Book 3

Geography Club by Brent Hartinger

Yes, I finally read it and you were all right. It was fantastic.

A small group of gay and lesbian students find each other, basically by chance, at a high and decide to start their own club. In order so that no one else knows about them, and so that no one esle would possbly think about joining, they call the Geography Club, because no one would want to join such a boring club.

That's the basic gist of the plot, but what's really at the center of the story is being alone, and what you are willing to do to not be alone. It's a painfully true depiction, the islands of popularity and their heirarchy, and then there's Outcast Island, somewere you don't want to be, but once you're there you don't get out. What are the characters willing to do, to betray, to sacrifice, to not end up there? Of course being outed would end you up there, or possibly somewhere worse.
I really felt for and identified with Brian Bund. I loved the rest of the story and the characters and the sweeteness of Russel's and Kevin's relationship, but Brian made the story for me.

I've removed the stuttering to save my bad typing skils:

"How do you do it?" I said. I wasn't sure if he'd know that I was talking about his being an outcast, but he did know.
"You get used to it," he said simply.
"All day long, I've felt like I'm going to burst into tears. Everyone staring at me, whispering things."
"No. You can't think like that."
"What do you mean?"
"You can't care what people think, You'll go crazy. You've got to save your energy for when people really do stuff."
Do stuff? I thought. But even as I thought this, I knew what kind of stuff he meant. Stuff like throwing food at him in the cafeteria. Or puling him into a darkened theater and dressing him up like a girl. Or trapping him in a deserted hallway after school.
It was good advice. It was also a fascinating insight into his life, evenif it was phenominally depressing.
"You ever want to change the way things are?" I said.
He looked down at his food. "Things don't change. Not for me, they don't." I didn't bother giving him some stupid pep talk about having a better attitude. He was absolutley right. For him, things never would change, not as long as he stayed at Goodkind High School.

He's right. The movies all lie. There is no make over, or foreign grandmother, or shiny new attitude that will save you once you find yourself on Outcast Island. I don't know how anybody ends up there. One year everyone's friends, and the next year, the Islands have formed up. I don't know how anyone survives it. I changed schools.