Geography Club

This is a great book about growing up and trying to find a place in the world. Doubly difficult if you're gay (like the main character) or GLBTQ.

Russel is very lonely, at first thinking he's the only gay kid at his high school with 1,800 pupils. As he discovers Kevin via a chatroom and more gay kids via his best friend Mim (who turns out to be bi), he is encouraged at first. But they soon face the pressure of the outside world and realize that nothing (in terms of their place and hopes) is solved just because they're all gay and have found each other. On the contrary, banding together will only be seen as suspicious. Even the formation of the 'Geography Club' as 'camouflage' doesn't help longer term. Many of them end up as alone as they show more started.

Written in the fist person, I thought it was an honest and accurate description of the issues any kid (and many adults) go through when they discover they are different. Even though this story has a gay main character, much of what he discovers has potential for a wider application. Russel learns about himself and what he wants out of life and the sense of humor that never really leaves him makes it all a little more bearable. show less

In the conservative, oppressive town of Goodkind, Russel Middlebrook faces his biggest fear—publicly coming out—as he slowly discovers there are others at his own school, stubbornly questioning and reconciling with their sexualities, just like he is. In this town and in this decade, gay-straight alliances are unheard of—scorned, even—but upon kindling a brotherhood with the diverse group of people who are so different from him, and yet so similar, he learns that sometimes being yourself, no matter how hard, is more important than any reputation, any sort of acceptance, and any lie he'd be living otherwise.

I was so impressed by this children's LGBT novel both because of the controversial topic it daringly confronts, and by the show more strength and grace with which it is written. Russel's realistic first-person narrative—one of the pioneering gay narrations in YA fiction—is a pleasure to read and captures the horrors and injustices of the high school social scene penetratingly, but in an appropriate, parent-approved fashion. I loved him as a character as well; he's so awkward, nice, and hilarious in an adorable teenage boy way. We need more gay narrators for YA!

I also adore Russel's best friends, Min and Gunnar, because they aren't portrayed as the typical "he's been my BFFL and always has my back no matter what" crap. They're so flawed—so flavored—and that makes them so, so real.

This book is touching, frightening, and compelling in all the right paces. It accurately conveys the fear of learning to cross and even break the invisible, vicious barriers within the high school social ladder, but not explicitly; it leaves just enough to the imagination, which is why I wholeheartedly recommend it to the younger crowd, too.

The unexpected alliance Russel finds within Goodkind High School, the belonging and the assurance, highlights the importance of companionship and honesty of which I think all teenagers still need to be reminded. Even though Geography Club was written over ten years ago, the relationships Hartinger portrays stand the test of time in a poignant, universal story that readers of any age and any sexual orientation will love. In Geography Club, a handful of brave, passionate students stumble upon a connection in which they each can be completely honest with each other, as well as with themselves, for the first time in their young lives. This exchange of feelings and struggles that would otherwise be repressed is both gritty and soulful, and constitutes a brilliant coming-of-age novel.

Pros: Interesting, suspenseful storyline // Cutting humor—I laughed out loud so many times! // Realistic, but still lovable characters // Russel's voice is so accurate // Tackles a sensitive issue fluidly and in a way that will encourage young readers

Cons: Not enough rising action... wish there'd been more drama before the final climax

Love: We bought tickets for the stupid romantic comedy rated PG-13, but once we were inside the multiplex, Kimberly said she wanted to see the stupid erotic thriller rated R instead. As for me, I didn't want to see either the romantic comedy or the erotic thriller. I wanted to see the animated Disney musical, which I guess just proved that I really was the gay boy that I'd been thinking all along that I was.
—LOL this is why I love Russel!

Verdict: Brent Hartinger's inspiring and dazzling debut isn't just a novel about gay adolescents; it touches upon important global teen matters of friendship, identity, and the courage to speak out, as well. I loved everything about it—the characters, the voice, the absorbing plot—and think it's one of those books that all young adult (14-16) and maybe the more-mature middle grade (11-14) readers ought to try.

Source: Complimentary copy provided by author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you!). show less

This sweet little highschool romance grabbed me from the first page. I opened it to see what the writing style was like, and I don't think I blinked until I finished it.
I wish I had had friends as smart and funny and caring as this when I was in high school. ANd there was no stick beating me over the head wiht a message, the fact this is about gay (and a bisexual) romances isn't made into a platform, it's just the circumstances of a sweet school story that had me cheering for its hero.

In a nutshell, guy finds out he's not the only kid who identifies as non-heterosexual and so they create a club so they can hang out. How to get no one else to join? Name it some thing terribly boring. Life, love and learning happen.

Geography Club is a book that I should have read sooner rather than later, because now, years after I read The God Box and Out of the Pocket, when queer characters like Jesper Fahey and queer authors like Nina Lacour are on the scene, this book feels shallow and too much like a badly-planned after-school special. This is the YA voice I wish we’d leave behind. Maybe it was important, maybe it was influential and the voice didn’t grate back then, but this immaturity bugs me in MG as well as YA. It’s a show more voice that seems to talk-down to kids even as it sidles up to them, trying to pass as one of them.

It’s the reason One and Only Ivan (a book about a poetic gorilla) was better than Crenshaw (a book about a homeless kid), by the same author, written in the same voice.

Maybe it’s been a while since I read Kate DiCamillo, but I feel like this book would have been MG if not for the references to drinking and sex— not that young kids don’t know about these things, or aren’t exposed to them, and honestly, we should be honest with them about these things.

Also, another reviewer pointed out that this is a very sanitized and simplistic look at bullying and being gay. It’s also very white. I thought the star athlete was black until someone else, who was black, was introduced, and it was clear that the kid was maybe tan? Why do authors leave skin-color so ambiguous?

The only thing this book had going for it was a few clever quips, and a sometimes allegorical view of high school. But if this was an allegory, it was a terribly poor one, and I don’t think you should read this.

Also see Kiki's review. show less

Stupid internet. I am not writing this review again. It's well-executed; definitely the best 'gay teen' book I've read. Not genius, but you can't have everything. Cliches are used, but not with an overly heavy hand. I cared a surprising amount about the characters and wanted to read more---lots more. I still want to know who 'patient zero' was!

Growing up in a small community as a gay male there were often times I had wished that there was literature that would have helped me to see that I wasn't alone. Now as I get a bit older I see that they are actually publishing such novels that showcase that there are gay people in high school. This makes my heart very happy since there is a growing epidemic of LGBT suicides in our country due to bullying. These books can help these children to feel that they are not along in their journey. It can give them great power within themselves, even when they are unable to tell anyone else.

This book is about a group of kids at a high school that form a "geography club" which is actually an undercover gay-straight alliance. They think because show more it is a geography club that no one will want to join up. I mean come on if you remember high school geography was sooooooo not cool. Well that is what they are banking on. The book is believable in the fact that characters run the gamut of popularity and incidences within. Hartinger appears to have been trying to give an accurate portrayal of the high school experience and in my opinion he does a rather good job. He has characters that act out of character with a bit of popularity (what kid with even a hint of unpopularity didn't act weird when someone popular suddenly talked to them or they were put in a situation where they were not treated like crap by them?) Hartinger pays proper respect to those boundaries of the high school experience where you are who you sit with.

If you are uncomfortable reading most LGBT fiction because most of it contains graphic sex then this would be the book for you. There is a few mentions of kissing, but for the most part this is just a nice book about friends, the high school experience, and love. It shows what is possible when someone in the LGBT community thinks outside of the stereotypical book of what this community will purchase. There is a power in providing something to a wider audience because it shows that there are multiple types in this one community, but so much of the literature for LGBT has to have some guy standing in his boxer briefs on the cover. You will have a couple of scenes of boxer briefs, but it is only in the appropriate places in this book which is contained with the pages and in the locker room where it should be expected. I recommend taking the time to read this book and sharing it with others that want to understand that not everyone in the LGBT Community fits into a box or a stereotype. show less

3 1/2 stars because this book is dated now. Most high schools have a Gay Straight Alliance and it is not as big a deal thankfully. There are students who are out and proud at my high school so a student who is struggling with coming out will not feel like the only gay person, although it is still a hard thing to do. I really liked the realistic nature of Russel's relationships and his growth as a person over the course of the book.