#charles benoit

AudioFile's SYNC Summer of Listening 2019 promotion for young adults offers 2 free audiobooks per week—1 classic or non-fiction, 1 modern—as free MP3 downloads, usually available worldwide (some titles are subject to geo-restrictions, and you can see the planned release schedule here).

This week's two selected titles, which have a theme of outsiders with treacherous friends, available until 7am Eastern Time on May 9th, are as follows:

Othello by William Shakespeare, the classic play of the Moorish commander Othello undermined by his treacherous subordinate Iago via his jealousy about his beloved Desdemona, from the Donmar Warehouse performance in London during the 2007-2008 season; read by a full cast including actors Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ewan McGregor, and Kelly Reilly, from Naxos Audiobooks, available worldwide

You by Charles Benoit, a young adult noir thriller, told in the second person, by an underacheiving teen in a dreary high school who finds his life becoming less boring and more bloody as he gets caught up in the schemes of the new kid at school; read by David Baker, from Full Cast Audio, available Canada & US only

Charles Benoit: Everybody’s been talking about bullying, and that’s a good thing. It’s an important topic and we need to take it seriously. The bully, of course, is always somebody else, never us or our friends. No, we’re too mature for that, too kind, too darn good. But the truth is, any one of us can be a bully, and given the right motivation, we’d jump at the chance to pick on someone else in order to take the spotlight off ourselves. I wanted to explore the premise that good kids could be blackmailed into becoming bullies — and doing it for what they believe are really good reasons.

Was it difficult to portray your characters as both victims and bullies, or did you find that more realistic?

Charles: At one point in the book, the characters realize that they are both the victims of bullying and bullies themselves. The reality is that we’re all coerced into exhibiting behaviors we don’t always agree with, and then we force others into following the same set of behaviors, even though we know better. Education, politics, fashion, parenting, relationships, tradition — every area of human existence has expected behavior norms, and heaven help the person who steps out of them. The sooner we realize that we don’t have to stand for it — and that we shouldn’t be forcing it on others — the better off we’ll all be.

What is Eric Hamilton's secret?