Is there an audiobook of The Outsiders?

Yes. The Outsiders has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Jim Fyfe.

How long is the The Outsiders audiobook?

The The Outsiders audiobook runs 5 hr 9 min.

Our review

The Outsiders

Name: The Outsiders
Author: S. E. Hinton

S. E. Hinton

4.9/ 5 · Incredible

S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders is a short, hard-hitting coming-of-age novel about Ponyboy Curtis, a fourteen-year-old greaser, his two brothers, and a feud with the rich Socs that goes too far. It's a story about chosen family and class lines, and it still lands with teenagers and adults alike.

Narrated by Jim Fyfe

Audiobook · 5 hr 9 min

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How the narration holds up

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The Review

Our take

What do you do when the enemy you were raised to hate turns out to be hurting in the same places you are? The Outsiders hangs its whole story on that question, and it asks it through Ponyboy Curtis, a fourteen-year-old greaser whose narration is so plain and open that you forget you're being told a story at all. He adores his brother Sodapop. He is certain his oldest brother, Darry, can't stand him. He trusts his gang with his life. And he knows exactly who the Socs are: rich kids who treat a beating as an evening's entertainment.

The pleasure of the book is in how little of that certainty survives. Hinton gives Ponyboy's crowd real faces. Johnny is the quiet one the others shield after a savage jumping he has never shaken off. Dally is the hardest of them, with a past in New York gangs. Two-Bit jokes his way through everything, and Sodapop has the charm that Pony envies. Nobody is a villain and nobody is a saint, which is why the loyalty between them hurts when it's tested. Then a Soc girl named Cherry talks to Pony like a person, and the neat map of us versus them starts to wobble.

The story runs across about a week, and it moves fast. You feel the dread gather around one night where things go further than anyone meant, and what follows is a spiral of choices that each make sense in the moment. Hinton wrote this as a teenager, and that shows in the best way: the book has no condescension in it. Pony's grief, his hunger to be understood by his brothers, and his private love of books and movies all come through at his own height, never smoothed over by an adult looking back.

Why you should read

Coming-of-age stories with real emotional stakes
Tales of brothers and chosen family
Classroom favorites that hold up on a reread
Teen fiction about class and belonging

What to expect

A short, fast read narrated by a fourteen-year-old
Gang violence that is real but not gratuitous
A heartbreaking final stretch
Memorable ensemble of distinct characters

The violence is real, and it's worth knowing before you hand it to a younger reader. Plenty of readers admit they cried near the end, and shock isn't the reason. The book has made you care about a household of brothers who are trying to stay together with no parents and not much money, in a neighborhood that has decided what they are. The class divide between greasers and Socs is drawn without subtlety, and it doesn't need any. Generations of readers have recognized it in their own schools, and the closing pages, with their famous plea to stay gold, still ask something hard of a person who thought they'd already figured out who the good guys were.

Reviewed by Avery · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.9/ 5

Incredible

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Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of The Outsiders?: Yes. The Outsiders has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Jim Fyfe.
Listen free with Audible
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the The Outsiders audiobook?: The The Outsiders audiobook runs 5 hr 9 min.

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Common questions

What is The Outsiders about?: What do you do when the enemy you were raised to hate turns out to be hurting in the same places you are? The Outsiders hangs its whole story on that question, and it asks it through Ponyboy Curtis, a fourteen-year-old greaser whose narration is so plain and open that you forget you're being told…
Is The Outsiders worth reading?: We scored The Outsiders 4.9 out of 5. S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders is a short, hard-hitting coming-of-age novel about Ponyboy Curtis, a fourteen-year-old greaser, his two brothers, and a feud with the rich Socs that goes too far. It's a story about chosen family and class lines, and it still lands with teenagers…