Book Four - The Geography Club

I'm on the fence on this one, to be honest. I've got opinions, but they don't add up to a definitive Yes or No.

The Geography Club, by Bret Hartinger, is about a young man who is gay and finds several other non-straight friends. He finds out that his best friend is bisexual, and has a lesbian girlfriend, and that the popular guy at school is not only gay, but has a crush on him. They are all struggling with their identities in a small town where the unpopular kid is ridiculed for being gay (he's not) and everyone is horrified by the idea of a gay-straight alliance. So the kids form a club, but they call it Geography Club. They all say they're doing it for college, to beef up their resumes, and no one asks too many questions. Naturally, various issues come along, friendships (and other relationships) are tried, and some fail.

The things I loved about this book were the characters and the emotions. Russel Middlebrook, the main character, is like a cross between Bella (from the Twilight series) and one of John Green's male protagonists. He's a normal highschool kid, sweet and smart and somewhat funny. Hartinger does a beautiful job of describing romantic moments from Russel's point of view, but doesn't make him sound like a girl. This tricky balance between feminine and masculine was well done, I thought. Same with the emotional bits; Russel's insightful enough that the reader feels included, but there's enough plot and dialogue that we aren't just looking at the story from inside his head.

The issue I had was with the portrayal of American high school. There are so many books and movies that make it look like a viscious jungle, where anyone heavy or gay or book smart is an outcast, and generally treated cruelly. I know that there are places where this is the case, but I have a hard time relating. At my school, there are nerd and fat kids at all levels of the social ladder, if there even is a social ladder (my opinion on that changes regularly). As far as gay/lesbian/bisexual kids, there are a couple stereotypical gay guys who act and sing and dress well, and a couple girls who go around telling everyone that they're lesbian or bisexual, but that's about it. No one see's The Outcast getting bullied every day at lunch, and people join the Gay-Straight Alliance if they think it'll look good for college. There is not so much drama surrounding status, with jocks on the top and various minorities at the bottom. It's hard to say, though, whether other schools are as bad as the one in The Geography Club. I really wouldn't know.

So what do you think? Read it, and get back... or just comment based on what I've written. This is another good one for school stuff, since you can easily discuss things like stereotypes and the message, and it doesn't take long to read!