Refreshing and funny, this young adult tale gave a lift to my day just by reading it. Russel is seventeen and hero of a series beginning with 'The Geography Club'; in which he started a school club for gay people and gave it a boring name so nobody else would want to join. In this fourth book Russel is gay, his girl pal Min is bisexual and his boy pal Gunnar is straight and geeky - he has taken to obsessively photographing and recording everything he is doing on a weblog. At a zoo Gunnar mishears 'the element of surprise' as THE ELEPHANT OF SURPRISE giving the trio a laugh but making them wonder what would ensue if huge changes suddenly happened to them.

Just then Russel realises that his long-distance boyfriend has really gone to just being a friend, while Min gets suspicious that her closeted girlfriend in a different school is behaving oddly. The trio discover some unusual young people removing packaged food from the school Dumpster - Wade and Venus are Freegans and they invite the friends to see where the food goes. Russel worries that this is a cult and they'll be brainwashed to worship turnips.

Near the sprawling town dump the two Freegans hand the wrapped sandwiches to homeless people. But they live in a shared abandoned house in town, maintaining the outside while living a basic lifestyle and working to support their group. Russel is more interested in Wade, although he doesn't know if the young man is gay. He also can't stop thinking of his past boyfriend Kevin at school, although they've fallen out, and asks Gunnar to spy on him. Min decides that the three have to break into her girlfriend's bedroom when she's away to see what is going on with her. The surprises are coming around all right, but what will be the result? And is Russel walking into serious danger?

Through his characters Brent Hartinger makes observations about society, including various alternative lifestyles.

Eating barbecued roadkill with the Freegans, playing their Giveaway Monopoly, Russel loses some of his neurotic attitude and stops worrying so much about what people think of him. But that doesn't mean that he wants to be dirty, or ride a bike held together with twist ties, or opt out of college. Hartinger gets the environmental message across without making the life glamorous.

Through his characters Brent Hartinger makes observations about society, including various alternative lifestyles. THE ELEPHANT OF SURPRISE is a great read, full of vibrant, growing characters, wry observations and varied vocabulary. Older teenagers will enjoy these adventures and I'll be looking out for more by Brent Hartinger.

Book Summary

People aren't always what they seem to be. Sometimes we even surprise ourselves.

So discovers seventeen-year-old Russel Middlebrook in The Elephant of Surprise, a stand-alone sequel to Brent Hartinger's landmark 2003 gay young adult novel Geography Club (which has now been adapted as a feature film co-starring Scott Bakula and Nikki Blonsky).

In this latest book, Russel and his friends Min and Gunnar are laughing about something they call the Elephant of Surprise – the tendency for life to never turn out as expected. Sure enough, Russel soon happens upon a hot but mysterious homeless activist named Wade, even as he's drawn back to an old flame named Kevin. Meanwhile, Min is learning surprising things about her girlfriend Leah, and Gunnar just wants to be left alone to pursue his latest technology obsession.

But the elephant is definitely on the move in all three of their lives. Just who is Wade and what are he and his friends planning? What is Leah hiding? And why is Gunnar taking naked pictures of Kevin in the shower?

The Elephant of Surprise includes Hartinger's trademark combination of humor and romance, angst and optimism. Before the story is over, Russel and his friends will learn that the Elephant of Surprise really does appear when you least expect him—and that when he stomps on you, it really, really hurts.

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