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The Miseducation of Cameron Post

by Emily M. Danforth (Goodreads Author)

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 · rating details · 3,001 ratings · 589 reviews

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 soon 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 lif...more

Hardcover, 470 pages

Published February 7th 2012 by Balzer + Bray

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Mar 09, 2012 Wendy Darling rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-publication, lgbt, young-adult, realistic-fiction, gorgeous-prose, harpercollins, february, summery, 2012-favorites, favorite-ya, read-2012, made-my-heart-hurt, mature-ya, 2012-5-star-books

If you were to lay out a visual storyboard for The Miseducation of Cameron Post, it would be filled with lomographic photography--retro lighting, wide-open vistas, saturated colors, and quirky, sometimes blurry exposures that provide quick snapshots of the many small pleasures of childhood. This coming of age novel, which is written more like adult literary fiction than typical YA, beautifully captures the sun-drenched mood of summer as we meet Cameron, a young girl living in a small town in eas...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Alex M. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, queer, super-awesome, young-adult, reading-rainbow-book-group, reread

I feel like I've been waiting for this book for forever and it is finally, finally, finally here and it was perfect.

(view spoiler)...more I feel like I've been waiting for this book for forever and it is finally, finally, finally here and it was perfect.

(view spoiler)[Cameron Post is a teenager growing up in a small town in Montana in the early 90s. Her parents die in a car crash the summer she's 12, right after she shares a kiss with her best friend. Her aunt Ruth, an evangelical Christian, moves in as Cam's guardian. Fast forward to her high school years and Cam is desperately in love with Coley Taylor, a beautiful, "straight" girl who seems to reciprocate Cam's feelings somewhat. But then aunt Ruth discovers Cam's secret and ships her off to a school to "de-gay" her.

The writing was so, so good. It was so clean and lovely and spot on. Cam was the perfect narrator. She was funny and smart and so, so conflicted with all the feelings. And the book gave ME ~ALL THE FEELINGS~. Every scene for a while with Coley and Cam was ripe with tension and electricity. It perfectly captured how it feels to be with someone for the first time, to kiss them, and all those adolescent emotions.

THIS was one of my favorite parts of the book:

I kissed my way back up her body, just more tiny kisses.

When I got to the pillow, she said in her sweet, quiet voice, "Wow, Cameron Post."

I grinned a big grin, a grin that would have embarrassed me, I know, if someone had shown me a mirror right then.

I would cite what page number that is, but I have no freaking clue because my Kindle is unhelpful like that. BUT it's like...I KNOW THAT. I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL, CAM. This is so accurate and wonderful and the sweetest scene without being mushy. MY HEART.

I'm hesitant to even categorize this book as YA. I know it's fairly hefty as far as YA goes -- almost 500 pages in the print edition. But moreover the writing is probably some of the best I've seen in YA. It doesn't feel as lazy as a lot of YA does these days to me. It's literary fiction with a YA protagonist. It's kind of like Prep in that. Um, actually, I see that Curtis Sittenfeld blurbed this book, which is KIND OF FUNNY TO ME, as Lee Fiora was the WORST protagonist (no agency, horrible personality, giant martyr) and as far as I'm concerned, Cameron Post is the best.

Um um um, this book is so genuine and real. So real. I was a little alarmed when Cam was sent to the de-gaying school, but it was a lot more interesting than I expected. I see from other reviews that a lot of readers hate that aspect of this book, but I liked it. It would have been easy for Danforth to make the school one out of But I'm a Cheerleader, but she didn't, because things are gray. It's GRAY. It made the situation so much more complex and fascinating and I DISAGREE with those readers. I don't think Danforth makes it "sound okay". I think she writes about a real situation where the school is populated by real people, people who actually believe this is for the best, and that makes it harder to break it down into black and white. But at the same time, Cam never seems to entirely lose herself. She's just...Cam and she's figuring shit out because she's like 15-years-old.

And I almost forgot all the figuring out about her sexuality and things are the way things are and sexuality is fluid and UGH, WHAT, IT'S LIKE THEY TOOK ALL MY FEELINGS AND PUT THEM INTO A BOOK.

And I care so much about the side characters!!!! I want another book about Irene Klausen and one about Coley Taylor (MY WHOLE HEART WANTS THIS) and one about Aunt Ruth and and and ALL THE BOOKS, EMILY M. DANFORTH. WRITE ALL THE BOOKS.

My one thing was that I really wanted her to have one last conversation in the book with Ruth or Coley or someone, but the ending seemed nebulous enough that maybe a sequel is in the works??? (hide spoiler)]

I want to read this book a million more times and I want a sequel, ASAP. Okay, great, cool.

EDIT: THIS BOOK IS JUST AS AMAZING THE SECOND TIME.(less)

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Apr 03, 2012 Heidi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-favorites, bea-2012, favorites, feels-like-home-wyoming-reads

4.5 Stars.

Original review posted here.

As young adult readers, it’s somewhat rare for us to run into a book that’s more than 400 pages long, and when we do, I feel like those books fall into one of three categories. There are those lengthy YA books that are so engrossing and quick paced that you just gobble them up without ever noticing the length (see Grave Mercy), there are those that you feel could have had 100+ pages cut and have been better for it (see Partials), and then, there are those th...more 4.5 Stars.

Original review posted here.

As young adult readers, it’s somewhat rare for us to run into a book that’s more than 400 pages long, and when we do, I feel like those books fall into one of three categories. There are those lengthy YA books that are so engrossing and quick paced that you just gobble them up without ever noticing the length (see Grave Mercy), there are those that you feel could have had 100+ pages cut and have been better for it (see Partials), and then, there are those that are worth consuming slowly, taking in each word and phrase as it comes because every one of them has been carefully considered and placed to enrich the story. The Miseducation of Cameron Post is this third kind of book. I’ll admit I was intimidated by its girth, but I found every moment that I spent reading filling me up in a way that hearty wheat bread can fill your belly--with nourishment and substance.

Now, I’ll admit, a lot of my attachment to The Miseducation of Cameron Post arose from the fact that this book, more than any other I have ever read, exemplifies my childhood. If you want to know what it was like growing up in small town Wyoming in the 90s, not too far from Billings, Montana--it’s not all that different from growing up in small town Miles City, not too far from Billings, Montana. Cameron and I went to the same mall to do school shopping, we stop at the same airport, and more importantly, our towns share the same businesses, people, and atmosphere. I cannot tell you how badly I was craving Taco Johns every time it was mentioned, and I am so sad for all of you that don’t live in the mountain states and know its glory (you know, as glorious as a Mexican fast food chain can be). When Emily M. Danforth wrote of thunderheads gathering on the horizon, I could smell it, and feel the hot, dry summer air. We played with firecrackers, bought gas at Conoco, bought crafts at Ben Franklin’s, we had kids wearing those blue FFA jackets at school; to this day I miss Schwan’s single-serve pizzas and push pops. I further bonded with Cameron because we were both swimmers who hung out largely with boys, and had lost parents at twelve (thankfully, in my case, not both). Despite what I felt was a very personal attachment to this book, I don’t think you need to have one to enjoy it. Danforth creates such a strong image of Miles City, and God’s Promise, that any reader will feel immersed.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a coming of age story in the truest sense of the term. We follow Cameron from the time that she is twelve, until she is seventeen (or near enough). I loved seeing Cameron come into her own as a person, realize who she was, and fumble with her sense of self in the same way that every teen experiences. For Cameron, much of this is focused on the fact that she is a lesbian, but it didn’t have to be--this story would have been just as compelling if she’d been strait. Certainly, this book will speak to any teens who feel trapped in a situation, their family, their town, and need to find themselves to decide how best to manage their future. I am not meaning to diminish the importance of The Miseducation of Cameron Post as a work of LGBT literature, merely stating that I think this is a work that could influence anyone, the LGBT aspect is not the only way readers will relate to this book.

Cameron Post herself is one of my new literary best friends. I love this girl. She’s a bit of a klepto, which I never understood, but other than that we bonded hard core. I love that to her, her sexuality isn’t a choice, a political statement, or a counter-culture movement--it’s just who she is. So many adults in her life reacted to her as if she were acting out, when in reality she was just being a kid, and being who she was. The sad fact that those she loved most had no idea how to love those parts of Cameron they didn’t agree with or understand broke my heart.

I think it is easy for those many people who live in very liberal areas to look unkindly and with harsh judgement at evangelical Christians such as much of Cameron’s town. When you only experience these people through the bubble that is media, and not through personal experience, it becomes so easy to write them off as horrible people because of their judgements on homosexuals. This has always been a tough position for me. Much of my hometown, and many people that I love dearly share these views. Their adamant belief that homosexuality equates to damnation doesn’t change the fact that they are often wonderful, caring, heartfelt people. What Cameron’s family does to her, they do because they are trying to help, and because they love her. I can respect that, and so can Cameron. That doesn’t make it right, but I appreciate so much that Emily M. Danforth did strive to show these people as caring, and helpless to understand because of their beliefs. There was no outspoken rebellion against Christianity in general, only an acknowledgement that the methods used in this particular case were flawed, and doomed from the start--you can’t cure something that isn’t a sickness. Because of this treatment, I hope that those who avoid books with religious themes are not put off by The Misedcuation of Cameron Post. It is not preachy either for or against the nature/nurture arguments of homosexuality, it is the story of a girl finding and accepting herself in a time and place where so many obstacles stand in her way.(less)

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Aug 10, 2012 Snotchocheez rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow...what a pleasant surprise this was. I saw this in the Teen New Books section of the library, figured, if nothing else, it would serve as a palate-cleanser, a fluffy coming of age story. Turns out, The Miseducation of Cameron Post resonates much more deeply than the typical YA novel, filled with pitch perfect detail and honesty, devoid of condescension: a book to be shared by all.

Weighing in at 460+ pages, it's really two books in one. The first half is a pretty-straightforward girl-discove...more

Wow...what a pleasant surprise this was. I saw this in the Teen New Books section of the library, figured, if nothing else, it would serve as a palate-cleanser, a fluffy coming of age story. Turns out, The Miseducation of Cameron Post resonates much more deeply than the typical YA novel, filled with pitch perfect detail and honesty, devoid of condescension: a book to be shared by all.

Weighing in at 460+ pages, it's really two books in one. The first half is a pretty-straightforward girl-discovers-she-likes-girls in the late 80s-early 90s kinda story. The titular narrator Cameron feels a tremendous amount of guilt when her parents are killed in a car crash, right around the same time (at age 12) she has a sleepover at a girl's house that culminates in her sexual awakening (that she is, indeed, attracted to other girls). The setting is Miles City, Montana (perhaps not coincidentally, author Emily Danforth's hometown), a place (probably to this day, but certainly in the 80s-90s) you'd have an extremely difficult time coming-out. So the first half of the novel focuses on Cam's junior high and high school years, of hiding her sexual desires, especially from her born-again aunt who has become her foster parent after her parents passed away. While i'm not terribly familiar with LGBT fiction, it seems like pretty familiar typical stuff (like maybe watching a Logo Channel rerun), although Ms Danforth's detailed-yet-almost-lyrical account set this apart from any story i'd read before in this genre. (Some may argue that, with 460 pages, it's too detailed, but I would disagree)

The second half of the novel, when Auntie finds out about Cameron's "un-Christian" sexual urges and sends her away to "God's Promise" (a school whose primary purpose is to de-Gay-ify teens) is when the story really begins to soar, totally getting under my skin. Ms. Danforth's (surprisingly objective) depiction of this deprogramming school is just gut-wrenching (without being too over-the-top or reducing itself to cliche).

What I most liked about this book is how true-to-life it seemed. Every bit of dialogue, every lust and heartbreak of Cameron's just seemed real. The old adage of "write what you know" seems to apply here: the detail that Ms. Danforth puts forth seemingly could only come from someone who's gone through similar experiences (like the crashing echo of a "first-time" pants zipper being unzipped, or the specifics of one-on-one counseling at the deprogramming school, or the "ubiquitous turd brown coffee cups at Perkins'", or the inexplicable Montanan cravings of Potato Olés at Taco Johns (hint: it requires lots and lots of pot-smoking). I would encourage anyone of any sexual orientation or spiritual bent (or anyone like me who tends to dismiss books categorized as YA) to give this book a try. This is a very solid first novel for Emily Danforth, and I look forward to seeing how she writes outside of her "comfort zone".(less)

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Aug 30, 2012 Aika rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 10th-grade-reviews

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. SUMMER REVIEW
Cameron lost her parents when she was twelve due to a car crash. During the time of their death, Cameron and her best friend Irene were shoplifting in a grocery store. She had a secret, she kissed her best friend (which is a girl), and she didn’t want her parents to know. Although after her parent’s death, Cameron was treated differently; people puttied her, and were kinder to her. Cameron’s conservative aunt becomes her guardian and she must hide the secret even more. That year, Ir...more SUMMER REVIEW
Cameron lost her parents when she was twelve due to a car crash. During the time of their death, Cameron and her best friend Irene were shoplifting in a grocery store. She had a secret, she kissed her best friend (which is a girl), and she didn’t want her parents to know. Although after her parent’s death, Cameron was treated differently; people puttied her, and were kinder to her. Cameron’s conservative aunt becomes her guardian and she must hide the secret even more. That year, Irene’s family becomes wealthy because of dinosaur fossils resided under their land, and she moves to a better school in Connecticut. Later, Cameron becomes best friends with a girl named Coley, and “dates” a boy named Jamie. Being with Jamie helped her mask her sexuality, although one day, her Aunt Ruth finds out the truth. Ruth, being a true Christian doesn’t want Cameron to be gay and tries to change who she is. Cameron is sent to a de-gaying school, God’s Promise, to try and make her right.
This is a coming of age story; we watch Cameron Post grow and evolve. She realizes she is gay when she is 12, and through middle and high school she keeps her secret and tries to hide it. She becomes more adventurous as she got older; drinking and smoking pot. As we read further in the novel, we see her become more of a teenager, and goes against her Aunt Ruth’s beliefs. This story also reveals acceptance and understanding. Aunt Ruth could not understand that Cameron was a lesbian, although others could like Coley. Acceptance for being who you are was what Cameron wanted, she didn’t want to go to God’s Promise, she wanted to be free, and the woman she wanted to be.
A part in the story I thought was funny was in the beginning of the novel when Irene and Cameron were shoplifting for gum. I thought it was great when the man bought them a free root beer, they were actually stealing from the grocery store. That day, they got everything for free.
I recommend this book to anyone. Part one of this book is a little slow, although the book gets better and better as you keep reading. The book is well written and has many details. It was interesting and exciting and the cover is nice. The book is a nice length, and it covers Cameron Post’s life perfectly; I would recommend it to anyone who actually wants to find a good book to read.
(less)

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Mar 14, 2012 Candace rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was quietly beautiful. It had many passages that really moved me, words that really stuck in my head and felt so very perfect. It was slower paced but never boring. I found myself captivated by Cameron Post and her life as it felt so very similar to my own as a teenager. I didn't struggle with the same issues she did exactly but I still felt such a strong connection to so much in this book it took me back to my teenage years more then probably any other contemporary I've read. One reas...more This book was quietly beautiful. It had many passages that really moved me, words that really stuck in my head and felt so very perfect. It was slower paced but never boring. I found myself captivated by Cameron Post and her life as it felt so very similar to my own as a teenager. I didn't struggle with the same issues she did exactly but I still felt such a strong connection to so much in this book it took me back to my teenage years more then probably any other contemporary I've read. One reason is that this book takes in Miles City Montana and while I grew up in Sturgis South Dakota (a small town as well) I did spend many weekends and most summers in Sheridan Wyoming which is quite close to Miles City. We shopped in Billings (those from Miles City did as well) and we just lived similar lives. Lots of cowboys, lots of super religious people, lots of parties and smoking of weed (yes, there's lots of marijuana smoking in this book) and all those little things just brought me closer to Cameron and her life. I also had a very close friend who liked girls and struggled with the things that Cameron did. As her close friend it was so hard to watch her go through everything, to be ridiculed and put down and told it's a sickness and she needs to be strong in her faith and overcome it. I spent so many nights with her trying to convince her that nothing was wrong with her and once she was 18 she could get out of there and she would see that she's not the only one in the world and that others will accept her.

Another thing that I loved was that this takes place in the early 90's. I was a teenager in the 90's as well so the pop culture references, the music, the movies, the words, every little thing, that was me, that was my life as a teen. I remember watching Beaches over and over with my friend and crying and crying. I remember listening to the music Cameron listened to. All these things aren't that important to the story, but for those of us that lived through that, it's just a big bonus and made the book that much better for me.

This isn't a book for everyone. It has a strong LGBT theme. There's drug use (just marijuana) and drinking. There's cursing. There's sex (no description really, you just know what happens). Personally none of this bothered me which is strange since I usually dislike much of any of that and all of it is actually quite present in the book. Maybe it was because I was transported to being a teen and this book felt as accurate and authentic as it gets.

I very highly recommend this book and if you're concerned about getting it for your child or your classroom give it a read first. It's one I really feel should be in classrooms as there are so many teens that could really benefit from it, but I can also see that it is probably a book that will enrage some parents. It's definitely a high school and older kind of book.

Please, please give this book a chance. It makes me tear up to think about it, but this was a book I really could have used as a teenager. Whether a person is LGBT, it doesn't really matter. There's so much to connect with in this book for any teenager.

This review was first posted on my blog at http://www.candacesbookblog.com (less)

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Mar 12, 2012 Chantaal rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, lgbt, contemporary

Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

This book follows the journey of young Cameron Post, a girl whose parents die just as she begins to discover her burgeoning homosexuality. And it sounds really strange and trite when put that way, but there's so much to this novel. Cameron's day to day confusion with liking girls seems so real and present, despite it taking place in the early 90s. Eventually Cameron's religious aunt sends to a de-gaying camp, and that's where I felt the book dropped a s...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Justine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-pub, read-in-2012, favourites-2012, full-reviews

Grandma stooped over with a yellow rag, sprinkling out the cleanser, that chemical-mint smell puffing around us, her son dead and her daughter-in-law dead and her only grandchild a now-orphaned shoplifter, a girl who kissed girls, and she didn't even know, and now she was cleaning up my vomit, feeling even worse because of me: That's what made me cry.

I was terrified to read this book. For everything I'd been told about its spot-on characterizations and descriptions of the teenage condition, for...more

Grandma stooped over with a yellow rag, sprinkling out the cleanser, that chemical-mint smell puffing around us, her son dead and her daughter-in-law dead and her only grandchild a now-orphaned shoplifter, a girl who kissed girls, and she didn't even know, and now she was cleaning up my vomit, feeling even worse because of me: That's what made me cry.

I was terrified to read this book. For everything I'd been told about its spot-on characterizations and descriptions of the teenage condition, for every quote I came across that was just so gorgeously rendered I near-caved on the spot, I continued to put it off. Capital-M Message books rarely meet my expectations, and I've found this to be consistently true when it comes to LGBTQ books in the YA genre, but The Miseducation of Cameron Post is not about being a lesbian.

It's about being a girl (who, yes, likes other girls in that way).

There's a difference. True, Cameron is a lesbian. She's also an orphan. She's a granddaughter and niece, a movie-buff and a small-town girl. She's a bit of a doormat except for when she's telling you to go to hell. Cameron is a girl, and Miseducation addresses every aspect of what and who she is; there's no one personality trait that is all of her.

We follow her from the age of twelve when she first loses her parents right up to the cusp of adulthood at seventeen, and it is mind-boggling to me that Emily Danforth managed to fit everything I remember about my own adolescence into one book. It might have inspired more reminiscence in me personally just for the setting. I, like Cameron, grew up on the boundless northwestern plains, so the detailed imagery did a lot for me. I would recognize, however, that in setting the novel in her own hometown the author may have become too involved with the little details that made her smile, that made it all so real and alive to her. Those same details could distract away from another reader's memories of childhood.

Still, it's almost impossible not to identify with some part of a girl floundering with her sexual identity, with how to relate to those who accept her and to those who don't.

Danforth shines here, because Miseducation is filled with characters who don't accept Cameron for who she is, and as a reader you can reasonably assume that they probably never will. Some will love her in spite of the fact, some will write her off as an unsalvageable soul, but not one of these characters is treated as the villainous homophobe. They're ignorant and frightened and damaged, and these things often manifest in horrifying ways, but Danforth doesn't believe in flat characters. She makes them capable of kindness, capable of being mistreated by Cameron.

And Cameron finds that she is capable of mistreating them, which is a lesson I myself am constantly relearning. So much of this work's beauty and what makes its difficult to describe lies exactly in this point: this book is about the miseducation of not just Cameron, but everyone around her. It's about the lessons that bear repeating for all of us.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that this book was too long—and at 470 pages, I doubt many would try too hard to argue the point with me—but like every other facet of Danforth's inaugural work, I can only feel the decision in length was deliberate and completely apt. This book wasn't just long. It was that final stretch of summer: lazy and too-hot and never-ending, but flying by. It was my childhood: one moment dragged-out, tintype nostalgia and the next vivid hi-fi with sharp edges. And like everything else, it ended too soon.

Originally posted at JUSTINEXORABLE.COM(less)

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Dec 14, 2012 Christina (A Reader of Fictions) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: glbt

Originally reviews on A Reader of Fictions.

Alright, I can tell that this is going to be a tough review for me to write, so just bear with me. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about The Miseducation of Cameron Post, henceforth to be referred to as TMoCP. I mean, I do know that I liked it. I know that parts of it made me sad, and some made me laugh, and others made me want to throw the book across the room, all emotions that Danforth no doubt intended to elicit from me as a reader. Still, some ele...more Originally reviews on A Reader of Fictions.

Alright, I can tell that this is going to be a tough review for me to write, so just bear with me. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about The Miseducation of Cameron Post, henceforth to be referred to as TMoCP. I mean, I do know that I liked it. I know that parts of it made me sad, and some made me laugh, and others made me want to throw the book across the room, all emotions that Danforth no doubt intended to elicit from me as a reader. Still, some elements of it, especially the conclusion will need to sit with me for a bit before I can really pronounce my feelings about them.

TMOCP differs greatly from any of the other lgbt ya books that I've read thus far in just how up front Danforth is about the sexual side of things. I was really surprised, since that tends to be sort of glossed over, though, to be fair, I haven't yet read a ton. Danforth does not shy away from anything, and the sexual experiences, while not graphic are definitely described clearly enough that the reader has a solid conception of what's going on. I really appreciated this frankness, especially since it fits Cameron Post's personality so well.

Speaking of Cameron, she's a marvelous character, sarcastic and with a powerful sense of self. That last may be an odd trait to attribute to her, since, through the whole book, she struggles with coming to terms both with her sexuality and her parents' death in a car accident. Despite her confusion over her feelings, she never really seems to doubt her core self, even if she's not entirely convinced how she feels about that core self. Though she questions whether her sexuality is 'right,' she never doubts her attraction to women or thinks that it isn't a part of who she is. I loved that, because so many YA heroines allow their doubts to overpower a sense of self.

Her personality, her responses to events, keep the painful portions from being too incredibly awful, because she's still the same Cameron Post. Though Cameron isn't a super chatty person, she has such a powerful voice that I just love. When backed into a corner, she tells people how it is; she confronts them with her own hypocrisy. When she goes off on someone in a long monologue, it is a thing of ranty beauty.

The other thing I just have to mention that made this book so strong for me is Danforth's descriptions of feelings. She really captures the craziness of how people, or at least women, think, the little confusions and doubts. For example, she mentions how in reaction to something, Cameron will feel sad, then feel angry at herself for being mopey, and then just feel sad again. These sometimes conflicting and spiralling strong emotions are so much how I really feel on bad days, and are so much more authentic and powerful than just saying Cameron felt sad. This same technique is displayed in the complex friendship between Cameron and Jamie, which I thought was very well handled.

At this point, you may be wondering about the relatively low rating, since all of that was rather a rave, especially for me. The book did feel a bit long, dragging in some sections, particularly most of the first hundred or so pages. Ironically, my other issue is the ending, which I thought felt rushed and unsatisfying. It's the kind of ending that doesn't tell you what happens to the characters at all, and I want to know badly. Perhaps the book had to end that way for some reason, but I'm not seeing it yet. As I said, I may need time.

Those concerns aside, I will definitely be recommending this book to pretty much anyone I can, particularly if they have interest in lgbt fiction. Though this will have meaning to only a couple of my readers, I still have to state for the record that I really wish we had read this and not Dairy Queen in our lgbt fiction week in my YA resources class in library school. (less)

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Mar 12, 2012 Rachel (Read. Write. Ramble.) rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book took me a really long time to read. Like, a REALLY LONG TIME. I read a little bit of it every day or so, and didn't finish until about a month later. Which is weird for me. Usually, I read books from start to finish in a five hour sitting. You might assume that this took me a long time to read because I didn't like it, but surprisingly, that was not the case.

I really enjoyed this book. It's hard to try to voice my feelings about it, because I think it's such an important book that need...more This book took me a really long time to read. Like, a REALLY LONG TIME. I read a little bit of it every day or so, and didn't finish until about a month later. Which is weird for me. Usually, I read books from start to finish in a five hour sitting. You might assume that this took me a long time to read because I didn't like it, but surprisingly, that was not the case.

I really enjoyed this book. It's hard to try to voice my feelings about it, because I think it's such an important book that needs to be taken seriously. It's the kind of book that makes you think. It raises questions about yourself and your life. I think that one day, this book will be taught in English classrooms so that bored kids can be forced to analyze everything. (I mean this in the best possible way! Books have to be really good to be taught in schools.)

The book starts out from Cameron's point of view when she is twelve years old. At first, I thought it was a little weird that the protagonist was so young. But as the book goes on, it spans over several years. The reader gets to be right alongside Cameron as she grows up, transforming from a naive preteen girl to a young women.

In this book, Cameron struggles to come to terms with who she really is. Being a teenage girl is rough; especially if you have feelings toward other girls. She is afraid and embarrassed and self-conscious about being gay, which makes sense considering the small, conventional town she lives in. Cameron knows she won't be accepted for being herself.

I think this is a book that everyone should read. I'll admit, it's not the most thrilling or exciting or action-packed read. In fact, sometimes it gets a little boring. But by the time I turned the last page, I feel like this book changed me in some way. Which I know sounds really cheesy and whatever, but it's true. Cameron struggles with so much during her teenage years, yet she never give ups. She never lets other people turn her into someone she isn't. She brave in a way that teenagers can identify with, and she inspires me.

I know this review isn't very good or informative or helpful. It's just really hard for me to try to explain what this book means to me. It's unlike anything I usually read, but I wound up really enjoying this book. If you haven't read it yet, I definitely recommend it. I know it's long and not always that exciting, but trust me, you won't regret it.(less)

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Feb 07, 2012 Beth G. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: debut-author-challenge-2012, alamw12, 2012, books-for-teens, lesbian, glbt, arcs, fiction, historical-fiction, realistic-fiction, contemporary-realism, contemporary, alayma, morris-award-finalist

The afternoon my parents died I was out shoplifting with Irene Klauson.

Synopsis:
In the summer of 1989, twelve-year-old Cameron Post kissed her best friend, Irene. The next day, her parents died in a car accident. For Cameron, the two events would be forever linked, not that she could explain that to her born-again Aunt Ruth, who moves into Cameron's house in Miles City, Montana to become her guardian. Cam knows enough not to talk about her attraction to other girls, let alone how she spends her...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Shanyn (Chick Loves Lit) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: dac12, ccc

YAY. Yay.

The first thing I thought when I finished The Miseducation of Cameron Post is that I would have LOVED this book when I was a younger reader flying through Catcher in the Rye and Perks of Being a Wallflower. I'm saying this in hopes to begin to explain the content of this book, because what I write won't do it justice. And saying I would have loved it then doesn't mean I didn't love it now, because I did.

Full Review: http://chickloveslit.com/2012/01/revi...

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May 17, 2013 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, bechdel_test_yes, feminist, ladywritten, young-adult

I picked this up on Malinda Lo's recommendation some time back, I think. It's a whopper of a YA novel--close to 500 pages--but a pretty quick and very absorbing read.

danforth's style is colloquial rather than polished, and she does an amazing job of recreating the life of the American teen in the 1990s. Her teen, Cameron Post, happens to be gay and growing up in rural Montana under the care of her conservative, religious aunt. I hope like crazy that's a fairly limited demographic, but Cameron's...more I picked this up on Malinda Lo's recommendation some time back, I think. It's a whopper of a YA novel--close to 500 pages--but a pretty quick and very absorbing read.

danforth's style is colloquial rather than polished, and she does an amazing job of recreating the life of the American teen in the 1990s. Her teen, Cameron Post, happens to be gay and growing up in rural Montana under the care of her conservative, religious aunt. I hope like crazy that's a fairly limited demographic, but Cameron's voice is so appealing and danforth is so good with her details that it all rang true for me.

It's been a long time since I was a teenager, but this book brought back a lot of it. The breathless energy of fooling around for the first time(s), the pleasant idleness of working summer jobs, the frustration and impotence of not being in control of one's own life. Now that I'm a supposed grown-up, with a regular job and bills to pay, some of that sounds pretty good. It's easy to forget what it was like firsthand, how important and unique and frustrating and hard it felt. danforth has wonderful sympathy for her teenagers, and she manages to write their complicated lives without condescension or drama.

I did have some small issues with the book.

(view spoiler)[When Cameron's aunt finds out she's been seeing a girl, she ships Cameron off to Gates of Promise, a "de-gaying" camp for youth. (I like that its initialism is GOP. Subtle.) Cameron's young and she has no real say in things, but still it seemed to me that she went without the fight I would have expected. While she still has a lot to figure out about herself, she's got a strong, positive gay role model in her friend Lindsay, and generally good self-esteem. It struck me as a little contrived that she'd submit to GOP without a struggle, or without at least defending herself as normal and healthy.

It also seemed to me that Cameron's relationship with her friend Lindsay and with her (sort-of) girlfriend Coley were dropped in the last half of the book. Once Cameron reaches GOP, and meets some of her fellow inmates, there's very little mention of the characters who were so important earlier in the book. That might mimic what life is like for teenagers going through chaotic times--relationships start fast and end the same way--but it left the book feeling unbalanced to me.

The book ends with Cameron and her friends striking out on foot to escape GOP, and making it to Quake Lake, where Cameron's parents drowned when she was a girl. The scenes there are lovely, but I'm too pragmatic to be satisfied with them. Reading about their seat-of-the-pants escape, I couldn't help thinking of how many homeless kids are gay or transgender, and of some of the horrible things that can happen to them. I can't imagine that Cameron and her friends are headed that way--it's not that kind of book--but that leaves me with the question of...what next? They have no real plan, no resources, no legal protection, and they're in the middle of the wilderness. I wanted to shake the book to make more pages fall out. WHAT NOW???

I read an interview with danforth in which she said that the book was actually a lot longer, with another section following Cameron after she left GOP. I think for many readers the current ending may be just fine...but I'd also like to go on record as saying that if there's ever another book picking up where this one left off, I am THERE.

(hide spoiler)]

All told, this was a book that I read in every spare moment--while walking to the bus, while riding the bus, ~~under my desk at work~~, when I should have been doing other things. It was immersive and absorbing and I'm very glad it's out there. Cameron Post, c'est moi. And a lot of other people too, I'm sure. (less)

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May 08, 2013 Julia Driscoll rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-best-books, appropriate-for-adults, appropriate-for-high-school, cautionary-tale, death-grief, ethics-morality, families, friendship-school, gender, glbtq, romance-dating, religion, self-discovery, sexuality

This book was amazingly well written. FYI, it does contain alot of sexuality and other mature content (it is the subject of the entire book, in fact), so I recommend it for older teens and adults. That said, I think it's aptly titled with "Miseducation" because there is very little education that Cameron receives at all regarding sex or sexual development from caring adults. The book begins in 1989 when Cameron is 12 and has her first kiss with her best girl friend. Her parents are killed in a c...more

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May 01, 2013 Ruth rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book, set in the early 1990s, starts with the death of Cameron’s parents in a car accident on the same day she kisses her best friend, Irene. From then on, she knows her life in Miles City, Montana will never be the same. She moves in with her very conservative Aunt Ruth and old-fashioned grandmother, and learns how to keep certain parts of her life a secret. But everything changes when popular, perfect Coley Taylor moves into town. Despite the fact that Coley has a boyfriend, she and Camer...more This book, set in the early 1990s, starts with the death of Cameron’s parents in a car accident on the same day she kisses her best friend, Irene. From then on, she knows her life in Miles City, Montana will never be the same. She moves in with her very conservative Aunt Ruth and old-fashioned grandmother, and learns how to keep certain parts of her life a secret. But everything changes when popular, perfect Coley Taylor moves into town. Despite the fact that Coley has a boyfriend, she and Cameron develop an instant friendship that eventually becomes more. However, when Aunt Ruth discovers the truth about Cameron, she does what her conservative, Christian beliefs tells her best – she sends Cameron away to be “fixed” from being gay. Through all of this, Cameron must remember to stay true to herself, even when she is being told that being who she is wrong.
This book is by far one of the most complex, intense, and well written that I’ve ever read, within the YA genre and beyond. Although it was close to 500 pages, I never wanted it to end. Danforth did an amazing job at depicting this unique situation, and provided a wide array of beautifully developed characters to go along with it. I was surprised by how much detailed development the author managed to fit about Cameron’s life from age 12 to age 16 without once making it feel rushed or disconnected. Throughout this time, a number of well-developed characters came in and out of Cameron’s life, all having their unique influence on her life. Also, I appreciated that this was a book about gay issues without being only a book about gay issues. Although Cameron’s struggles with her sexuality was a continuing topic, the book also dealt with other important issues as well, such as adolescent friendships, competition and bullying among kids, and of course, trying to figure out how to carry on after the death of both parents.
I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone. This would be good for a YA lit reader who is getting bored, because the length and unique story of The Miseducation of Cameron Post could be a refreshing and insightful read. Any YA Lit readers who are a little older, probably just high schoolers, could benefit from this book if they haven’t read or learned much about life for people who are gay. They might relate better to the situation when hearing it from the perspective of a normal teenager just like them. Also, many young adults who would read this book wouldn’t have insight into what is was like being gay in the early 1990s, which allows the readers to gain more insight into the discrimination of the LGBT community than if it was set in the last few years, where being gay has become much more accepted. Overall, this is a beautifully written book that provides well-developed characters and storylines about a somewhat sensitive topic.
(less)

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Apr 12, 2013 Rose S-H rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was good, but I don't think I enjoyed as much as I should have, since I just don't like realistic fiction that much.
The basic plot follows Cameron Post, a young lesbian girl growing up in Miles City, Montana in the early '90's.
At first this book seemed too long, like how could the author fill up all these pages with Cameron's story? But she does. And she does it quite expertly at that.
Cameron is a likable protagonist, a nice blend of teenage snark, love, compassion, hurt and confusion...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Kageashi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lgbt-fiction, bildugs-romans

Let me be clear - I think that The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a fantastic book. It's engaging, the characters have true depth, and Cameron, while frequently irritating is most often endearing.

One thing is clear, though - this is a book where no one is right and no one is wrong. Well, except perhaps Lydia, but that's an aside.

The book follows Cameron through three phases of her pubescent life - just before Junior High, her freshman year and summer, and her sophomore year. Each phase is subst...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Margaret Herrinton rated it 5 of 5 stars

This week I read The Miseducation of Cameron Post. It was one of the best books I've ever read. I absolutely loved it. I'm normally a very slow reader, and it amazes me that I was able to read a book that dense in 5 days.
This story follows the story of Cameron Post through her adolescence in the late 1980s and early 1990s in a small town in Montana, and how she discovers her sexuality, and the social problems surround it. Her parents die the night after she kissed a girl for the first time. She...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Bookbeaver rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lesbian young adult reader fiction? Not exactly my 'normal' genre. But still, not a bad read. It seems a bit heavy for YA at times, but that might not be such a bad thing. It is well-written, flows well, and turns into a compelling read as you go along. Probably that good Montana education the author received (and, yes, I'm a Grizz too). Some have complained about the ending, but where would they have taken this story? Does it wrap up the story in a convenient little ball? Not at all. Does it ne...more

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Jan 27, 2013 StorySnoops rated it 4 of 5 stars

Spanning the years from 1989 to 1993, The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a coming of age story about a girl struggling to come to terms with her sexual identity in an environment that is not tolerant of alternative lifestyles. After kissing her best friend, Cameron can't help but feel that her behavior somehow caused her parents' death that very same evening. She finds ways to numb her pain and her sexual impulses in order to fit into a town, church, and family--now led by her pious aunt--that...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Maurinejt rated it 4 of 5 stars

3.5

For the most part, I enjoyed this book and the engaging style kept the pages turning. I liked Cameron, a preadolescent girl when the novel opens, growing up in rural Montana, who has to deal with the discovery of her proclivity towards women and the death of her parents all in the same day. She ends up in the care of a well-meaning but clueless Christian aunt, and eventually is sent to a religious boarding school that promises to turn her from gay to straight.

I felt like the meat of the stor...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

When 12 year old Cameron Post gets the devastating news that her parents died in a car accident on their way home from a weekend trip, she doesn't cry. She isn't even sad, in the plainest sense of the word. Not right away. Rather, she is relieved. Because they will never know that just hours earlier, she was kissing a girl.

That is just where this book STARTS. Things just get all the more crazy from there. Five years of crazy. Of everything. Of ALL THE FEELINGS. You see her infatuations, her fri...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. While I enjoyed the style of the writing and the way the author didn't shy away from sex in a YA novel, I was left feeling a little disappointed in the ending. The author set up an escape caper at the end, and then cut it short. I found myself looking around to see if any pages had fallen out of the book. I understand the reasoning behind it, but at the same time it was a little disappointing. I felt as though I'd been handed expectations (would they stay together outside of Bozeman? would Mona...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Reade rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's been a long time since I've read a book that I've loved as much as I loved this one. It's not a book that I would have picked up on my own- an LGBT YA novel with a female protagonist doesn't jump off the shelf at a male writer of adventure/horror. However, I was a guest author at an event with several other authors including Emily Danforth, and I was stung by the excerpt that she read. I picked up a copy (and got it signed, of course). Reading it, I felt transported in a way in that I haven...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Valley Cottage Library rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: katie-pick

Cameron is a very believable character. She discovers her desire for girls at age 12, and while she has thoughts about it being wrong or against what is expected for her, she is unapologetic. She initially blames herself when her parents die, but her grief outshines her own shame. When her born-again aunt steps in as her guardian, she is defiant and more self-assure.

Emily Danforth doesn't shy away from the topics that make young adult novels often bland and safe. She tells it like it is. Cameron...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Jean Haberman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, adult

This book took a long time to read. It was a long, slow-moving journey through Cameron Post's teenage years as a gay teenager in a small town in Montana in the 1990s. Her parents died in a car accident just as she was discovering her sexual identity. She was forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her more realistic grandmother. When her aunt found out about her gay relationships, she sent Cameron to a camp to "cure her." The premise was that her gay feelings and actions were a sin...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Patricia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mock-printz, read-in-2012, ya-books

I recently lamented that all the up-and-coming actors in my age demographic have either become "too old" and disappeared (mostly the women) or have become established actors, full of gravitas (mostly the men.) However, it seems the novelists in my age demographic are just now really getting started. Ms. Danforth would be a novelist in my age demographic who has set her story in the same period (more or less) when I attended high school which had a lot to do with my enjoyment of this book.

But! I...more

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Nov 16, 2012 Karl Lagerfeld rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is more "serious" YA that can also stand alone as regular fiction, in the vein of Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep or John Green's Looking for Alaska. Cameron Post's parents die in a car crash the same day she kisses her female friend for the first time. Living in small-town Montana and now under the care of her born-again aunt, Cameron gets caught fooling around with the town rodeo princess and then gets shipped off to a religious camp that "fixes" gay kids. Emily Danfo...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Hannah Lackoff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Cameron Post lives in small town Miles City, Montana. When her parents are killed in a car crash, her grandmother and aunt move in to take care of her. As Cameron grows up, she can't shake the feeling that her parent's death was somehow her fault, (she was kissing a girl at the time of the accident), and tries to keep secret the fact that she likes girls. When Coley Taylor moves to town at the beginning of high school, the two begin an intense friendship, which feels like it may lead to more des...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Deborah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bullying, realistic, glbqt

It's books like this one, Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me, and Mister Death's Blue Eyed Girls that really show just how excellent young adult literature has really become. This is an incredible piece of writing and it is the answer to anyone who argues that young adult literature is not worthy or necessary.

The portrait it creates of what it's like to be a gay teen in 1989-1993 Montana manages to be hilarious, frightening, and infuriating in so many different ways. What I love...more

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About Emily M. Danforth

emily m. danforth was born and raised Miles City, Montana--home of the "world famous" Bucking Horse Sale. Her first novel--The Miseducation of Cameron Post--was influenced, in part, by the landscape and cowboy/small town culture of eastern Montana. emily has her MFA in Fiction from the University of Montana and a Ph.D in English-Creative Writing, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Currently...more

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“I told myself that I didn't need any of that shit, but there it was, repeated to me day after day after day. And when you're surrounded by a bunch of mostly strangers experiencing the same thing, unable to call home, tethered to routine on ranchland miles away from anybody who might have known you before, might have been able to recognize the real you if you told them you couldn't remember who she was, it's not really like being real at all. It's plastic living. It's living in a diorama. It's living the life of one of those prehistoric insects encased in amber: suspended, frozen, dead but not, you don't know for sure.” — 8 people liked it

“Let's rock this shit.” — 6 people liked it

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