The Order of the Poison Oak by Brent Hartinger

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The Order of the Poison Oak
by Brent Hartinger

I loved the movie based on Geography Club and liked that book a lot. I gave this one a read because I wanted to find out what happened next to the characters. I was less than thrilled with Russel in this book; I know the genre but he reminds me ALL THE TIME that he's gay. There's so much more to him than that, and he really doesn't need to remind me all the time.

In this book, Russel, Gunnar, and Min decide to take jobs as camp councellers at a summer camp. Their first group of kids at the camp are burn victims; Russel identifies with them as someone who society sees differently. Russel learns as much from them as they do from him. In an attempt to get them to trust and respect him, he invents the Order of the Poison Oak, a secret society similar to Georgraphy Club, that helps its members feel better about themselves and accepts that sometimes society won't understand their inner beauty.

In addition to dealing with the kids, love is in the air. Russel tries to get Gunnar interested in Em, though he resists. Russel has a crush on Wes, but Min likes him as well. So there's drama! Luckily, the people I wanted to wind up together at the end did indeed get together, so that was happy-making for me. But there were definitely some ups and downs along the way and a character or two I was angry with.

This was a fine read, but the writing could have been tightened up a little. There were some great moments and some wonderful quotes I enjoyed. I definitely liked seeing more of these characters and will probably track down the next book in the series because of that. I wish nothing but the best for Russel and his friends (who I'm glad remained his friends by the end of the series, despite the drama in this book).