Book Review: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth

This novel about a teen-aged lesbian sent to a Christian re-education school is a YA book that adults can read without feeling that they're reading down. It's a good story, told with due regard to nuance and not at all like the After School Special you might expect. Cameron is an enormously appealing character, with some tooth but also with great vulnerability.  The reader is obviously invited to sympathize with her.  But the Christian de-gayers are not portrayed as monsters, although Cameron's counselor Lydia seems modeled after Aunt Lydia, the terrifying enforcer of Patriarchy in The Handmaid's Tale.

I'm guessing this book is a tough sell.  It's obviously aimed at the YA market, but some schools and libraries may be reluctant to shelve it with YA because of sex, language, and quite a bit of pot smoking. My library was ready to shelve it with adult fiction, but I felt strongly that teens should have easy access to the book without having to come to the librarian and ask for it.