Geography Club

Geography Club is a 2003 young adult novel by American author Brent Hartinger. It is the first book in The Russel Middlebrook Series. The novel follows a group of high school students who feel like outsiders, some because of their sexual orientations. The narrator, Russel Middlebrook, then finds himself helping his friend Min to form an after-school club for the students, so that they can hang out together for support.

The novel received mostly favorable reviews. Publishers Weekly noted that "Hartinger credibly captures high school pressure and intolerance . . . 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."

Writing in the Detroit Free Press, Ellen Creager wrote: "Hartinger can write. The account of Russel fending off a girl who likes him and pining over a jock with a secret is beautifully written and funny. For gay teens, it is a warm, welcoming kind of book. That said, it also may make a straight audience squirm."

In a review in The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Dori Hillestad Butler said the novel "is not an in-your-face book about gay teens, but it does capture perfectly the loneliness and isolation that gay teens feel. In fact, it's a good book for anyone who's ever felt completely alone."