Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Being True
AUTHOR: Jacob Z. Flores
NARRATOR: Mark Westfield
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 8 hours, 40 minutes
RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2015
BLURB:
Truman L. Cobbler has not had an easy life. It’s bad enough people say he looks like Donkey from Shrek. He also suffered the death of his policeman father and his mother’s remarriage to a professional swindler, who cost them everything. Now dirt poor, they live in the barrio of San Antonio, Texas.
When Tru transfers to an inner-city high school halfway through his senior year, he meets Javi Castillo, a popular and hot high school jock. Javi takes an immediate liking to Tru, and the two become friends. The odd pairing, however, rocks the school and sets the cliquish social circles askew. No one knows how to act or what to think when Mr. Popular takes a stand for Mr. Donkey. Will the cliques rise up to maintain status quo and lead Tru and Javi to heartbreak and disaster or will being true to who they are rule the day?
REVIEW:
I’m normally not a fan of YA novels anymore, the teenage angst and drama tends to be too much for me. Being True called to me though. There was something about it, even reading the blurb made me feel that this wasn’t the run of the mill YA story, there was more to it than that.
Truman, Tru, was starting a new school – again. It was his sixth. His looks makes him stand out, and not in the good way. He’s compared to the donkey in Shrek often enough, had his head shoved in the toilet and been beaten up often enough that he doesn’t have much hope that this school would be different. And in a way it wasn’t – and it was. He met Javi, a jock and most popular guy in school. The two become fast friends – causing confusion in the rest of the school.
I’m guessing most of us remember how it was being a teenager. The cliques, the social rules, the fear of being different, the fear of someone finding out your secrets (no matter what said secret was). Tru and Javi being friends broke all the rules – and I admire them for standing tall and not caving. Being open with their friendship. There was no hint of Javi wanting to hide Tru, he liked everyone for who they were, and in a high school student that’s remarkable and admirable.
There’s a lot of bullying and homophobia here. It’s never easy to listen to (or read about) and I think Flores handled it with great respect and, sadly, with a lot of credibility. He never gets preachy, but shows us that we only have to say no to intolerance to enforce change.
Being True wasn’t all angst and bullying. It was also a great story about friendships. I loved Claudia and would have loved to see more of this fierce young lady. But more than that it was a coming of age story, discovering who they were and what they wanted and trying to navigate life and the new feelings that arose. I really enjoyed it.
I’m going to start by saying that I don’t think that Mark Westfield was the best choice of narrator for this book. I don’t mean that his performance was lacking in any way, because it really didn’t. But this was a YA story and his deep and kind of grovely voice just didn’t fit the narrative. These boys were seventeen years old and not 35.
Ignoring the awkward fit, Westfield is a talented performer and definitely knows what he’s doing. I loved the pacing and intensity, it was just right. He also distinguished between the different characters making it easy for the listener to follow the story. I loved the special effects, like when Tru spoke in the microphone, or when someone called out from another room. It’s not something huge, and it’s only every now and then, but for me it makes such a huge difference to the feel and atmosphere of the book.
All in all this is definitely a book I’d recommend to others, it’s worth the time and heartache. Because in the end True Love does conquer all.
RATING: 
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