the bad writing choices.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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Not for me

There's a lot of pretentious comments and problematic things that go on that are either not addressed at all or addressed to late and what should have been talked about was not and things that were pointless were over written.
It felt like the novel was trying to talk about something meaningful but it missed the mark completely.

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