The Miseducation of Cameron Post

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 3,077 ratings

Price: 26.21

Last update: 08-16-2024


About this item

Set in rural Montana in the early 1990s, Emily M. Danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a powerful and widely acclaimed YA coming-of-age novel in the tradition of the classic Annie on My Mind.

Cameron Post feels a mix of guilt and relief when her parents die in a car accident. Their deaths mean they will never learn the truth she eventually comes to - that she's gay. Orphaned, Cameron comes to live with her old-fashioned grandmother and ultraconservative aunt Ruth. There she falls in love with her best friend, a beautiful cowgirl. When she’s eventually outed, her aunt sends her to God’s Promise, a religious conversion camp that is supposed to “cure” her homosexuality. At the camp, Cameron comes face to face with the cost of denying her true identity.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a stunning and provocative literary debut that was a finalist for the YALSA Morris Award and was named to numerous “best” lists.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.


Top reviews from the United States

Norm
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended for young readers and their parents alike
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2020
Why I liked Miseducation

The fact that Cameron's story is a good primer is, in fact, exactly what lead me to read it. My own child faced some of the same struggles as the book's main character and recommended it to me as a sort of introduction to their reality. I can't say that much of what I read in Miseducation was surprising or shocking, but it did distill some of the things I had heard and imagined into a digestible story that allowed me to make sense of what I thought I knew. And it helped me understand my kid's world with a little more clarity.

It's that sense of understanding just a little bit better that made me really like the book. I related to Cameron even though I'm a straight white middle-aged man who hails from a fairly liberal community. That's the kind of writer Danforth is; she drew me in and told me Cameron's story in a way that kept my attention for 470 pages. And when I say she kept my attention, what I mean is that she told Cameron's tale in a way that made me *feel* the story as much as anything else.

What I didn't like about Cameron's story

Danforth's writing is easy to read and sounds like might be authentic if you don't overthink every passage. However, bits of the book were a little lengthy and wordier than necessary. I also thought the story's end could have been done a little better. But then again, endings are some of the most difficult material to write, and who doesn't say that about many books?

There was nothing in the book that would prevent me from recommending the book.

Take away - I recommend the book

I definitely recommend this book to young adults and parents of young adults. You or your child needn't be LGBTQ to enjoy it or grow from it, either. The story is fundamentally sound, with all the elements of a good novel. So you can enjoy it purely for the narrative. But for those of you who like to be a little more reflective, there's plenty to think on. Simply reading the book is likely to increase your empathy for a large and increasingly visible segment of our population. And, as we all know, this is an age in which empathy is something we need more than ever.
Tirzah Price
4.0 out of 5 stars An important book about sexuality and identity
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2012
Cameron Post lives in the tiny town of Miles City, Montana--not the most understanding place to grow up if you're secretly gay. Cameron's family certainly have no idea about her sexuality--her parents died not long after her first kiss, and she's been keeping that part of her life a secret from her grandmother and aunt. But liking girls is something that Cameron struggles to hide, especially when she befriends Coley Taylor. And when her aunt Ruth finds out, it's not something that she can accept, so she tries to fix Cameron by sending her to a special school in an attempt to "de-gay" her. But even if she doesn't really know who she is yet, Cameron knows that liking girls isn't something that she can be schooled out of, no matter how much her family or anyone else tries to convince her otherwise.

Emily M. Danforth's debut novel is a weighty, extensive look at Cameron's journey from a scared girl who is trying to deal with her feelings for girls to a young woman who is forced to make decisions about how she wants to live her life. The story starts when Cameron is just twelve years old and covers all of her relationships--her first kiss with her best friend Irene and the ensuing fallout between them, her summer friendship with benefits with her Lindsey, her friendship and attempt at a romance with her best guy friend Jamie, and finally her brief romance with Coley before her aunt sends her away. Because the book covers so much ground, it focuses more on Cameron dealing with her sexuality than with her relationship with Coley, and all of the mistakes she makes along the way. She's not always very mature about her relationship decisions--there is a lot of physical action, but rarely does she pause to talk and figure out how to make a relationship work, which is all part of the learning experience. Her attempts at dealing with her homosexuality also are closely tied with how she reconciles her feelings about her parents' sudden deaths. It's not really until she hits her low and is forced to attend God's Promise Academy that she realizes that sometimes the people in charge don't really have a clue about what they're doing either, and that she didn't really get the chance to know her parents as people, and maybe they would have reacted differently than her aunt Ruth.

Throughout her journey, Danforth doesn't force any labels on Cameron, and despite the 1990's setting and her issues with her sexuality, Cameron's struggles and feelings of isolation are very relatable for any reader. Danforth's writing is both gritty and beautiful, and there are some very beautiful metaphors throughout the novel. While it does seem like the book ends a little abruptly, readers will be happy about where Danforth leaves Cameron, and the conclusion is very appropriate. Though lengthy, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a thought-provoking and important novel that readers will fly through.
D. Dough
5.0 out of 5 stars Impeccable, a rare treat in an already great genre.
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2013
This is a truly exemplary novel. I've read just about any YA lesbian romance novel from the last 20 years. as this website's records could attest. Julie Anne Peters, Julie Burchill, Bett Williams, Gina Harris, all are spectacular authors who put their own sincere spin on the formula. But by and large, in broad strokes they follow the template popularized by Nancy Garden in here idyllic classic, Annie On My Mind, or at least the conventions of YA romance in general.

This is where The Miseducation of Cameron Post diverges most impressively. Almost any novel in this genre is going to drop you into one terse little time period of our characters' lives, comprising approximately a few months to a year, and beginning conveniently just before they begin a whirlwind romance. Miseducation tells a deeper story by starting early, giving us insight into Cameron's pivotal experiences at age 12, and then following her through a variety of situations spanning a significant chunk of her youth. It's not so much a romance as it is a journey, or a character study, and it even at times carries shades of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

The ensemble cast of characters is absolutely, unequivocally sublime. Each person who crosses Cameron's path is intriguing and believable. Even the villains are captivating and well-rounded. Such a rich and nuanced story deserves a sequel. Heck, such a complex menagerie of characters deserve a whole series. I can certainly say I will come back every time and keep reading until Cameron Post is 110 years old, if Emily Danforth will grant me the honor by writing those books.

Basically if you love sincere, well-crafted characters and a unique story that never talks down to its audience, this is a book you immediately must own.

Best Sellers in

 
 

Better Than the Movies

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 18155
17.05
 
 

House of Roots and Ruin: Sisters of the Salt

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 948
21.66
 
 

House of Hollow

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 4530
19.69
 
 

The Battle for Skandia: Ranger's Apprentice, Book 4

4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 5052
19.69
 
 

The Sorcerer of the North: Ranger's Apprentice Series

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 5462
21.66
 
 

The Siege of Macindaw: Ranger's Apprentice

4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 5453
21.66
 
 

Avatar, the Last Airbender: The Reckoning of Roku: The Chronicles of the Avatar Series, Book 5

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 79
15.51
 
 

A Thousand Broken Pieces: A Thousand Boy Kisses, Book 2

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 7739
17.24