Series: None
Length: 470 pages
Published by: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: February 7, 2012
Diversity: LGBT+ protagonist, LGBT+ romantic interest(s), Native American minor character, minor character is an amputee, Bechdel Test, Mako Mori Test
Rating: ★★★✩✩
This is one of those books that I heard talked about mostly in the context of "This is an Important Book,". It's about a girl living in rural Montana coping with the death of her parents while surviving as a lesbian surrounded by narrow religious folks. She does alright with it... Until Aunt Ruth finds out. Now, I don't normally read books just because they're Important, so I mainly read The Miseducation of Cameron Post because, if we're being honest, I'll take almost any LGBT book that I can find, especially one with no queer deaths. The shortest way I can manage to describe it is as a doozy of a novel.
The frustrating this about this book was that it was just so long. More than a third of the book leads up to the main story, which is the part mentioned in the synopsis. While the exposition was incredibly poetic and beautifully written, it felt tedious after a 100 or so pages. The first half moved almost painfully slowly, especially because I knew what was inevitably going to happen. There was kind of an odd disconnect in the fact that the synopsis made the conversion camp sound like the main point of the book while I was making my way through pages and pages of exposition, just waiting for the bad things to happen. Admittedly, Emily M. Danforth's dreamy description of Cameron Post's childhood and adolescence made me almost want to be a rural Montana lesbian breaking the law with her attractive cowgirl girlfriend, but as I waited and waited for Aunt Ruth to find out, the dramatic irony got really tiresome.
While there were many aspects of this novel that I disliked, it would be an insult to the book to not mention the absolutely beautiful writing style. Although it feels excessively detailed at many points, the writing is full of intricate sensory descriptions and Cameron's point of view is very detailed. For the most part, it doesn't feel flowery or fluffy- much of it is incredibly simplistic. Much of the first half of the book felt almost impressionistic, despite its volume. Particularly during the portions covering Cameron's childhood, it was impossible to not feel present in Danforth's visualization.
In my opinion, Danforth also excelled at painting characters who managed to be both realistic and absurd. This made the second half of the novel worth it for me. From Jamie to Jane, and Viking Erin to Adam, this book contained a host of genuinely likable (as well as not-so-likable) characters. The pure absurdity of many of the characters detracted from some of the realism of the story, but in a good way, providing welcome relief from some of the more serious events of the second half.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post was not a bad read, but the lengthy exposition really killed it for me. It would have been less of a tedious process had the exposition been shorter. However, it has definite literary merit and is worth checking out. If you're looking to read this purely for the subject matter of conversion therapy, don't. You'll be frustrated by the extensive storytelling in Cameron's lengthy childhood and adolescence. But anyone willing to press through the slow-moving plot in order to uncover a host of wonderful characters will likely find many things to appreciate in this emotional book.
(Warning: If you have major issues with body horror and/or descriptions of blood, there is an incident in the last third of the book that you might find distressing. Feel free to contact me if you're concerned.)
You said EVERYTHING I want to say about this book. Thanks for making me not the only one who doesn't adore it.
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