Time Out

By: Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner, Carlyn Greenwald

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Heartstopper meets Friday Night Lights in this “seamless, engrossing” (Publishers Weekly) coming-of-age story about a teen hometown hero who must find out who he is outside of basketball when his coming out as gay costs him his popularity and place on the team.

In his small Georgia town, Barclay Elliot is basically a legend. Here basketball is all that matters, and no one has a bigger spotlight than Barclay. Until he decides to use the biggest pep rally in the town’s history to come out to his school. And things change. Quickly.

Barclay is faced with hostility he never expected. Suddenly he is at odds with his own team, and he doesn’t even have his grandfather to turn to the way he used to. But who is Barclay if he doesn’t have basketball?

His best friend, Amy, thinks she knows. She drags him to her voting rights group, believing Barclay can find a bigger purpose. And he does, but he also finds Christopher. Aggravating, fearless, undeniably handsome Christopher. He and Barclay have never been each other’s biggest fans, but as Barclay starts to explore parts of himself he’s been hiding away, they find they might have much more in common than they originally thought.

As sparks turn into something more, though, Barclay has to decide if he’s ready to confront the privilege and popularity that have shielded him his entire life. Can he take a real shot at the love he was fighting for in the first place?

©2023 Hazy Mills Productions. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Great, modern and realistic book

Loved this book and a big congratulations to the authors and narrator of this story. It captures the real world we live in, The real attitudes and homophobia that is often brushes off and laughed at. The main character retreats, but finds his strength. I think this will help others find the strength to find and become their true, lovable selves and live the life they ate meant to.

Great coming of age story

I loved the story, coming-of-age and coming out handled wonderfully.

The voice work was adequate, though… his voicing for Amy (Barclay’s best friend) made her sound like Patty and/or Selma from The Simpson’s, and was a little jarring.

A GREAT coming out/of age story

“Time Out” by Sean Hayes (Yes -that Sean Hayes!), Todd Milliner, Carlyn Greenwald tackles coming out, grieving the loss of a loved one, homophobia, voting rights and financial corruption. It was a lot to try to cover in a book that’s about 200 pages.
Barclay Elliot is the captain and star player of his high school basketball team, the pride of his small Georgia town. He’s gay and wants to come out to family, friends and the whole school before the big game of the season. What could go wrong? But, things don't go as he planned -- If they went off without a hitch, there wouldn't be a story, right? Eventually, Barclay has to decide if he’s ready to confront the privilege and popularity that have shielded him his entire life.
“Time Out” is very good and I believe this would be a awesome book for anyone who is struggling with coming out - or if you are just trying to understand the coming out process from all sides. The message is – you are not alone. The book has a sweet romance subplot, too. I really cared about each of the well-defined characters. This is a hopeful coming-out story charged with motivation for change. I give it two big thumbs up! Hope you read it.

All at the end

It’s all good at the end… most of it was good story telling but kinda, back and forth

nothing new but pretty neat

it's definitely a book for a teen or younger adults for sure, but there's charm in its story telling it gives off a classic teen drama without too much edginess. it's comfortable with itself ironically

Brought back memories

Memories came back of coming out, refreshing and enjoyable story! Challenges of internal emotions! Truly enjoyed the story. Thank you!

Kind of OK

Good characters and good tension but also a lot of apparent chronological and other plot problems. Not a waste of a credit but not a well-spent one, either. You might like it!

What a disappointment

I went into this with high hopes! I love Sean Hayes! I was expecting his witty and flamboyant humor but it’s non existent in this book. It’s almost like the writers binged Love Victor and then said… “Let’s remove all the character development and interest and write a book”. I read it in 4-5 hours but not because I was into it… I just wanted it to end. Zero character development. Zero original ideas or themes. This book fell so flat I almost didn’t finish it. 2 stars is me being generous on this one. I feel like there were good intentions behind this but they clearly don’t know the LGBTQIA+ YA genre. This story has already been told in much more engaging stories. I hate to say this but it’s the worst book I’ve read in several years.