Russel Middlebrook Books
Book 1 in the Russel Middlebrook Series. 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.
Book 2 in the Lambda Award-winning Russel Middlebrook Series. "Summer camp is different from high school. Something about spending the night. Things happen .” Russel Middlebrook is back, in a stand-alone sequel to Geography Club , and he’s off to work as a summer camp counselor with his best friends Min and Gunnar. He’s sick and tired of being openly gay in high school, and a peaceful summer at Camp Serenity is just what he needs to relieve the stress that comes from being an “out” teenager. But he doesn’t count on sudden new rivalries with Min and Gunnar, or having to chase after a cabin full of unruly campers. And he especially doesn’t count on a fellow counselor as hunky as Web Bastion. Things do happen at Camp Serenity, especially at night. Brent Hartinger’s third novel is a story about Indian legends, skinny-dipping in moonlit coves, and the mysteries of a secret society called the Order of the Poison Oak. But more than anything, this witty page-turner is about bravery in the face of unexpected danger, the passion of a sizzling summer romance, and, most of all, the courage to be yourself.
It's a horror-movie extravaganza in this companion to Brent Hartinger's Geography Club! Two books in one recount the stories of best friends Min and Russel who sign up to be extras on the set of a zombie film then learn that there's nothing scarier than high school romance! Read one story, flip the book over, and read the other! In Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies, Russel must choose between his long-distance boyfriend and a close-to-home ex who wants to get back together. In Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies, Min struggles to accept her cheerleader girlfriend's decision to stay in the closet. Russel and Min's separate stories affect each other in surprising ways but you'll have to read both books to find out how!
Book 4 in the Lambda Award-winning Russel Middlebrook Series! People aren't always what they seem to be. Sometimes we even surprise ourselves. So discovers seventeen-year-old Russel Middlebrook in The Elephant of Surprise , a stand-alone sequel to Brent Hartinger's landmark 2003 gay young adult novel Geography Club (which has now been adapted as a feature film co-starring Scott Bakula and Nikki Blonsky). In this latest book, Russel and his friends Min and Gunnar are laughing about something they call the Elephant of Surprise – the tendency for life to never turn out as expected. Sure enough, Russel soon happens upon a hot but mysterious homeless activist named Wade, even as he's drawn back to an old flame named Kevin. Meanwhile, Min is learning surprising things about her girlfriend Leah, and Gunnar just wants to be left alone to pursue his latest technology obsession. But the elephant is definitely on the move in all three of their lives. Just who is Wade and what are he and his friends planning? What is Leah hiding? And why is Gunnar taking naked pictures of Kevin in the shower? The Elephant of Surprise includes Hartinger's trademark combination of humor and romance, angst and optimism. Before the story is over, Russel and his friends will learn that the Elephant of Surprise really does appear when you least expect him—and that when he stomps on you, it really, really hurts.
Warning: this story includes both explicit language about sex and graphic depictions of sex itself. Russel Middlebrook is a gay teen who’s been through a lot. He’s the lead character in Brent Hartinger’s Lambda Award-winning Russel Middlebrook Series. And he’s also the star of Geography Club, the book that started it all and that has now been adapted as a feature film co-starring Scott Bakula and Ana Gasteyer. But now Russel is facing his biggest challenge yet: getting tested to find out if he has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Along the way, he recalls some of his own most important sexual experiences. This free short story is part of The Real Story Safe Sex Project, a volunteer organization started by Brent Hartinger, using fictional characters to spread the word about HIV/AIDS and safe sex to gay and bi male teens and twentysomethings.