Emily M. Danforth

In the early 1990s, when gay teenager Cameron Post rebels against her conservative Montana ranch town and her family decides she needs to change her ways, she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center.

The miseducation of Cameron Post

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Nikas

She was beautiful. Everything in me wanted to kiss her, and at the same time it felt like everything in me was sick.

Fatima Anwar Kamal

um dos livros mais lindos que eu já tive a oportunidade de ler, e que vai ficar marcado na minha alma para sempre.

cameron, jane e adam — eu amo vocês. obrigada por me proporcionarem tantos momentos bons e tristes com vocês.

um dos livros mais lindos que eu já tive a oportunidade de ler, e que vai ficar marcado na minha alma para sempre.

cameron, jane e adam — eu amo vocês. obrigada por me proporcionarem tantos momentos bons e tristes com vocês.

The story of Cameron Post, a teen lesbian living in a conservative household in Montana and her struggles with identity, grief, homophobia and community.

—  This is such a bittersweet masterpiece! The most stunning coming of age book I've ever read.

A delicate exploration of identity and sexuality, in a slow placing, beautifully written way. It highlights family, friendship, love and community in a breath-taking way.

There's so much grief, so much sadness, so much inner turmoil but also so much love and hope in every page.

Part of the book takes place in a conversion therapy camp, so beware if that's something you can stomach. 

To borrow Mr. Knightley words, The Miseducation of Cameron Post... If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.

The story of Cameron Post, a teen lesbian living in a conservative household in Montana and her struggles with identity, grief, homophobia and community.

—  This is such a bittersweet masterpiece! The most stunning coming of age book I've ever read.

A delicate exploration of identity and sexuality, in a slow placing, beautifully written way. It highlights family, friendship, love and community in a breath-taking way.

There's so much grief, so much sadness, so much inner turmoil but also so much love and hope in every page.

Part of the book takes place in a conversion therapy camp, so beware if that's something you can stomach. 

To borrow Mr. Knightley words, The Miseducation of Cameron Post... If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.

A life changing read.

<3

heleen de boever

A Novel

Katherine Yang

So beautiful. A little meandering at times, but always real and genuine and heartfelt.

Lacy W

This book made me so mad! Yes, I read the synopsis before I read it so I knew that the conversion camp was going to happen but I am still allowed to be angry about it. I am absolutely disgusted that families actually send their loved ones to gay conversion camps because "homosextuality is a sin." Man, I wanted to punch a wall when I got to that part. It just completely blows me away that there are some people who think so archaically. 

Alright, anger aside. Let's chat about the book. This book wasn't bad. It had a lot of valid points and Cameron was likeable enough as an MC but this book was incredibly wordy. Every single thing was described in minute details. It was okay at first but after a while, it got to be a bit much. My eyes would glave over the paragraphs because some of them would actually fill a page on my Kindle, I kid you not. In those words, there were important topics. I'm not denying that this book is important, because it is, but it really needed paragraph breaks. I think the message would have gotten across more cleanly, for me anyway, if this had been a thing. 

I liked Cameron as an MC, as I briefly mentioned. She was real and likeable as a teenger. (I am old and sometimes I cannot deal with teenage drama. I'm resident grandpa friend for a reason, friends.) She acted like a teenager, which is something I always look for when reading about teenagers and that was something I could appreciate. She had a lot of inner monologues for a teenager but I like to think I was smart when I was a teenager so I can understand why they were there. My heart broke for her because of everything she went through. She didn't deserve any of that. 

It just completely blows my mind that parents (guardians) would just willingly send their loved one to a conversion camp. I know I sound like a broken record but I'm serious. It just blows. my. mind. The entire "school" (if you could even call it that) was disgusting. Lydia, the resident "psychologist" was horrible and the lies she spread were awful. All I saw was red whenever she spoke. She doesn't deserve to have that title of psychologist. I could seriously go on and on about how horrible this place was. 

Overall, this book was alright but it might not have been for me. It has an incredibly important message and I think a lot of people need to read it to understand the important message. Despite my average rating, I still recommend it to everybody. I'm excited for the movie because I might like it better (blasphemy, I know) and because I love everything about Chloe Grace Moretz. 

 This was part of a month long buddy read over at Sapphic Squad but I could only loan the book for 2 (two) weeks so that is why I finished it so early.

What i most loved about this book are the vivid rural descriptions and the thruthfulness of teenage thoughts and despair. The pacing is a bit off though, and the ending (built by 400+ pages of book) seemed abrupt and bland.

alma

when i was in the hospital they had us do this activity where we drew icebergs of ourselves and it really reminded me of this book. you know, where she does that. anyway. loveee this one.

Josefina

3.5
if there were a book that was a mix between this and Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the Universe that would certainly the perfect book for me. I liked this one because it seemed more realistic, but i wish the ending wasn't like that, i wanted to know more

Jo Young

This is such an amazing book. Cameron is a character like none else I have read. Actually all of the characters in this book are remarkably unlike any other. This is so amazing, just read it, you will be amazed!!!!!

Casey Stevens

I. Was not expecting the ending. Felt oddly at home in that world

Katie Kite

** spoiler alert **
           FINALLY. Honestly finishing this audiobook felt like a marathon. At 14 hours and 16 minutes it's the longest YA book I've listened to so far (although I'm about to take on the whole Harry Potter series so I gotta get it together) and man did you feel it, at least I did. In the blurb it is mentioned that Cameron attends "God's Promise", which is a camp made for lgbtq youth to "repent" and "heal" from their homosexual desires. However I was disappointed by how little she was actually at the camp? It really is such a minor part of the plot and I really wanted more of her story there and more finality and more of a resolution to Cameron's ending. 

That being said this book really made me feel some things. As a queer girl living in 2017 in New England it made me feel really lucky to be where I am with the family I have. I have never felt judged or condemned for who I am and because of that I can simply live loudly in my relationship. It broke my heart to hear people in her family so broken up and angry over Cameron's sexuality and her "choices" in life, as if sexuality and gender expression is even a choice. 

I enjoyed it a lot, but the length really dragged it down for me. I listened to the last half at 1.5 speed to get through it and that helped a lot.

Katharina Hoffmann

Next to books and reading, my other great love is cinema. Films have a way of showing you that nothing is mundane or unimportant, no matter how small or irrelevant it may seem. Maybe it’s because of that that I was able to appreciate and enjoy this book so much.

More than anything, The Miseducation of Cameron Post felt like a character study not only of Cameron Post herself but of Montana in the 1990s, of Miles City, of what it means to be a teenager and spend your whole life in a small rural town with all its traditions and invisible, indirect social rules everyone is expected to adhere to.

Given that this is very much an own-voices book, knowing that the author went through many of those things exactly as they are described in the book, makes this even more of a character study. It’s a study alright because the details of Cameron’s life are described so vividly, so minute, it feels like you are standing right next to her; no-, it feels like you have LIVED her life, or at least parts of it, so accurate, so painstakingly beautiful are Danforth’s descriptions. 

“I was attempting to sit Indian style in front of her, the brick patio hot, hot from the sun, burning my bare legs enough for me to change positions and pull my knees into my chest, wrap my arms around them. I had to squint up at Irene to see her, and even then it was just a hazy-dark outline of Irene, the sun a white gob of glare behind her head. “My mom should have died in 1959, in an earthquake,” I said, putting my hand flat on the brick, right in the path of a black ant carrying something.
“That’s not how you start it,” Irene said, letting one of her dangling flip-flops fall to the patio. Then she let the other flip-flop go, which startled the ant, causing it to try a different route entirely.
“Then you tell it,” I said, trying to make the ant climb onto just one of my fingers. It kept stopping. Freezing in place. And then eventually going around.”

I have seen others describe the writing as slow and if you are an impatient reader this might prove a challenge to you but I found it breathtakingly beautiful with an incredible eye for detail. Danforth has this wonderful talent of verbalising emotions I remember feeling and experiencing when I was Cameron’s age. It made my chest constrict, that’s how real and raw and vulnerable it felt. You can definitely tell that the author poured her whole soul into this. At times I thought I could smell the cheap beer Cameron and her friends were drinking, or the hay in the barns Cameron was hanging out at.

Knowing that many of Cameron’s experiences were the author’s experiences really solidified how I felt about Cameron and the portrayal of a gay teenager torn between finding herself and her identity, and her family and friends that keep telling her she is rotten to the core. I think Cameron is a very realistic and great voice for young teens discovering same-sex attraction, learning how other teenagers their age are coping with their feelings.

The beauty of this book is that Cameron isn’t defined by the fact that she is a lesbian. Danforth knows and understands that queer folk, our personality isn’t made up by our sexuality. It’s a part of us, yes, but we are much more and so is Cameron. She is a swimmer, a movie buff, a niece, an orphan, a granddaughter, a good friend, a small-town girl. She is all that and more. I completely believed in her; she was authentic and nuanced and her thoughts and reactions rang true.

And even though we get this very atmospheric, very on-spot read of what summers in a small town in the Midwest must have looked like in the 1990s, this mood is contrasted with heavy external and internal(ised) homophobia, with conversion camps and the dreadful things people say and do to queer children in teens in the name of God 

This is a book for lazy summer afternoons, for reading at the public swimming pool, for taking with you on a picnic, for reading in a field of sunflowers, it’s a book as much for the heart as for the soul and if you can be moved, then you will be moved by it. It might not be perfect, but it’s a coming of age novel that is undoubtedly superior to many currently being circulated and its unique perspective and true-to-life narrative make it a literary treat.

📌 | Instagram | Goodreads

Juliette

Normally, I try my best to finish books even when I don't like them, but I could barely make it to page 60. The plot takes way too long to develop and since the book is over 400 pages, who knows how much longer it will be before it starts to pick up the pace. I was really excited too since this is part of the Quarterly box I get but I couldn't do it.

The acclaimed book behind the 2018 Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning movie "LGBTQ cinema is out in force at Sundance Film Festival," proclaimed USA Today. "The acerbic coming-of-age movie is adapted from Emily M. Danforth's novel, and stars Chloë Grace Moretz as a lesbian teen who is sent to a gay conversion therapy center after she gets caught having sex with her friend on prom night." The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a stunning and provocative literary debut that was named to numerous best of the year lists. When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they’ll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl. But that relief doesn’t last, and Cam is forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone, and Cam becomes an expert at both. Then Coley Talor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship, one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to “fix” her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self—even if she’s not quite sure who that is. Don't miss this raw and powerful own voices debut, the basis for the award-winning film starring Chloë Grace Moretz.

Jimena Vázquez Oliver

I just found it overall quite slow. I also didn’t like the non-ending. But parts of it did get me all in my feels.

** spoiler alert **
           I want to preface this by saying the chances of this being remotely objective/critical are slim. This book fucked me up too much and too personally for that. I'm sure there are things that upon review would be worth criticism but the only feeling i have is how we more of these lgbtq+ "coming of age" books and how terribly important they are. The antagonists, so to say, are properly fleshed out, human, Emily M. Danforth doesn't go out of her way to excessively demonise (read, in a nearly plastic sort of way) them because there's no need to, their actions speak for themselves. I've seen arguments that the "school" isn't presented enough as something as wrong as it is, but i reckon otherwise, so much so that certain bits were particularly triggering for me. Lastly i guess the way the last scene is laid out is just incredible, it fleshes out Cameron just that extra bit we needed to see to make her completely real.

I didn't like this book quite as much as I thought I would, but I still really enjoyed it enough to give it 4 stars. The plot was a bit meandering, especially in the first half of the book, but I felt like it never really focused on an ending point. Despite this, I knew pretty much where/how it would end 3/4 of the way through. It was a good ride on an emotional roller coaster, but it was not terribly plot driven, especially since the main plot event is given away in the summary and it doesn't happen until halfway through the book. I also felt it could have been trimmed down some.

However, I loved Cameron and found her really relatable, even though I didn't start feeling female attraction until high school. Her personality and wit is what I really liked best about the book.

Amanda Wells

Despite me only rating this book 3, I do think it is a really good book - just that I read it as a 32 year old woman, not a 16 year old girl. And, although I think probably people of all ages could read and appreciate it, it's audience is clearly YA. (Not a bad thing!) 

For me, it felt like the book could have been edited quite a bit. But I can totally see how engrossing and satisfying it would be to a younger audience, so my rating only reflects my personal experience, and not an attempt to rate it as a "good" or "bad" book.

(Also don't read into the fact that I took forever to read it - I read a physical copy, which I misplaced! But I found it just yesterday again, and determined to finish it before 2019 ticked over!)

Jelke Lenaerts

This book has trigger warnings for homophobia, drug use, suicide and self-harm (explicit).

Ugh, I love this book. It was just so wonderful. The book did have a lot of hard hitting moments but it never really left me heartbroken. I really loved Cameron and being able to follow her story. She is a very interesting character and the journey she went on throughout this book was even more interesting. You truly don't get the full perspective of her growth until the very last scene, which makes it ever so impactful. This book won't be for everyone as it is pretty slow. Not a lot of exciting things happened, especially considered the lenght of the book. That was one of the main reasons I loved this book though. Day to day life also isn't full of exicting things. The slower pacing made everything just feel very realistic and made it easier for me to relate to Cameron, even though we have almost nothing alike. I just really loved this book and had a hard time putting it down. Every time I picked it up I was completely sucked in and just wouldn't let me go. I also liked the way it ended but I would die for a direct sequel to this book. I mean, I'm pretty satisfied with the way this ended but it's quiet an open ending and I think what comes next could also be very interesting and I would love to read that.

ericaa joycee

"Maybe I still haven't become me. I don't know how you tell for sure when you finally have." 

I used to despise this book when I turn to my shelf because it reminds me about how slow it was when I first tried reading it and I completely gave up. However, I recently tried listening to an audio book while reading which helped a lot. It turned out to be an amazing piece. A coming of age story that is unlike others. The characters felt so human. It deals with faith, beliefs, and discovering your true self. Overall, I definitely recommend this!

Nikki K

this was a frustrating book.
i appreciate what it was trying to do; it was telling a very real story that is important to tell. but i haven't left it feeling anything but angry and upset. there was no hope in the ending and i don't understand what Cameron was feeling at all throughout the second half of the story. maybe that will resonate with some people- the constant battle between faith and living your truth. but it just made me sad. i wanted more of a statement than this book gave me.
weirdly, the movie is able to capture more of what i wanted at the end. a sense of freedom from what they were being taught at God's Promise and hope for the future.

Erin Pitstra

"Maybe I still haven't become me. I don't know how you tell for sure when you finally have." 

I was very excited to begin reading this. The synopsis sounded interesting. It was a contemporary, my favorite genre to read. And I loved Cameron as a character. I thought she was realistic and relate-able. And her journey was something that people still deal with today. 

This wasn’t a crazy, action packed fantasy novel, so it didn’t need an extravagant plot to follow. But I felt like there wasn’t a plot to follow in the first half of the book. It felt jumpy for most of the book, not as much near the end though. I also felt like the story just dragged on, like some stuff was kind of unnecessary. 

It took me a while to finish this book because I just couldn’t seem to get into parts of it. But I very much wanted to finish it because i had heard such great things about this books, and it had such great reviews. I am glad I finished it though! I loved the writing, and it was an enjoyable read that wasn’t super complicated. I appreciated that.

Dina

Rating this one was really difficult.

Here's the thing: this book dragged on for more than half of its length before it got to the actual main plot of the story, which is the whole conversion camp thing. For that, I couldn't really rate it very high, because it made me go through most of those 240 or so pages thinking "can we just get to the point?" and started getting bored of the other things that were happening that kept getting in the way of me reaching the point of the story I wanted.

I started growing impatient and cranky, and completely lost interest. I was moments away from giving up, but my curiosity (and stubbornness) got the best of me and then I finally reached my goal. And then it finally started getting interesting. And also disturbing. The more I read of this conversion thing, the angrier I'd get. And then that kid... man, that one really got to me. I totally understood Cameron when she was saying that, being in that room when it happened, stopped her from ever being able to joke about it with her friends. And then the fallout of all that...

The ending threw me for a spin there, but it also kinda made sense in a way. It's really difficult to explain how I feel about the whole thing.

I guess, all things considered, I liked it. I just wish that first half of the book had been shorter. It'd be a 3.5 stars for me, if Goodreads let me give books half stars.

Emily C Peterson

This was way too long, and the ending was extremely anticlimactic

The miseducation of Cameron Post

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