The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book
Amazon.com Best Books of the Month
ALA Booklist Editors' Choice
School Library Journal Best Book
Amazon.com Best Books of the Year

On the day she first kisses a girl, Cameron Post's parents die in a car accident. She retreats into movies, shoplifts, smokes, and routinely breaks into her small town's abandoned hospital. She keeps kissing girls. Eventually, someone's bound to catch on. The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a captivating coming-of-age story of a queer girl growing up in rural Montana. Seriously well written and engaging, this is a book that will stay with you. (Please read it.) Recommended By David R., Powells.com

Wow. So much is crammed into this book! It was phenomenal — so much my story, so much entirely beyond or an exaggeration of my story. Raw, honest, and exposed, demonstrating the emotional abuse of trying to "fix the gay" or "pray the gay away," Danforth gives a voice to the silenced, and to the aches and joys of being a queer youth. Recommended By Andy A., Powells.com

Set in rural Montana in the early 1990s, emily m. danforths 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 shes eventually outed, her aunt sends her to Gods 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.

“Rich with detail and emotion, a sophisticated read for teens and adults alike.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[An] ambitious literary novel, a multidimensional coming-of-age.” Booklist (starred review)

“The story is riveting, beautiful, and full of the kind of detail that brings to life a place (rural Montana), a time (the early 1990s), and a questioning teenage girl.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“This finely crafted, sophisticated coming-of-age debut novel is multilayered, finessing such issues as loss, first love, and friendship. An excellent read for both teens and adults.” School Library Journal (starred review)

emily m. danforth was born and raised in Miles City, Montana. She has an MFA in fiction from the University of Montana and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She lives with her wife in Providence, where she teaches creative writing and literature courses at Rhode Island College and is coeditor of The Cupboard (Literary Pamphlet).