This is one of those books I can appreciate more intellectually than feel in my gut, though I think I’m going to chalk that up more to the style than anything else. I wasn’t in the mood for a slow, thoughtful, book that is more traditionally literary in style than I usually prefer. This book is LONG as well, almost 500 pages. Which is on the high end for contemporary YA.
Aside from my own style preferences, I have no complaints. It’s a beautifully written story about a girl coming of age in the 90s in the Midwest, and coming to terms with her identity and her sexuality. Cameron Post’s parents die in a car crash, and she’s given into the care of her extremely religious aunt. A youthful affair with a friend causes her to be sent to a conversion camp, but that doesn’t happen until halfway through the book. The story doesn’t begin with her being sent there, it begins with Cameron as a child discovering her same-sex attraction, and follows her as she grows up. The last half of the book center around her experiences at the camp. For me, that was the most meaty part of the book, and I flew through those parts. It was written in the same style, but the urgency of the content, and the things that were happening to Cameron, made me push through faster.
I liked this book quite a bit, and even though contemporary or literary isn’t my genre usually, it’s nice to stretch myself every now and then. Worth reading, for sure. Now going to track down the film.
“My whole point,” I said, “is that what they teach here, what they believe, if you don’t trust it, if you doubt it at all, then you’re told that you’re going to hell, that not only everyone you know is ashamed of you, but that Jesus himself has given up on your soul. And if you’re like Mark, and you do believe all of this, you really do—you have faith in Jesus and this stupid Promise system, and even still, even with those things, you still can’t make yourself good enough, because what you’re trying to change isn’t changeable, it’s like your height or the shape of your ears, whatever, then it’s like this place does make things happen to you, or at least it’s supposed to convince you that you’re always gonna be a dirty sinner and that it’s completely your fault because you’re not trying hard enough to change yourself.”
[3.5 stars]
