Tales From Foster High

By: John Goode

Narrated by: Michael Stellman

Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Kyle Stilleno is the invisible student, toiling through high school in the middle of Nowhere, Texas. Brad Greymark is the baseball star of Foster High. When they bond over their mutual damage during a night of history tutoring, Kyle thinks maybe his life has changed for good. But the promise of fairy-tale love is a lie when you're gay and falling for the most popular boy in school. A coming of age story in the same vein of John Hughes, Tales from Foster High shows an unflinching vision of the ups and downs of teenage love and what it is like to grow up gay.

©2012 John Goode (P)2014 Harmony Ink Press

Ehhhhh

So I had a hard time with this book, the first small part of the book I loved, the book from kyles perspective was AMAZING!! Than they switched to brad......brad is an asshole, I didn’t like him when Kyles perspective was in play, and after seeing how his mind actually worked I REALLY hated him, he was a jerk a user and horrible person, I WISH the author would have stayed with Kyle.

Nice surprise

This was a truly enjoyable high school coming out/coming of age story. Think of it as a gay John Hughes film. The author is a real fan of John Hughes and obviously cares a great deal about the challenges gay teenagers face in high school. Some would say this isn't a YA book. I have to disagree. The sex scenes in this book are no where as graphic as in traditional gay romance. And if I remember correctly, nothing that the average teenager not only knows about, but much milder. It wasn't a perfect book and the narrator doesn't give a lot of diversity to the characters, but he does do a good job at lending depth and emotion to the story. But be warned, he does sound like a high school kid, which is what the story needed. Absolutely worth a credit.

Want more!

Loved the story.
narration was good a little quite compared to other narrators.
hope the author has many more stories like this!

Great Listen with a Great Message

Loved the characters & story line of the book. Very realistic in the subject matter written about. The narrator's voice is a tad odd compared to others I have listened to so be forewarned. But great listen overall. Highly recommend it!!

Great story, terrible editing

This book is an amazing rollercoaster of emotion. I’ve never been a fan of the “stream of consciousness” writing style, and this book has it in spades. But it somehow kept me hooked regardless. The story’s POV bounces between the two lead characters, who have noticeably different feels to them: Kyle with his overly dramatic purple prose and Brad with his earnest dumb jock energy. And both go in depth into their emotional damage and their terrible family life. It’s a lot of up and down and shouting at them to stop being stupid and then shouting at everyone opposing them, and it’s so good.

Which makes it such a shame that this audio book’s editing is ABYSMAL. The narrator’s performance is good, great even in some of the scenes. But whole thing sounds like it was recorded in a cavern instead of a sound studio. And there are chunks of the book that are of a noticeably different sound quality to the rest of it. The story has three chapters, one for each third of the story, but the audio book has 8 “chapters” marked out with no rhyme or reason for the divisions they chose. The first chapter of the book sounds like it was over-edited, with all the breaths cut out of the narrator’s performance, so the whole story was slamming into you with no pauses for breath. But then later in the book, the editing is nearly nonexistent, with clear breaks where the narrator was presumably turning a page or something because the break didn’t mean the scene was over, like it would have in a good audio book. It’s a crapshoot trying to figure out if some place is a good spot to pause, or if you’re just pausing on the narrator turning a page midway through a sentence.

And the crown jewel of this crappy editing is when an entire paragraph of text was REPEATED — as in, the performance was exactly the same, and the same events played out twice in a row when it made no sense for such a thing to happen. This event actually made me stop playback and redownload the book to make sure I didn’t just have a corrupted version or something. NOPE, it’s EDITED like that! Apparently no-one did a quality pass on this thing! And it was particularly jarring because the author *deliberately* does a stylistic repetition moment in the third act, and the effect of it was marred because I was distracted wondering if the editing had screwed up again.

And it’s such a shame because the story is good and the characters are engaging (if a little stupid sometimes, but they are teenagers). And by the end of it you’re desperately hugging the boys, telling them it’ll be okay.

Outstanding book

Such a good read. And an amazing story that is very relatable for many of the LGBT community.

Tales is a must read for its entertainment value and for the lessons it can impart

Tales is a series that, now having read the first three, I can't wait to continue. The story reminds the reader that the struggle for acceptance, tolerance and even safety for gay youth is far from over. Kyle as a character speaks to kids that feel they have to hide because of the dangers involved physically but are already used to being ignored and marginalized. Brad is the sports hero that everyone adores and wants to be, who can lose it all upon coming out. But what are they gonna do? If you fall for someone it's only a matter of time before you have to go for it or be miserable. Here they go for it and meet a lot of misery thanks to a small Texas town. It is well written, coming from Kyle's point of view. The books that follow alternate viewpoints. Each of the guys are interesting in their own way and are expressed as deep, rounded characters. I want to read more!

Brilliant - loved the narration!

Maybe With A Chance of Certainty (book 1)

I bought this book (and the rest of the series) and obviously started with this one first - duh! I read and LOVED it. Then I had the chance to listen to the audio version. And WOW!

If I thought I enjoyed the story the first time round, the audio version just improved on it. The narrator, Michael Stellman, enhances the story and takes nothing away. It was so interesting to compare my thoughts on the story from my own reading experience versus my thoughts from the listening experience. Sometimes the narrator's voice and style doesn't match the characters I have built in my head but this one hit the nail on the head - brilliant! Michael Stellman's voice captured Kyle perfectly with a real sense of youth and emotion.

I loved the style of writing and characters were totally wonderful. I loved the emotion and challenge of growing up. I loved the nerd and the jock facing life head on. I loved public confrontations and grand gestures. But most of all I loved the strength and honesty.

I wouldn't usually come right out and recommend an audio book over the ebook or print edition (I'm a bit old-school that way and prefer the characters in my head) but this is the reverse for me. I actually originally rated the written book as a 4/4.5 but it is now a definite 5 and moving to my favourites shelf!

End of the Beginning (Book 2)

This is the second book in the series and part of the Tales From Foster High audio book so I listened to rather than read this book. As with the first book, I LOVED this is it's audio form. The narrator's voice was just brilliant, catching the teenage voice of Brad.

Here we have Brad's point of view as he agonises over the events of the past couple of days. Coming out in front of the whole school was a spur of the moment decision and Brad wonders if he made the right choice. It was sad to watch him go from the top of the school social ladder to pretty much the bottom but his strength lay in how he handled himself.

It's such an interesting look at the real person behind the facade. Brad may have had the looks, the status, his sporting prowess, a big home and a nice car but this didn't make him happy in his heart. I loved the character development in this story.

Raise Your Glass (Book 3)

When times get tough, you really find out what people are made of and in this book Brad and Kyle totally shine, particularly Kyle who is no longer a wall flower and very much the centre of attention.

The experiences the boys go through as they return to school are heartbreaking. As to be expected, the reaction from the other students is not positive and Brad and Kyle are tormented for their sexuality. But it is the reaction of the adults - the teachers and authority figures - that is the most shameful. This is tough look at what life can be like for young people who don't conform to what other people deem as being acceptable - bullying and lack of support. But there is a positive ending as support comes from some unexpected places.

I liked the message from the author at the end of the book, an anti-bullying message, to remind people they are never alone and remind us, the reader, that although this story is a work of fiction, bullying is an all too common occurrence that can have tragic consequences.

General

I cannot speak more highly of Michael Stellman. He did a wonderful job of narrating Tales from Foster High and I believe his voice is perfectly suited to the telling of a YA story.

love this book

this was such an amazing book!! had a great morale and was a great story overall!! #BradAndKyle

Loved Every Moment of It!

Loved it so much! I would love to hear more from the narrator and author!