BOOKS
The bloom of youth
The Order off the
Poison Oak
Fiction about young queers
by Brent Hartinger; HarperTempest, 2005;
$15.99 hardcover
by
ooks geared for gay teens have been
around since 1969’s I’ll Get There, It
Better Be Worth the Trip, but the genre of
young adult gay fiction is just now coming
into its own. Perhaps the best practitioner
of the genre is Brent Hartinger of Tacoma,
Wash., whose first book, Geography Club,
was a huge hit when it was released in 2003.
The sequel,
The Order of
the Poison Oak,
once again
features the
author’s alter
ego, Russel,
along with
original Geog
raphy Club
members Min
and Gunnar.
The school
year has ended
and, after com
ing out pub
licly in Geogra
phy Club, Rus
sel is tired of being rhe token “freak.” Gun
nar has scored a job as a counselor at a sum
mer camp, and Russel and Min decide to
join him. They arrive to discover that the
first two-week session will be populated
exclusively by 10-year-old burn survivors,
I
B
F loyd S klaver
each horribly
scarred (both
physically and
emotionally).
Russel fights
to maintain
control of his
campers, then
fights with his
friends when he
and Min fall for
the same beau
tiful counselor
and Gunnar
refuses to be set
up with a girl
Russ finds for
him. In the
most memorable scene, the campers are
taunted by unscarred teens while Russel, to
his shame, says nothing. It’s a moving
moment, made poignant by Hartinger’s
honest depiction of Russel’s conflicted
emotions.
Unlike Geography Club, The Order of the
Poison Oak is a little heavy-handed in its use
of metaphors and meaningful messages for
an adult audience. For instance, Russel tells
his bunk a campfire story about how scars
create a magic skin that protects them from
harmful words. But it also contains the won
derful voice of the exasperated Russel, whose
journey into maturity is worthy of many
sequels still to come.
Hartinger is clearly a writer to watch out
for, and this reviewer eagerly awaits the next
adventures of Russel and his friends.
The Blood off Kings
by John Michael Curlovich; Alyson
Publications, 2004; $14.95 softcover
’m too much of a sissy to be a horror fan.
1 have nightmares reading Stephen King
novels, I’m squeamish at the sight of
blood, and I once even fainted during a CPR
instruction film.
So, with a bit of trepidation, I began
reading The Blood of Kings by “seasoned hor
ror novelist” John Michael Curlovich.
I needn’t have worried, though, for the plot,
while silly and slim, is certainly not scary.
Jamie, a hunky teen-ager from a small
farming community in western Pennsylva
nia, goes to college in the big city on a
sports and music scholarship. (He is both a
talented swimmer and classical pianist.)
Unfortunately, the campus has been plagued
by a series of ritual killings. In the past year,
seven guys (all handsome and athletic) have
I
been mutilated, their organs, eyes and geni
tals removed from their bodies. Three more
murders occur within the first 40 pages
(including one discovered by Jamie on the
night of his first piano recital—horrors!).
Curiously, the administration downplays
the incidents, and no one seems to be
afraid. If a serial killer was loose on a col
lege campus (as there was in 1990 in
Gainesville, Fla.), you can bet that wouldn’t
be the reaction.
Jamie becomes obsessed with Danilo, a
professor of Egyptology, and they begin a
clandestine affair. (Jamie worries more about
his scholarships than the murder of seven
boys who all look like him.) As he falls com
pletely under Danilo’s spell, more and more
athletes turn up dead. Meanwhile, Danilo’s
appearance changes whenever Jamie sees
him; sometimes he looks older, other times
younger. (Cue the organ music!)
By the time Danilo reveals that he has
lived more than 3,000 years, is the brother
of the pharaoh Tutankhamen and survives
by drinking the blood of closeted young
men, Jamie is too much in love to turn back.
Unfortunately, once the mystery of The
Blood of Kings is solved, more than a hun
dred pages remain, and Curlovich offers
nothing to keep the reader engaged until the
novel’s end. JM
B rent H artinger will read from his second
novel, The Last Chance Texaco, from 4:15
to 4:45 p.m. April 24 during the first-ever
Wordstock Book Fair on the Target Children’s
Stage in Exhibit Hall D at the Oregon
Convention Center, 777 N.E. Martin Luther
King Jr. Blvd.
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