This leads them to form an official after-school club, the Geography Club, so that they continue to meet without anyone catching on that they are homosexual and bisexual. Since they are all gay, lesbian, or bisexual, this group meeting allows the individuals to feel as if they belong somewhere for the first time. Russel, Min, Terese, Min's girlfriend, Ike, Min's friend, and Kevin all agree to meet at the local pizza parlor. Min reveals that she is bisexual and has a lesbian girlfriend. As Russel and Kevin start a romantic relationship, Russel also decides it is time to tell one of his best friends, Min, that he is gay. When Russel discovers that one of the baseball stars and popular guys in school, Kevin Land, is also gay, Russel feels as if he finally has someone that he can be completely honest with. The story follows the main character, Russel Middlebrook, as he tries to come to terms with the fact that he is a gay teenager, while also trying to hide his sexuality from everyone else. (Mar.Geography Club is a novel by Brent Hartinger. Overall, this novel does a fine job of presenting many of the complex realities of gay teen life, and also what it takes to be a "thoroughly decent" person. But Hartinger credibly captures high school pressure and intolerance, from the opening scene in the boys' locker room, in which Russel fears being found out, to a painful episode in which an outcast, thought to be the gay student, is humiliated in the school cafeteria. Gunnar's foul-mouthed date comes across as too obnoxious ("That movie was so gay," she says), and some readers may find it difficult to believe that Kevin, with the most at stake, would join the Geography Club. Then, a teacher reveals in the school paper that a student approached her about starting a gay support group, making the school buzz over that student's identity. Russel begins a relationship with Kevin-but complications arise when another friend, Gunnar, unwittingly sets Russel up with an aggressive girl. Then Russel learns that one of his best friends is bisexual and they form a small support group (called the Geography Club as a cover, since "no high school students in their right minds would ever join that"). The story starts out strong, when Russel meets a jock from his school, Kevin, in a gay chat room their tentative decision to meet and their awkward initial conversation convincingly portray the conflict of wanting to reach out yet being afraid of being found out.
A closeted gay high school sophomore narrates Hartinger's uneven yet realistic first novel.
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