Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An enjoyable mapping of adolescence, 7 Sep 2003
By A Customer
With an opening like "I was deep behind enemy lines, in the very heart of the opposing camp." I half expected an oppressive 'us and them' mentality to dominate the whole of Hartinger's plot and confine this wonderful first novel to the exclusive pigeon hole of teen homosexual literature. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Geography club is a gentle and honest story about a young man's struggle to find common ground, told in the unique but identifiable first person voice of Russel Middlebrook. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever been on the outside, parts moved me to tears and at times it had me in stitches of laughter.
A sample chapter can be found at I know I'll be watching out for this authors next work.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 14 Oct 2006
Russel Middlebrook is pretty sure that he's gay. After all, he's not attracted to girls, and he spends every day after gym class studiously avoiding the other half-naked guys in the locker room. He's never had an actual experience with another guy, though, so maybe the attraction he feels toward them is something he'll outgrow--or maybe not.
While surfing the Internet one night, he finds chat rooms for different towns and cities, where you can talk to other people who are also gay. And amazingly enough, there's a boy he meets with the name GayTeen-- who not only lives in his town, but also attends his high school. Another gay boy, in his very own school? There's no way that could be true-- especially when he finds out that the kid with the handle GayTeen is none other than Kevin Land, star of the baseball team, one of the most popular guys in school.
As Kevin and Russel get to know one another, outside of school and hidden away from prying eyes, they realize that there's no way for them to be together inside school walls. The same is true for Russel's friends Min and Terese, who although they claim to just be really close friends, are actually in love. So along with a few others, including Gunnar, who is straight, and Brian Bund, the loser of Goodkind High School, the boys form The Geography Club. After all, no one else is going to want to join such a boring club--especially if they knew it was just a front for a gay/ lesbian school group.
As events at school heat up, with Brian eventually being outed as gay even though he's not, Russel, Kevin, and their friends will have to learn what's most important in life. And that sometimes, no matter how much you might wish for things to be out in the open, you're just not ready.
GEOGRAPHY CLUB is a great, quick read from author Brent Hartinger, about the ups and downs of daily high school life, and the struggle to find ones identity.
Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic, Fun, Loved-It., 25 May 2008
I got this book for my 20th birthday, I'd read a few reviews that said this was for younger people but I still wanted to read it. I must say that I enjoyed it from start to cover. I read this book in less than two days.
Russell (lead character) knows he's gay but feels like he has no-one to relate to, or talk to about it. He confides all his secrets into people that he meets in internet chatrooms. Like most evenings Russell spends the night talking to other gay people in these chatrooms, until he stumbles across a chatroom for the small town where he lives. He genuinely does believe that he is the only gay person in the town, but unknown to him at the time; the other gay person in this chatroom is only the most popular, well-liked jock in the whole school.
They agree to meet at the swampy, stinky, picnic gazebo, and can't believe who it is that they're meeting.
After a few times of meeting, sharing secrets and a few intimate moments, they embark on a really romantic (if secret) romance.
I may be 20 but I couldn't put this book down from the moment I got it, as young and naive as it is, it's a fantastic read regardless of how young or old you happen to be.
Just buy it, you won't regret it.
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