Danfort, E. M. (2018). The Miseducation of Cameron Post. London, England: Penguin Books.
Pages: 485
ISBN: 978-0-06-2020567
Price: $9.99
Format: ebook
Lexile Rating: 1120L
Awards: School Library Journal Best Book, Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book, Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, Amazon.com Best Books of the Month, ALA Booklist Editors' Choice
"Pining after straight girls--straight girls who are, by the way, in happy relationships with good-looking straight boys--when you live in a town filled with angry, Bible-pounding, probably gun-toting cowboys is a total no-win.” (p. 237)
Cameron is gay. But she lives in a conservative town in Montana where, while everyone is not necessarily super religious, there is pretty much an unspoken understanding that certain sins are just “wrong” and worse than others. At thirteen, while she is first discovering her sexuality with her best friend Irene, she isn’t thinking about that. But then her parents die, and while she is relieved that they never knew she was gay...she has to live with her super-religious, super-conservative aunt, who loves her...but would she still love her if she knew the truth?
After Cameron is discovered to have “Same Sex Attraction Disorder” after one night with a “straight” girl she is in love with, she is sent away to God’s Promise, a conversion camp where her aunt and her church community believe she will be “cured” of her sinful desires. The rest of the story is a humorous yet sobering look at the efforts of those with “good” intentions to cure something that can’t be cured, and the painful effect it can have on those who are unable to meet the impossible expectations placed on them.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post was recently released as a film, which I have not yet seen, and obtaining a copy of this book from the library took several months. I was number 73 on a hold list for 4 copies of the ebook when I first requested it and was only taken off the list at the end of November. I was excited to read this book from the moment I heard about it and was definitely not disappointed when I actually got a chance to read it. While it is not by any means a quick read--its page count is almost 500--it was thoroughly enjoyable despite the difficult subject matter. Cameron is sadly relatable to many gay and questioning teens as she tries to navigate life in a small town where everyone knows everything about everyone else and explores her sexuality with several girls who range from all-out lesbian to “mostly” straight. The novel culminates in the promise of hope and a journey to new beginnings with new friends, with an open ending that left me wondering what happened to Cameron and her friends.
Content-wise, The Miseducation of Cameron Post contains a lot of drug and sex references. There is one scene that, while not especially graphic, does depict Cameron and another girl having sex. Cameron also smokes marijuana often and occasionally drinks alcohol. Suicide and self harm are mentioned several times and one scene describes an act of self-mutilation fairly graphically. The book does not refrain from use of profanity, either. For all of these reasons, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is probably most suitable for teens older than 16, although it is not unsuitable for younger, mature teens.
I think what I enjoyed most about this book was the wide variety of different characters and how even the ones who were objectively kind of terrible people had some semblance of humanity to them, from Cameron’s aunt Ruth, who deals with her own illness by seeking refuge in God and the church, to her grandmother, who is well-meaning but old fashioned, to the leaders of the camp, Rick, a “reformed” former homosexual himself and his aunt Lydia, who Cameron notes seems rather pathetic when she gets past the rules and stuffiness of the woman. The characters all feel real and their stories are heartbreaking. The inclusion of Winkte, or Lakota two-spirit, Adam, excited me because I have never read a story that included or even mentioned the concept of two-spirit before. Overall, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a highly enjoyable read and I am thrilled to rate it 5 out of 5 stars.
Star rating: 5/5
Below you’ll find a trailer for the movie, which was just released!
Morgana Dodds is a washed-up graduate of the Carnegie Investiture's Crime Figthing Initiative. Code-named, "The Medium", her ability to speak to ghosts has landed her in hot-water in the past. Now, all she wants, is to keep her head down, and stay out of trouble. But when the police pull a body from the Forth & Clyde Canal, Morgana needs to speak for the dead woman, and is drawn back into the trouble she was hoping to avoid!
Content warnings : Violence against women, sexual abuse, sexual assault, death, violence, domestic violence, abusive relationships, human trafficking, death of a child, suicide-mentions, mental health, injury detail, racial slurs (implied), drug/alcohol use
Uncovering Earth - Chapter 3 (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/1179731022-uncovering-earth-chapter-3?utm_source=web&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_content=share_reading&wp_uname=abstractnerddreams&wp_originator=P2JryHY2cMQeXPPsyQ%2Bl2USig6sqcEDkFQmk00DYnwbl%2BBOLjnBafGBnB9MqptamgN3yaPhAAuXBnK3EwYlTM98EZtTdf7nARQR3I70leYmx%2Bgs8zjs8XVnDULNTo6Dj Elowyn is a 26 year old legal office manager just going about her life. What she doesn't know is that magic is real and she's a part of it. That is until she runs into a mysterious stranger who tilts her world off its axis. Ciaran is a centuries old preternatural being. One part of a set of four. While he has already found two of his others the fourth was a mystery and one he figured he wouldn't find for generations. Then he sense her and the soul bond snaps into place.
Uncovering Earth - Chapter Two (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/1179133290-uncovering-earth-chapter-two?utm_source=web&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_content=share_reading&wp_uname=abstractnerddreams&wp_originator=lJBRB8nkZKJ3SGVylqZXyVg%2FDPnnsxD33Rxd2oIOPcHsxm2%2BuFDxfNp0qE3Wk5L%2FpD%2B9IO7Kt7okQLshtQkU9v6ncvi4C%2FFiHwVSREH55D8KLAzHdIveJilA4Pw8DB0P Elowyn is a 26 year old legal office manager just going about her life. What she doesn't know is that magic is real and she's a part of it. That is until she runs into a mysterious stranger who tilts her world off its axis. Ciaran is a centuries old preternatural being. One part of a set of four. While he has already found two of his others the fourth was a mystery and one he figured he wouldn't find for generations. Then he sense her and the soul bond snaps into place.
Uncovering Earth - Chapter Two (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/1179133290-uncovering-earth-chapter-two?utm_source=web&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_content=share_reading&wp_uname=abstractnerddreams&wp_originator=58rbLIcDAJagVEQDyrS8MB4JWp7oCwM%2Bd3XyVc45vQQK14t%2F9KuTSsH4fQpB2dLN90G0kMmRtldDd8GaJYn%2BF9smX8DFwGh9ZP4WFv6htb631f12f0WrljT9BrBnyUlB Elowyn is a 26 year old legal office manager just going about her life. What she doesn't know is that magic is real and she's a part of it. That is until she runs into a mysterious stranger who tilts her world off its axis. Ciaran is a centuries old preternatural being. One part of a set of four. While he has already found two of his others the fourth was a mystery and one he figured he wouldn't find for generations. Then he sense her and the soul bond snaps into place.
Uncovering Earth - Chapter One (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/1152757067-uncovering-earth-chapter-one?utm_source=web&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_content=share_reading&wp_uname=abstractnerddreams&wp_originator=VpAkzw0m%2BQanK%2Fi9Vg9BRhQkQNW6Rn9lamXLrXNjIJDjdVwvTtmg7GvcqtTkQ%2BPIqAFyeAcmxY5oahe3U3Y%2FK9LU6jsN8Esl1RJqLlMXaQOGBmyyoeLAGuAS%2BAN8KnTT Elowyn is a 26 year old legal office manager just going about her life. What she doesn't know is that magic is real and she's a part of it. That is until she runs into a mysterious stranger who tilts her world off its axis. Ciaran is a centuries old preternatural being. One part of a set of four. While he has already found two of his others the fourth was a mystery and one he figured he wouldn't find for generations. Then he sense her and the soul bond snaps into place.
Horner, E. (2010). A love story starring my dead best friend. New York: Dial Books.
Pages: 272
ISBN: 978-1-101-42749-1
Price: $9.99
Format: ebook
Lexile Rating: 900L
Awards: None known
There was just this blankness. And all these things I couldn’t understand about Heather, suddenly starting to make sense.
I looked up at her, and started to try to say something—I wasn’t even sure what—and she flinched away. (p. 65)
Cass doesn’t know how she feels about her best friend, Julia. They always got along well despite their growing differences when they entered high school; Cass was more interested in mathletes and Julia was a drama kid. But rumors about Cass being gay had spread since middle school when her bully, Heather, called her a “dyke” and Cass wonders if it may be true, if she may be in love with Julia...who is now dead, by the way.
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend alternates between “then” and “now,” between her solo bike trip halfway across the country to take Julia’s ashes to California and her current attempts to help the drama kids...and Heather...get ready for the play Julia wrote for them to perform, that Julia planned to star in, before she died. But Cass never expected to learn so much from that bike trip, how to forgive and love and accept things that can’t change, or to learn to forgive someone who hurt her so much in her past.
Content-wise, there is little to complain about. Cass is a Quaker, and is therefore mostly morally conservative; she is a pacifist but her parents are supportive of her relationships and believe that any kind of love is good. She does not use drugs and drinks minimally and there is little profanity. A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend should be suitable for ages 12 and up.
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend is somewhat ridiculous at parts, especially where the musical is concerned. Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad is ridiculous and the attempts of Julia’s friends to elevate it to a state of perfection it was never meant to achieve are equally ridiculous until a revealing moment near the end of the novel. Meanwhile, Cass’s journey of self-discovery and realizing that she doesn’t have to make her journey alone resonate deeply within me, as do her feelings of isolation, believing that Julia’s friends aren’t truly her own friends as well, until she is proven wrong in the most spectacular of ways. I rate A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend 4 out of 5 stars, because while it is not perfect, it revels in its imperfections and the characters are both enjoyable and true to life.
Star rating: 4/5
You can watch a book trailer by Arlington Public Library below.
Garden, N. (2013). Annie on my mind. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.
Pages: 272
ISBN: 978-0-374-40011-8
Price: $8.79
Format: ebook
Lexile Rating: 1000L
Awards: Booklist Best Books of the '80s, ALA Best Books for Young Adults, Booklist Editors' Choice
Then a funny thing happened. We looked at each other, really looked, I mean, for the first time, and for a moment or two I don't think I could have told anyone my name, let alone where I was. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before, and I think—I know—it scared me. (p. 21)
Written in the early 80s, Annie on My Mind is one of the first of a still-too-small LGBT genre for teens. Liza is the student body president at Foster Academy in New York. Annie goes to a public school in a rough neighborhood. They seem to have nothing in common but when they meet for the first time at a museum, everything changes and Liza soon realizes she has feelings for Annie that she would have never expected.
There is little content to complain about in this novel. It was written in the 1980s when standards were a little higher regarding sex and language in novels; still, it was on banned book lists for years simply due to the sexuality of the main characters. It is rather tame, however, and suitable for ages 12 and older.
I first read Annie on My Mind about 10 years ago when I was first discovering my own sexuality. Although the book is now approaching 40 years old, it is a keystone of LGBT literature. It is not the happiest book; being written in the early 80s when being anything other than cisgender and straight was discouraged at best and dangerous at worst, it is no surprise that Liza and Annie are risking a lot to be together. But their love develops realistically and despite the fact that the book is utterly heartbreaking at times, it is an essential read for gay or questioning teens to see how far we have come and still how far we have to go. The addition of lesbian teachers, to show teens that they can survive the teen years even with the bigotry and hatred, and come out of it all with love, is an excellent addition as well. I rate it 4 out 5, because while it would have received 5 stars if I wrote this review in the 1980s, it is a bit dated now, thankfully.
Star rating: 4/5
The author, Nancy Garden, passed away in 2014, but in 2013 she was interviewed by the ALSC about her work, the first amendment, and how the LGBT genre has changed. It’s a great read! Check it out here.
