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Summary: Good story, emotionally engaging
Review: This is a story about five teens who form a club so that they can get together without drawing attention to themselves. This is a story about friendships. Good story, unique, great characters.
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Summary: Geography Club by Brent Hartinger
Review: This should be a MUST in high school -- for ALL teachers and English classes -- WITH discussion groups after the book has been read. Keep it up Brent. Not a preachy book -- but a book about feelings, not just [alternative lifestyle] teens, but all teens who are pointed at, joked about, isolated by others. ... Every library at least MUST HAVE one copy -- public and school libraries.
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Summary: More than coming of age, a contemporary commentary
Review: Though a fictional piece about a group of teen-aged gay comrades, author Brent Hartinger's "Geography Club" is less another coming-of-age story and more a reflection of the sometimes ponderous social and educational restrictions on today's teens struggling to validate themselves despite their same-sex preferences. The "Geography Club" here is intended to do just that, but peer pressure and rejection force it to become Goodkind High School's Gay-Straight-Bisexual Alliance. Given current court challenges to some schools' prohibition against such alliances, Hartinger seems to have tapped into a contemporary nerve. It's a realistic portrayal, and Hartinger's characters - Russel Middlebrook and school baseball stud Kevin Land, both of whom give in to a mutual attraction to each other - can be Everyman's teen-aged kid. Russel and Kevin, working hard to keep their covert relationship hidden, nonetheless are found out by three other teens who, coincidentally, are also gay. In trying for some degree of acceptance, even from each other, the enclave establishes the "Geography Club," designed purposely to be so boring that no one will join it, thus protecting the hidden purpose of the club. It's only when social forces collide to bring the small gay group out into the daylight that the "Geography Club" meets a challenge from peer and educational prejudices. Hartinger's character development is incredible, and his injection of occasional expletives are by no means gratuitous but instead serve as a mirror of real life. Though the reader need not be gay to try to benefit from the book's sublimial message, it is a potentially important wakeup for the gay teen struggling for peer, parental and self-acceptance, and to parents who might get a clue to how crushing a weight their childrens' closets can be.
Rating:
Summary: nice story
Review: Well written, realistic gay teen fiction that harbors on humorous and heart warming all at the same time. A joy to read.
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Summary: Geography Club
Review: What a wonderful book! It's a vivid, endearing, and human portrayal of teenage struggle, discovery, and ambition for truth, authenticity and friendship. A beautiful story not only of a personal journey but also of how society can evolve to become more appreciative of diversity and friendship. Protagonist Russel Middelbrook is sure to become an important part of the memories of many young readers, though this book is also wonderful reading for adults. Yes, do buy this book.
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Summary: Could not put Geography Club down!
Review: What can I say about this book. It was so good, I could not put it down, and finished it in just a few hours. It is a quick, easy, but fulfilling read. The gist of this book is:
A sophomore does his best to fit in at high school, doing his utmost to appear one of the boys.
Russel Middlebrook has a secret crush on the baseball jock, Kevin Land. When his online gay-chat buddy turns out to be none other than the popular Kevin, they strike up a friendship outside of school.
In the cafeteria each day one boy, Brian, is ferociously picked on. Russel & his best friend, Min, talk about that often, & when Russel can no longer sit by doing nothing, he decides to eat at the lonely nerd's table. There he discovers an unlikely friend.
Soon Russel is meeting other gay students: brainy Min reveals she's bisexual, & that her soccer-playing girlfriend, Terese is also. & there's Terese's politically active friend, Ike.
How can kids this diverse get together without drawing attention to themselves? They decide to choose a club that is "so boring, nobody in their right mind would ever in a million years join it. We could call it a `Geography Club'!"
How this group become friends & work through (or not) their differences, makes for gripping reading. Brent Hartinger has something to say, & does it well. Teens, both gay & straight, will find Geography Club intriguing & familiar territory. It is fast paced, funny, & a telling portrait of contemporary teenagers as they maneuver through the treacherous social terrain of a typical American high school & the even more rocky landscape of the human heart.
These young adults, testing their maturity, are all likable & flawed, like everyone, & totally believable.
I simply could not put Geography Club down!
Rating:
Summary: Better Than You Might Think
Review: What the other reviews here omit is that GEOGRAPHY CLUB is also an interesting look at the struggle between different kinds of students -- the jocks vs. the wimps, the popular kids vs. the nerds, in addition to the gays vs. the straights. Russel, the book's hero (and narrator), has to come to terms with momentarily discovering what it's like to briefly be part of the popular, athletic clique, or being honest with himself and what he really is. And the book also goes into detail about the pressures high school kids have to go through today, with sex, drugs, grades, and everything else. Think of it as a novelized version of BREAKFAST CLUB for the 2000s, only with gay kids instead of misfits.My only minor criticism is that I felt like there were a lot of subtle details omitted from this good (but short) novel. For example, the adults in the story are practically invisible. We don't know much of the lead character's home life, if he has any brothers or sisters, or what his parents or upbringing is like. We don't know anything about the town he lives in (other than a few sparse clues about a beach house and cold weather). And the final denouement between Russel and his first love left me flat. This is one of the rare novels in which I wish the writer had given us another 100 pages to tell us more... but who knows? Maybe Hartinger will someday be inspired to write a sequel. That having been said, GEOGRAPHY CLUB is a very poignant, well-told story with thoughtful insights into the characters, and dead-on accurate dialogue. I think anybody who's gay, or knows what it's like to be different, will come away from the story with something positive. Recommended with reservations.
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Summary: A different book for me...
Review: When I picked this book up off the shelf at a bookstore in Boston, I expected nothing special. I was looking for an edgy teen novel and I just coulnd't find one that day. I looked at this book, deciding if it didn't sound interesting, I'd just leave. I read the front flap and fell in love. This way the edgy novel I had been looking for. Homosexuality in a teen book seems to be frowned upon lately. People say younger teens aren't old enough to handle that kind of thing. That is totally wrong. Not only is the main character gay, his best friend is bisexual. This correctly portrays the main character's relationships with his friends during high school. I loved it. It's a quick read, but worth it. If you were ever homophobic, it will make you regret it, or at least I think so.
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Summary: A Promising Debut Novel
Review: With his debut novel, Geography Club, Brent Hartinger has created a sharp, witty, and touchingly realistic look into the lives of modern gay high school students. Russel has never knowingly met another gay person in his small town. He firmly believes he's the only gay kid at his high school, and in fact, feels like he's a spy in enemy territory. When he stumbles across a gay chat room set up just for his town, he's shocked to meet another gay student from his school. They agree to meet and much to Russ' surprise, the other gay student is none other than Kevin, a popular jock. That information is just too much to keep to himself so he risks coming out to Min, his best friend. Min shocks him making a confession of her own: she has a girlfriend, soccer-playing Terese. The four of them, along with Terese's activist friend Ike, decide to get together to talk about all they have in common. But where? There's seems to be no safe place that jocks, activists, and self-described intellectuals can meet together without drawing suspicion in the clique obsessed society of high school. That's when they come up with the idea to form the Geography Club. "We just choose a club that's so boring, nobody in their right mind would ever in a million years join it." The idea works at first, but when another student suddenly, and rather inexplicably, wants to join, things start to unravel. Things are further complicated by Russ' rocket-fast trip from the respectable edges of society to popularity. He suddenly finds himself faced with decisions and situations he's never imagined for himself. Will he make the right choices? What will he do to hang on to his newfound status? Hartinger tackles the difficult and treacherous landscape of high school society with startling realism. I kept expecting his characters to act in the typical "after-school special" fashion for which the first part of the book seems to set them up. Much to my surprise (and pleasure) he doesn't take the easy way out. His characters feel real, and that means they don't always do the "right" thing. Hartinger's writing style, aimed specifically at young adults, is extremely accessible, and the book is a quick, but satisfying read. I think it's safe to say that we can expect more great things from Brent Hartinger, and I look forward to reading his newest release, the non-gay themed Last Chance Texaco.
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