The Miseducation of Cameron Post in The Sapphic Squad

Jul 07, 2019 Emily (emilykatereads) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned, young-adult, favorites, lgbtq, contempory, sapphic, read-in-2019

Y'know when you finish a book, and know it's going to be one that you forever remember?

This is one of those books.

I slowly fell in love with this long-winded novel. And I'm definitely left here thinking about Cameron Post. And I will be thinking about her long-after. It's a long book, but I spaced out reading it over 2 months while giving time to other books as well. I think this worked in my favour here, because as I slowly read through this, I really got to appreciate Cameron and let the story Y'know when you finish a book, and know it's going to be one that you forever remember?

This is one of those books.

I slowly fell in love with this long-winded novel. And I'm definitely left here thinking about Cameron Post. And I will be thinking about her long-after. It's a long book, but I spaced out reading it over 2 months while giving time to other books as well. I think this worked in my favour here, because as I slowly read through this, I really got to appreciate Cameron and let the story fully sink in before continuing. This is a book I wish I read years earlier. Honestly, I'd been meaning to read it for years now, but I was wary to go into a story featuring conversion therapy at its core because I was tired of the only queer stories I had read being ones where it's an obstacle. I wanted happy queer stories.

Well, years later and now I've come back to this. It's a hard read. It's terrifying, and realistic, and shows the horrifying reality of what many queer youth went through. As a young lesbian in Canada, I can't relate to this extreme struggle, but that's not to say my path was completely obstacle free. I saw, and still see the awful mindset of many characters within this book reflected today. It's not as common, but there's still people who view queer people this way. Like it's something sinful and that it needs to be cured.

The writing in this is incredibly and impactful. You can't help but vividly imagine the setting. The writing also perfectly captures the characters, and we really get to know them through the detailed narrative. We really get to know Cameron and the inner-workings of her mind.

One thing I felt conflicted about, and see others call out in their reviews is that the narrative doesn't outright challenge how problematic the homophobia within this novel is. But that's where I'd beg to differ. This book really shows us how problematic this is, rather than just telling us. The book doesn't have to tell us because we can see it. We see how the characters are impacted negatively and how they lose themselves. It's not that they believed they're cured, rather, they "forget themselves" at this camp while trying to appease the people who think they're curing them.

I'd definitely recommend this for an impactful book about the struggle queer youth face(d). It's important to see what obstacles people fought, and are still fighting today. I'd definitely be wary if you're sensitive to reading about extreme homophobia, and there's also talk and detail about a graphic suicide attempt.

Overall, this is an important book, and I'm glad I finally got around to it.

Review can also be found on my blog! ...more

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Jan 28, 2013 christine✨ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: queer-af, all-time-faves, young-adult

This book is without a doubt the best book I’ve read in months, and definitely the best queer YA I’ve ever encountered. The flawless writing shows that Danforth has some serious academic credentials on her side, and she does a great job creating Cameron’s voice to the point that she felt like a close friend of mine. I’ve never even been close to Montana, but Danforth’s descriptions created a vivid picture in my mind to the extent that I almost felt like the setting itself was a character in the This book is without a doubt the best book I’ve read in months, and definitely the best queer YA I’ve ever encountered. The flawless writing shows that Danforth has some serious academic credentials on her side, and she does a great job creating Cameron’s voice to the point that she felt like a close friend of mine. I’ve never even been close to Montana, but Danforth’s descriptions created a vivid picture in my mind to the extent that I almost felt like the setting itself was a character in the story.

Aside from basic writing technique, this is the best queer book I’ve read so far for several reasons. For one thing, Danforth explores Cameron’s sexuality starting around puberty, which is something I hadn’t seen before and leaves ample room for her to explore all of the problems Cameron faces. She has to figure out the basic mechanics of lesbian sexual encounters sort of on her own, another thing I haven’t really seen an author actively face head on. Danforth develops Lindsey as a sort of queer mentor character who encourages Cameron to be true to herself as well as providing her with some sexual experience. I admire Danforth for tackling the relationship of Christianity to the development of a gay character. While I can see how the intensity of the religious backlash might not seem realistic to a lot of readers, I totally believed it, having grown up in a conservative environment. Despite exposing the truly hateful and ultimately ineffectual way religion tries to “cure” homosexuality, Danforth never once blames God or Christianity in general, or even really the characters who act out their religion, but merely portrays it as an action of people who fervently believe what they’re doing is right.

All these aspects were important factors toward my enjoyment and appreciation of this book, but most importantly I applaud the way Danforth deals with romance. Even though a lot of the book focuses on Cameron’s passionate affair with Coley, a so-called straight girl, that ultimately isn’t the story’s focus. This book isn’t a romance, and it isn’t really about Coley at all. Sure, I rooted for Cameron to get closer to Coley, and I wanted Coley to admit that she’s in love with Cameron. Part of me even wanted Coley to come out as bisexual, at least to herself. At the same time, I found Coley’s betrayal extremely realistic. She’s scared, she doesn’t know what happened and she can’t accept her own same-sex attraction, so she reacts the only way she knows how—letting other people do her dirty work. Yet I don’t find myself truly hating Coley, or the Jesus freaks who make Cameron miserable. Instead I find myself hating a society that refuses to accept people based on their sexual and romantic preferences.

Ultimately, the only problem I have with this book is that I wish I could’ve seen Cameron keep growing through the rest of high school and even college. Nevertheless, this book is fantastic and I will recommend it to anyone I know who will listen long enough. ...more

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