Review: Double Feature by Brent Hartinger

Double Feature (Russel Middlebrook, #3) by Brent Hartinger
276 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 8/4/2013
Genres: Young Adult, GLBT, Romance, Realistic Fiction
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: I've really liked the first two books in the series, so I continued!

Review: Let me say that once I read the "Second Feature," the names of the two different stories actually made sense haha. While having to read through some of the same exact conversations again wass a little annoying, everuthing that was said and done was clarified through the change of perspective. I will most definitely be reading the fourth book, The Elephant of Surprise.

In this Middlebrook installment, the gang signs up to play as zombie extras in a horror movie. You would think that everything would be simply wonderful and problem-free, but these three will always be going through something.

The plot was great! Along with the interesting-ness of being a zombie extra, we get to see Otto again, and Kevin is back to make us want to punch him. Compared to Geography Club and Poison Oak, I think this novel of the series would come last (so far) for favorite plots. It wasn't terrible, and it pulled me in still -- but just not as much as the others. At the same time, it might be because the second feature was similar to the first. Not completely sure.

The characters were fantastic all over again! My favorite from this one was definitely Leah. She added new flavor to the story, and I liked that she was dark and mysterious. Those charries are always the most interesting for me. Also with Double Feature, I fee like Min and I finally have a connection with each other. Before she was just "Russel's best friend," but now more things fall into place I guess you could say.

All in all, Brent Hartinger continued the series well! I'm excited to read The Elephant of Surprise (and to find out why it's entitled as such). Check back within the next week or so my review of it!

Satisfying eBook

Review: Poison Oak by Brent Hartinger

The Order of the Poison Oak (Russel Middlebrook, #2) by Brent Hartinger
169 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 4/4/2013
Genres: Young Adult, GLBT, Realistic Fiction, Romance
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: Loved the first book of the series, and was excited to get to the second.

Review: It took me a while to get through the second Russel Middlebrook novel because of my busy-ness. It was even funnier than the first, and the new setting fit wonderfully into the plot of the story.

Russel, Gunnar, and Min are finally out of school and go to volunteer as counselors at a summer camp. Almost all of the story takes place during the first session of kids, which is where all the "fun" happens. The first group is special: they're burn survivors, and have come to camp to get away from all their "misfit problems" at home. And, of course, the group of kids affects the main guy the most.

The plot was great, just as I expected (or was hoping for, because anything can happen I suppose). Russel was really having the worse time of his life. There was constantly something going on with him that was giving him trouble. The plot seemed as if it was fast-paced and the days were flying by, but that surprisingly wasn't the reality. As I said earlier almost the entire novel takes place during the first (two-week?) session. However, I think this is a great thing because that means the book had lots of action, I guess you could say.

The characters in Poison Oak, especially the burn survivors and the role they played, were fabulous (or magnificent since the ones with Russel were guys; "fabulous" might be too girly for them). But anyhow, I really liked how Russel tried to get on and stay on his kids' good side. Because he knew how it felt to be a social outcast, he didn't want them to feel like one or to even feel uncomfortable while they were at the camp. Ian was one of my favorite characters, I think. He was the leader of all the ruckus Russel had to deal with, but like the other burn survivors he had a scary past and he wanted to fit in. And he was very stubborn at some points, particularly when it came to acknowledging that Russel was running the show and not him.

Overall, I really liked this book. I'm excited to get to the third novel already! Look out for my review of Double Feature within the next week or so!

Satisfying eBook

Review: Geography Club by Brent Hartinger

Geography Club (Russel Middlebrook, #1) by Brent Hartinger
244 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished on 6/3/2013
Genres: Gay/Lesbian, Young Adult, Romance, Realistic Fiction
Goodreads page

Motivation to Read It: I was contacted by Brent asking to review the series's latest novel, The Elephant of Surprise. Since I hadn't read any of the series before, I agreed to review the entire series.

(Stay in touch with the blog! I will be posting reviews of the books over the next couple of weeks.)

Review: This was my first novel with a gay main character. I have to say that it was amazing. It's one of the funniest books I've read, but even without the humour it had a great plot and the characters were really enjoyable.

Russel Middlebrook finds himself a hidden outcast in modern-way high school, where homosexuals aren't exactly going to be treated like royalty. That's the reason why no one knows that he's gay. And then the most popular kid in the school finds out. How's that for a horror story?

The characters in Geography Club were really enjoyable and funny. All throughout the novel my highlighting draws about every two paragraphs to the oh-so-many entertaining quotes I found while I indulged myself. I also thought that the characters got along and understood each other very well, which is definitely important in books. They made you want to be cheerful with them, or worried, or whatever emotion was being portrayed.

The plot was unquestionably entertaining  I loved how it kind of skipped over days (and weeks?) sometimes to get to the next point in time that important events take place. At the same time, it actually annoyed me a little a couple of times because I loved the charries so much that I wanted to spend every possible moment with them. (Creep status; I know.) I was glued to the story. I found myself longing to read it even when I knew that there was no way it could happen at that moment.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who was willing to read it. Even if they weren't, I'd find a way to make sure they read it. Very well-written, and worth taking the time to devour.

Satisfying eBook