The Elephant of Surprise (Russel Middlebrook, #4)

by Brent Hartinger

[rakesandrogues]

I went through a phase in middle school where I gravitated towards a lot of LGBT-centered young adult novels. It’s how I discovered some of my favorite authors such as David Levithan, and it’s also how I discovered Geography Club by Brent Hartinger. After reading hundreds of books in the last decade, Geography Club is one of the handfuls that I still remember picking up.

Now, Brent Hartinger’s Georgraphy Club has been adapted into a feature film, releasing later this year, and he is releasing, The Elephant of Surprise, the fourth novel in his Russel Middlebrook series.

I was a little worried at first when I picked up The Elephant of Surprise because I hadn’t read the rest of the series. While Hartinger summarizes what readers have missed in a short introduction, he assures readers that The Elephant of Surprise can be read as a stand-alone.

In The Elephant of Surprise, Russel starts to doubt his long-distance relationship when he meets Wade, an attractive freegan. Russel finds himself drawn to the activist and starts to learn more about the freegan lifestyle by spending time with him. Unlike Geography Club, The Elephant of Surprise is not an issue novel about LGBT teens. Russel and his friends are now out in the open about their sexuality.

I wish I could have read The Elephant of Surprise without knowing that it is still based on the characters in Geography Club. I couldn’t stop questioning whether it had been necessary to write more novels about Russel. Russel is such a likeable main character, but for me his story ended in Geography Club. At the end of the day, the plot of The Elephant of Surprise is too weak and not even a likeable main character can save it.

The biggest problem I had with this novel is its tendency to get extremely preachy when it came to freeganism. Half the book felt like a never-ending lecture on Wade’s lifestyle choice. It was interesting at first, but after a while, it started to feel more like an infomercial and less like a novel.

Hartinger is a talented author. He can create engaging characters with authentic voices, but I think it’s about time that he said goodbye to Russel and company. Instead, I would love to read fresh, original characters. Unfortunately, the plot in The Elephant of Surprise, just isn’t strong enough to merit a fourth novel in the series. The Russel Middlebrook series has been stretched to its limit.