TO KNOW HIM IS

A True Story "I'm gay, and I love it!"

By: Dennis Hobart Giles

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

“I’m gay, and I love it!”

Dennis, an acutely sensitive pre-teen with a social-emotional learning disability, explores his sexual orientation during the ’60s when gays were deemed mentally ill.

Nestled in the cozy suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, timid young Dennis bears the weight of society’s pressure to fit into his parents’ American dream. He longs to satisfy his desire to kiss the boy of his dreams, but will violent bullying and sexual experimentation in his teens with his juvenile delinquent best friend take him down the wrong path?

Will his unexpected popularity in high school allow him to kick down the closet door?

When a devastating tragedy and unimaginable heartache test his ability to cope, can Dennis summon the fortitude to overcome his fears and find closure with loved ones he abandoned decades before?

To Know Him Is chronicles life in a changing America, the intricacies of growing up gay, and proves how healing from the most painful losses can take years of self-reflection. From his mother’s careless comments, to childhood strip poker with male friends, to the simple act of counting the seconds of how long a first kiss might last—Dennis’s story is a heart-filled roller coaster that aims to charm you, break you, and give you hope.

Great story, awful performance

The story shows all the angst of growing up gay. The virtual voice performance is awful. It takes place in Massachusetts in a town called Reading. It is pronounced Redding. But the voice calls it Reeding. At one point, the main character is working with lumber. It refers to 32 bi-fors. It was supposed to be 30 2 by 4’s. There are many many other examples of bad interpretation and phrasing by A1. These virtual systems are taking jobs away from profession audio performers. Virtual Voice detracts from this heartfelt story.

Virtual voice narration

If the story wasn’t interesting to me I would have stopped listening. Mispronounced words and no emotion in an emotional story. I’m not going to listen to virtual narration books in the future.

True Stories Hit a Bit Different

Loved the book! Totally relatable on many different levels. It was a great story and well told. Performance however...the virtual voice narration had a toned down effect on some of the more important emotional parts. Overall- not the authors fault. Highly recommend the book.

Killer book

Great story, poor story telling or reading . It soo real I saw my life in this book almost to the date.
Sad it was not one of their best readers doing it. It would have been a 5 star book. I still strongly recommend it

I can relate to this…

I can relate so very much to a lot of this story. It almost mimics a lot of my life. I’m a bit younger, born in ‘71 I grew up at the height of the AIDS epidemic and was terrified to come out myself. I wished that I had this memoir to read back then?!? I hope that the younger LGBTQ+ Generation will read this and understand what we, the older Gay Generation went through so that they have the right to hold your boyfriends hand in public, get married, be at your partner’s side in the hospital or at the end? Thank you so much Hobart for being willing to write about your life! I sit here in my car at work with tears streaming down as I drive for work thinking how lucky we now all are?!? Thank you so very much!! ❤️

The idea of being alone

very easy to relate to falling in and out of love dating older men

The life journey of a gay suburban kid

The author was able to fashion his story in such a relatable manner. I felt drawn in as if I were an eye witness in real time. Although a half generation older than Hobart, I certainly empathized with many of his traumas. Personally, having lived in the area, the story brought a familiarity that was both familiar and comforting. I routed for him from the first page!

I should have listen to the narration first.

While I think the virtual narrator might help some authors who might not be able to afford hiring a narrator, this story was emotional and SUFFERED from the virtual narrator. I was very temped to stop it after an hour and return it for a refund, but the story was compelling enough for me to finish it.
If you want to check this book out, you might want to read it or at the very least see if you can stand the narration. It mispronounced words, had zero emotion and was comically bad in certain respects. There are no attempts to give characters unique voices. I just found it irritating. The author and story are fine.