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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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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

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    4 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
    4 out of 5 stars
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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
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

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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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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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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    4 out of 5 stars
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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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  • L. Cothren
  • 2019-03-14

Beautiful

This book was amazing. It resonated with me on so many levels. I cannot even explain, but it is truly heartbreaking, heart wrenching and beautifully glorious in every way.
The audible narrators were beyond perfect for telling this story. They could not have been more perfectly casted.

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9 people found this helpful

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  • chris
  • 2019-04-05

Enjoyable, but...

I'll start by saying, if you've listened to "Openly straight and Honestly Ben", you wont get the same character and plot development. Both of those books were amazing. That being said, if you enjoy the author's writing style, you'll also enjoy this book. Overall, the characters were pretty thin with exception of the two leads. The friends of both the boys, were just accessories. It's enough for you to identify with and get their purpose, but you won't go away with fond memories like in the other books.

In some ways this could have just been a story about the two guys over a weekend getting to know one another. The other characters didn't really add much. What I did enjoy was the examination of something else in the gay community that probably doesn't get the attention that it needs (spoilers) so I won't say much more.

Lastly, the "Jordan" narrartor was THE WORST. I almost cringed everytime I heard his voice. I couldn't wait to flip back to Max. The narrartor for Max while 10 times better, he wasn't perfect but played a teenage jock boy enough where I could imagine vidvidly what he would be like if he were real

The book was satisyfing, and was a nice distraction from my normal listens. Accept this for what it is and you'll enjoy too.

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7 people found this helpful

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  • Aptsolecist
  • 2019-03-13

Entertaing read!

Bill is so good at character development. I was a little sad when it ended because I wanted more of them. The readers also did a good job of adding to the uniqueness of the characters and added to how the listener experiences the story. It was a cute and touching story which facilitates an interesting conversation about the dynamics of sexual consent.

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5 people found this helpful

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  • Daniel Borrego
  • 2019-07-13

Great story; HORRIBLE narrator (Froomkin)

I absolutely loved the story, and I absolutely despised Joel Froomkin’s narration. Read the book otherwise expect that horrible voice to interfere with the enjoyment of the story. Anthony did an awesome job, however.

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3 people found this helpful

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  • Marcus P.
  • 2019-08-29

Want my money back!

The recording sounds like a overloaded stereo! I couldn’t stand listening to it! I had to stop!

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2 people found this helpful

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  • rosalinda lam
  • 2019-06-26

Every time I see I food truck...

I really liked this book. I loved that even though the author discusses themes like coming of age, sexual preferences, class, race, mental illness and family disfunction the book never feels heavy or hopeless. I actually laughed out loud several times and the dialogue between the characters always felt real. The only problem is that every time I see a food truck now I make a love story in my mind about the people working there and I can’t help but smile like an idiot

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  • Curtis
  • 2023-07-13

Joel Froomkin needs to stop doing LGB YA.

Original feeling story, nice pacing, great main Characters, good humor, lots of small details that makes it just feel real. BUT, the narration was difficult to get through. Joel sounds like he's talking with a wad of toilet paper stuffed in his cheeks. it's the worst, and it's not just this book, he's ruined many others as well. Anthony's audio quality could have been better, very low quality recording, but his work is way better. Sucks when good stories are ruined by people who continually get the job to record the voice because they've won awards for narration likely just because of equity instead of talent.

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1 person found this helpful

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  • Devin Murphy
  • 2019-09-26

The voices are not bad

I don't understand why everybody is down on the reader for Jordan. He sounds exactly like an anxious teenage boy, which is super accurate to the story. I actually really loved how the boy voiced each other. It really highlights the differences in what we think, what we say, and what is heard by others. A really interesting perspective that is not often tackled in writing. The only issue I had was the leveling between the 2 readers always had to turn up the volume for Max which left Jordan yelling in my ear.

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2019-09-25

Beautiful and Honest

Thank you to the author and the narrators for bring this beautiful and honest story to us.

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  • Melanie Maynor
  • 2019-09-25

Great story

I don't usually write reviews, but this book was so great, that i couldn't help it. This book deals with all kinds of serious issues while, also, being laugh out loud funny. This was one of the sweetest love stories I've come across lately.

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1 person found this helpful