Book Review -- The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

Summary: Cameron Post is twelve years old when, in the same day, she kisses a girl and her parents are killed in a car accident. Not only is she left to deal with the grief from the loss of her parents and her conservative aunt Ruth who moves in to care for her, but her burgeoning sexuality, which manifests even more in her attraction to her friend, Coley. Cameron and Coley eventually develop a relationship and, when Coley's brother discovers them, Coley tells the town that Cameron has manipulated her and taken advantage of her and Cameron is sent to a conversion camp designed to teach her appropriate relationships and gender roles and how to turn away from her sinful ways. While at the camp,  Cameron gets to know and befriend some of the other campers and comes to terms with herself and the differences in others.

Commentary: This is a young adult novel, which originally turned me off -- as a high school teacher, I tend to keep away from novels that detail teenagers and their problems, but this was recommended to me by a friend. Once I got past the everyday teenage troubles (she drinks and smokes pot pretty frequently), the conversion therapy angle fascinated me. At the camp, Cameron encounters two different types of adults: Reverend Rick, who is approaching the campers and their mission from the "I dealt with homosexual feelings and came out victorious" angle, more sympathetic and understanding and treats the campers as actual people, and Lydia, the cold, ice-bitch psychologist who is the one who corrects the campers behavior frequently and sees them as square pegs to push into the round holes. It's when one of the campers, who is the son of a preacher himself, has a breakdown at a therapy session and harms himself when he can't get rid of the gay, does Cameron and a few other campers make plans to escape. And who can blame her -- the only people in her world surround her with hate and confusion and fear.

The author has said that she's based the camp on the Zach Stark controversy at a Love In Action camp that was investigated for child abuse. The book also has other ties with the author -- it takes place in her home town of Miles City, Montana, and Emily M. Danforth officially came out while she was attending college.

Why You Should Read This Book: The writing is good, though it tends to feel a bit bogged down in the middle. The section at the camp, however, makes it completely worth it. The different ways that the kids -- because they're all kids -- cope with the world and the hate that is thrown at them from people they love, is admirable. Even when one camper, unable to handle his father's rejection when the campers go home for two weeks at Christmas, mutilates himself, it's still understandable and plausible.

One of my wonderful friends has recently gone through a change in his relationship with his parents when he came out. Luckily, my friend is in his 20s and has a wonderful boyfriend and support system to fall back on when his parents disappoint him. But these characters are teenagers, all younger than 18, and at the most vulnerable stages of their lives. To read how these kids deal with the adversity of being told that they're wrong is what makes the book worth reading.