Everyone thinks their parents are embarrassing, but Hannah knows she’s got them all beat. Her dad made a fortune showcasing photos of pretty girls and his party lifestyle all over the Internet, and her mom was once one of her dad’s girlfriends and is now the star of her own website. After getting the wrong kind of attention for way too long, Hannah has mastered the art of staying under the radar…and that’s just how she likes it.
Of course, that doesn’t help her get noticed by her crush. Hannah’s sure that gorgeous, sensitive Josh is her soul mate. But trying to get him to notice her; wondering why she suddenly can’t stop thinking about another guy, Finn; and dealing with her parents make Hannah feel like she’s going crazy. Yet she’s determined to make things work out the way she wants — only what she wants may not be what she needs….
Something, Maybe was cute, on the lighter side and easy to read. I picked it up on the recommendation of Bookshelves of Doom. (I figure whenever a character makes you want to say/type their name like this, “FIIIINNNNNN!!,” as she did in her review, well, as one who reads for character it’s my duty to check the book out.) While I can’t say I connected with the character quite as enthusiastically, I can say that I see the appeal.
So even though the love story didn’t wow me, I very much appreciated Hannah as a character. She got on my nerves a few times, but all was well when she thought this: “I feel like I’m pieces of a person instead of the real thing.” Because that right there? I can relate. And I’m willing to bet that a bunch of teen readers will, too. And seeing Hannah put together the pieces is worth the few hours it takes to read the book all on its own.
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!”
I have to admit that I had a definite agenda for reading Brent Hartinger’s Geography Club. For some time now the novel has been at the center of a censorship storm involving a public library and a parent who believes that the book is inappropriate for teenagers. Since I wasn’t familiar with the story – and because my library has a copy in our YA collection – I thought it best to remedy that. I found it to be a quick read with a strong narrator and, honestly, it seemed fairly tame in terms of content. (Russell, our narrator, even kicks the reader out, so to speak, when a scene hints at ‘more.’) And there was another character, Brian Bund, that struck a cord with me; he was an outcast simply because the school needed one, and he fit the bill. Brian spoke volumes about dignity and tolerance, and those are certainly qualities I can respect and want to see proliferated. I’m definitely glad I read this one.
I want to read Geography Club! I’ve liked the other books I’ve read by Hartinger and recently interviewed him.
Hartinger’s writing style was smooth and the book was certainly easy to read. If I didn’t have so many other books to get to, like, yesterday, I would definitely track down more of his work.
I have never heard of either of these books before!
I only knew about Geography Club because of that issue, but it seems like I was seeing Something, Maybe everywhere! They were both good reads, and, even better, I was able to finish them each in a single sitting.