SPLIT SCREEN

This upbeat, bifurcated third installment of the Geography Club saga follows the narratives of not one but two queer characters: gay-straight alliance chums Russel Middlebrook and his best friend Min. Here they take part-time jobs as teenage zombie extras in a horror film set in their town. The first installment follows Russel’s romantic woes as he waivers between his doting, long-distance boyfriend Otto and über-hot, baseball-jock-ex Kevin Land, who dumped him but now seems to want him back. Flip the book over, and readers will find Min in many of the same situations as Russel, but also falling hard for straight-talking, closeted Leah, who she meets on the set. Both stories stand alone, yet each compliments the other. To be expected, the action is fast and funny, and Hartinger steps back from the heavy-handed metaphors of The Order of the Poison Oak (2005). Instead, he puts his best humor skills to use, and no doubt the same teens fans who formed their own geography clubs will be dubbing their dissenters soul-sucking zombies. An almost too-quick, he-said/she-said romance. (Fiction. YA)