Geography Club

By Brent Hartinger

Russel Middlebrook is convinced he's the only gay kid at Goodkind High School.

Then his online gay chat buddy turns out to be none other than Kevin, the popular but closeted star of the school's baseball team. Soon Russel meets other gay students, too. There's his best friend Min, who reveals that she is bisexual, and her soccer–playing girlfriend Terese. Then there's Terese's politically active friend, Ike.

But how can kids this diverse get together without drawing attention to themselves?

"We just choose a club that's so boring, nobody in their right mind would ever in a million years join it. We could call it Geography Club!"

Brent Hartinger's debut novel, what became first of a series about Russel Middlebrook, is a fast–paced, funny, and trenchant portrait of contemporary teenagers who may not learn any actual geography in their latest club, but who learn plenty about the treacherous social terrain of high school and the even more dangerous landscape of the human heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 10, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061968396

Brent Hartinger

Brent Hartinger is the author of eight novels for young adults, including Geography Club (HarperCollins, 2003) and Shadow Walkers (Flux, 2011). His books have been praised by reviewers at top national dailies like USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, The Oregonian and Seattle Times; leading GLBT publications The Advocate and Instinct Magazine; and top online book review outlets Bookslut.com and Teenreads.com. He is founder and editor of the fantasy website TheTorchOnline.com and also writes for AfterElton.com, the foremost online outlet for GLBT news. He lives in Seattle.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

I WAS DEEP BEHIND ENEMY LINES, in the very heart of the opposing camp. My adversaries were all around me. For the time being, my disguise was holding, but still I felt exposed, naked, as if my secret was obvious to anyone who took the time to look. I knew that any wrong action, however slight, could expose my deception and reveal my true identity. The thought made my skin prickle. The enemy would not take kindly to my infiltration of their ranks, especially not here, in their inner sanctum.

Then Kevin Land leaned over the wooden bench behind my locker and said, Yo, Middlebrook, let me use your shampoo!

I was in the high school boys’ locker room at the end of third period P.E. class. I’d just come from the showers, and part of the reason I felt naked was because I was naked. I’d slung my wet towel over the metal door of my locker and was standing there all goosebumpy, eager to get dressed and get the hell out of there. Why exactly did I feel like the boys’ locker room after third period P.E. was enemy territory—that the other guys in my class were rival soldiers in some warlike struggle for domination? Well, there’s not really a short answer to that question.

Use your own damn shampoo, I said to Kevin, crouching down in front of my locker, probing the darkness for clean underwear.

Kevin stepped right up next to me and started searching the upper reaches of my locker himself. I could feel the heat of his body, but it did nothing to lessen my goosebumps. Come on, he said. Where is it? I know you have some. You always have shampoo, just like you always have clean undies.

I had just found my Jockey shorts, and I was tempted to not give Kevin the satisfaction of seeing he’d been right about me, but I was cold and tired of being exposed. I sat down on the bench, maneuvering my legs through the elastic of my underwear, then pulled them up. I fumbled for the shampoo in my backpack and handed it to Kevin. Here, I said. Just bring it back when you’re done. Kevin was lean and muscled and dark, with perfect sideburns and a five o’clock shadow by ten in the morning. More important, he was naked too, and suddenly it seemed like there was no place to look in the entire locker room that wasn’t his crotch. I glanced away, but there were more visual land mines to avoid—specifically, the bodies of Leon and Brad and Jarred and Ramone, other guys from our P.E. class, all looking like one of those Abercrombie & Fitch underwear ads come to life.

Okay, maybe there was a short answer to the question of why I felt out of place in the boys’ locker room. I liked guys. Seeing them naked, I mean. But—and this is worth emphasizing—I liked seeing them naked on the Internet; I had absolutely no interest in seeing them naked, in person, in the boys’ locker room after third period P.E. I’d never been naked with a guy—I mean in a sexual way—and I had no plans to do it anytime soon. But the fact that I even thought about getting naked with a guy in a sexual way was something that Kevin and Leon and Brad and Jarred and Ramone would never ever understand. I wasn’t the most popular guy at Robert L. Goodkind High School, but I wasn’t the least popular either. (Kevin Land at least spoke to me, even if it was only to ask for shampoo.) But one sure way to become the least popular guy was to have people think you might be gay. And not being gay wasn’t just about not throwing a bone in the showers. It was a whole way of acting around other guys, a level of casualness, of comfort, that says, I’m one of you. I fit in. I wasn’t one of them, I didn’t fit in, but they didn’t need to know that.

Kevin snatched the shampoo, and I deliberately turned my back to him, stepping awkwardly into my jeans.

Hey, Middlebrook! Kevin said to me. Nice ass! Leon and Brad and Jarred and Ramone all laughed. Big joke, not exactly at my expense, but in my general vicinity. Some tiny part of me wondered, Do I have a nice ass? Hell, I didn’t know. But a much bigger part of me tensed, because I knew this was a test, the kind enemy soldiers in movies give to the hero who they suspect isn’t one of them. And from a guy I’d just lent my shampoo to, besides. So much for gratitude.

Everything now depended on my reaction. Would I pass this, Kevin Land’s latest test of my manhood?

I glanced back at Kevin, who was still snickering. Halfway down his body, he jiggled, but of course I didn’t look.

Instead, I bent over halfway, sticking my rear out in his direction. You really think so? I said, squirming back and forth.

Middlebrook! Kevin said, all teeth and whiskers and dimples. You are such a fag!

Mission accomplished, I thought. My cover was holding—for another day at least.

Once I’d finished dressing, I met up with my friends Gunnar and Min for lunch at our usual table in the school cafeteria.

The paint is flaking off the ceiling in Mr. Wick’s classroom, Gunnar said as we started to eat. Sometimes the chips land on my desk. Gunnar and I had been friends forever, or at least since the fourth grade, when his family had moved from Norway to my neighborhood. I’d always thought he should be proud of being from somewhere different, but kids had teased him about his accent and his name (they called him Goony or Gunner), so he desperately tried to ignore his heritage. Gunnar was a thoroughly nice guy and perfectly loyal as a friend, but—and this is hard to admit, him being a buddy and all—just a little bit high-strung.

It’s an old school, Min said. The whole ceiling’s going to collapse on us one of these days. Min was the school egghead. (She was also Chinese American, which is something of a stereotype, isn’t it?) But unlike Shelly Vorhaus, the school’s other egghead, Min had more than two shirts and actually wore makeup. In other words, Min and Gunnar were both like me, occasional visitors to the border region of high school respectability.

You don’t understand, Gunnar said to Min. What if it’s lead paint? You said it yourself: this is an old building.

Lead paint? I said.

You know—the kind that causes brain damage if you ingest it? Gunnar could also be a bit of a hypochondriac or whatever.

So what if it is? Min said. You’re not eating it, are you?

Ingest doesn’t just mean to eat something, Gunnar said. It can also mean to inhale. Most people don’t know that. He was right; I hadn’t known that. But if Min didn’t know it either, I didn’t feel so bad.

I liked Min and Gunnar. We had a lot in common, and for the most part, I felt comfortable around them. But I couldn’t help wondering how they’d react if they knew my little secret—my liking guys, I mean. I doubted they’d run shrieking from the room. But they were my best friends, and I couldn’t have handled anything less than confetti-and-sparklers acceptance. Which was why I’d decided never to tell them. But which was also why I guess I never felt that comfortable around them.

Suddenly, a blanket of silence fell across the cafeteria. Min, Gunnar, and I all turned to see what was making the lack of a commotion.

Brian Bund, a junior, was sitting by himself at a table in the corner, his hunched, bony back to the room. Someone had flung a big spoonful of chili at him, and it had spattered across the back of his white T-shirt.

As soon as people realized what had happened, they began to laugh. I glanced around the lunchroom. Ordinarily, there was a cafeteria worker or two around, cleaning tables or refilling napkin dispensers, but there were no adults just then—which was probably why Brian had been on the receiving end of the chili in the first place.

A lot of people were laughing at Brian now, but the jocks, sitting two tables away from him, were laughing the loudest. I was certain the projectile chili was their handiwork. Sure enough, even as the whole lunchroom was watching, Jarred Gasner lobbed a spoonful of chocolate pudding at the back of Brian’s shirt. And Nate Klane flicked a heap of vanilla ice cream at him. Kevin Land, snickering with the rest of the jocks, wasn’t throwing anything, but he’d probably been the one to throw the chili that had started it all. But at least I had to give those jocks credit for their aim, because everything they threw hit Brian square in the hair or back.

By now, the cafeteria was ringing with laughter. It was coming from every corner of the room. The cheerleaders at the Cheerleaders table. The druggies at the Druggies table. And the Girl Jocks, the Theater Crowd, and the Lefty Radicals at all their tables too. Even some of the kids at the Christians, Orchestra Members, and Computer Geeks tables were laughing. (For the record, Min, Gunnar, and I made up the Nerdy Intellectuals, and no one at our table was laughing.)

I wasn’t surprised by any of this. Brian Bund was the unquestioned outcast of the school. The jocks teased him mercilessly, and almost everyone else watched and laughed while they did it. Maybe Brian would be one of those high school outcasts you read about who grow up, found some software company, and make fifty billion dollars. But for the time being, he was the lowest of the low, and all the future billions that he might someday make wouldn’t get me to trade places with him.

I’d like to be able to say that when I saw what was being done to him, I stood up and spoke out, stopping the humiliation with some cheeky quip. If this had been the movie of my life, that’s exactly what I would have done—a great way to establish what a plucky, likeable guy I am. But this wasn’t a movie, and the only audience was the other kids in that cafeteria, so I sat there like everyone else. It wouldn’t have made any difference anyway. Nothing I could’ve said would have stopped what they were doing to Brian. The jocks just would’ve thrown stuff at me too, and when I took lifesaving, the first thing they taught us was to think long and hard before you approach a drowning person—that if you get too close, they can pull you under with them.

What’s going on? The voice of a cafeteria worker cut through the din.

The food stopped coming, but the laughter didn’t.

Brian sat there for a second, the back of his shirt flecked with chili and ice cream and pudding. Then he stood up, and bits of food started dripping down to the floor. Brian turned and looked out across the cafeteria with such a mixture of bewilderment and sadness in his eyes that I felt a deep pang of a shame way down in my stomach, even though I was one of only about fifteen people who weren’t laughing at him. Incredibly, Brian took the time to carry his tray to the garbage can, where he dumped his trash. Anyone who couldn’t see the dignity in his sorting of his dirty silverware didn’t know what dignity was.

But most of the kids in the cafeteria just laughed louder still.

"Would you look at this? said the frustrated cafeteria worker, spotting the mess behind where Brian had been sitting. Who’s going to clean this up? Huh? Who?" The worker was saying this to Brian, which I thought was ironic. Talk about blaming the victim.

Gunnar, Min, and I turned back to our table, but none of us said anything. I wasn’t sure what Gunnar and Min were thinking. I knew they thought it was terrible how everyone treated Brian Bund. But let’s face it, Brian was weird. He had acne and he smelled bad. And to Gunnar and Min, Brian probably seemed so different that he was like another species. You care when someone kicks a dog, you feel bad for the poor animal, but you don’t feel that bad, because it’s not like it’s a human being.

Brian didn’t seem so different to me. Because I knew that’s how people might treat me if they ever learned the truth. It scared the hell out of me, because I was certain I could never handle being that completely alone.

That night in my bedroom, I logged on to the Net. I said I’d never actually been naked with a guy, but it’s possible that once or twice I might’ve gone to a gay chat room and maybe even gone off for a private chat with a guy or two. I refuse to say any more about this on

Reviews for Geography Club

[widdersyns · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was pretty cute. I think it would be great for younger teenagers. But it didn't really do anything original, I guess. I wasn't particularly thrilled with it.

[serenayates · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[soulflower1981 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[emiliem-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Read this book once, after the author came to our school (he lived in the area).

[stephanieloves · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 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 readersCons: Not enough rising action... wish there'd been more drama before the final climaxLove: 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!).

[poemyhero · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book. The plot was rather simple and even predictable but it sends a great message and it is an excellent book for gay teens and "outcasts" who are struggling and need that someone to understand.

[kdebros · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A well-written book on a relatively rare topic. A group of homosexual students find each other within their high school, all from different cliques, and need an excuse to hang out together. They create the Geography Club because they would have the use of a classroom, but other students would think it was so boring that no one else would ever join.

[thedefinitefraggle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great, engaging YA novel about a kid who starts a secret Gay/Straight Alliance at his high school. (P.S. A lot more fun and way less angsty than the cover makes it look.)

[callmecayce · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Before reading this, I'd skimmed over some reviews (I think on Amazon) and they were mediocre, sort of in the middle. I can see why, there are some plot holes, but overall, it's a cute book that deals with some very real issues. The idea is that our hero, Russel, is gay and hasn't told anyone -- not his friends, family or anyone. He looks at stuff on the web and suffers through the tortures of PE, but keeps his secret safe. Until one day he meets someone in a chat room and ends up agreeing to meet them. I won't spoil anything, but it's an interesting idea, made even more interesting because the entire story is told from Russel's point of view. We don't have the omniscient narrator trying to tell us what's going to happen. We have to go through things the same way that Russel does, and I think this is one of the novel's strengths. There are a few glitches, especially relating to the boy that Russel meets online and then in person and to his friends. But overall, it's a cute book that has a very nice (if slightly convoluted) point.

[libraryscat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Russell Middlebrook is a sophomore in high school. He is also gay. He also believes that he is the only person in the school who is! As the story unfolds, Russell describes the other kids in his school – how there are cliques, with some people in and some out, and some people who no one will befriend. When he finds that one of the most popular boys in school is also gay, he confides in his best friend Min who then surprises Russell by stating that she is bisexual. The friends decide they would like to start a club, a place where they could talk about the loneliness and fear they feel about their sexuality. But they do not want everyone – no, anyone – to know. So they start what should be a very unpopular club – the Geography Club. They learn about themselves and others as their friendships are tested.

[francescadefreitas · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[kewpie_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Russel is certain that he is the only gay kid at his school. One night he goes to a chat room for people in his town and finds out that there is at least one more. As he explores a little more, he finds out that there are several people, including one of his best friends. Because these students want to hang out, but think people will be suspicious, they form the "Geography Club" a secret fakeout name to confuse the straight people and is suposed to keep them all out. Of course, nothing goes like planned. I found the "straight" sex scenes to be a bit nauseating. I thought his suposed best friend was extremely cruel to him and I don't really get why Russel put up with it. Gunnar was just awful on all kinds of levels. And Min seemed pretty tempermental. One aspect this books covers is that homophobia can be so strong, the gay and lesbian population sometimes feed into it and participate in it. It's a real occurance, but it made me feel somewhat uncomfortable reading it. Not only do the kids stay in the closet throughout the book, but many of the characters don't want to associate with a straight boy because people think he's gay. I thought the school "goat" was WAY to nice to be realistic. Other than that, the epilogue was a little depressing, but realistic.

[pacifickle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Russel is in high school, and secretly gay. He keeps it a secret because he's sure no one else is gay. But, after discovering a gay classmate in a chat room, the two band together with other gay classmates in a group called The Geography Club, purposefully named so that no other students will want to join because they figure Geography is as boring as it gets. This paradise for the closeted gay students quickly bonds the students, as they open up and learn more about each other and themselves. Soon, though, this halfway point between "in" an "out" becomes a problem, and problems crop up in these new friendships. This book is a well-written example of YA lit with a gay protagonist. Russel is so likeable and funny, and I like that he shows how easy it is to be both masculine and gay. I think this would be a great book both for gay teens, and for teens that come from homophobic backgrounds, to show them how easy it is to relate to a gay teen.

[chibimajo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was actually a really good book! It tells the story of a boy who knows he is gay, and he finds out there are other gay teens going to his high school, and they form a club, but they call it the Geography Club because they don't want anyone to know what they're really meeting about. Kind of an in-the-closet but yet not club. This was the first novel I've read about gay teens, and I also know it's on a lot of challenged lists, and after reading it, I don't really understand why. Yes, there were gay teens in the book, but it seemed to me that the book was less about being gay than it was about fitting in during High School. Which is a topic all of us can relate to. So it was very insightful and I enjoyed it.

[bmdicker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I haven't found a better young adult book that handles the topic of homosexuality in the realness that Geography Club did. It has a character that kids can easily relate to and is not too far fetched.

[bettyjo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great YA read about a group of misfits who start a geography club to disguise their need to talk to others about their homosexuality.