CW: homophobia, homophobic slurs, conversion therapy, sexual content, drug use, self-harm (There’s only one instance of self-harm in the novel, by a minor character, but it’s graphic.)

I can’t help but wonder if I read the same book so many people love. The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a popular novel that I was truly excited to read, but ultimately, I found myself underwhelmed.

My biggest issue with this novel is the extremely slow pacing. It’s nearly 500 pages and I honestly don’t know why. The first half follows Cameron dealing with the loss of her parents and discovering her identity as a lesbian, while the second half follows her conversion therapy upon discovery of her sexuality. It was a raw, powerful story, but several chapters felt like little more than filler, which somewhat lessened the impact. 150 or even 200 pages likely could’ve been cut without negatively effecting the novel.

I don’t mind character-based stories; in some cases I even love them. However, I can’t like character-based stories if I don’t like the characters themselves. There were only three that I liked: Cameron, the protagonist, Adam, a Native American two-souls person Cam befriended at conversion therapy, and Grandma Post, one of Cam’s two guardians following her parents’ death. Jane – an amputee and Cam’s other friend from therapy – was tolerable, but I didn’t really like or care about her. The rest of the characters, and there were quite a few, fell flat for me. A few were good, others weren’t, but I didn’t care about any of them.

I liked the setting of the novel. It takes place in rural Montana, beginning in 1989 and ending in 1993, and was unlike anything I’d read before. It was interesting to read about the small towns and the ranches and the sense of community, and I liked the descriptions of nature throughout. But one can only tolerate so many descriptions of surroundings before it becomes monotonous, and said descriptions can’t replace plot.

Even though I went into this novel knowing what it was about, the conversion therapy scenes were at times difficult to read. It’s frightening to know that even now, there are people that still think so terribly of being queer, that some queer people still receive terrible treatment for being who they are. Danforth discusses this in an authentic way, no holds barred. Although I had issues with other aspects of the story, I applaud her for this.

I also wasn’t very satisfied with how anticlimactic and open the ending was. I’m not sure how to further explain this while remaining spoiler-free, but I stayed up until midnight to finish and, upon finishing, wondered if I’d somehow gotten an incomplete copy. I would’ve loved more from this story, even one more chapter, to tie up loose ends. If you’re a fan of open endings, you might like it, but personally, I like closure. Not many open endings satisfy me, and this one didn’t.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is partially a lesbian coming of age story and partially a story that examines the combination of religion and queerness. I enjoyed a few elements, but for the most part, my expectations weren’t met. I didn’t love this novel the way I so desperately wanted to. If I can find a way to see the movie, I probably will, but I’m not sure if I’ll read Danforth’s future novels.

”’I hate sour cream and onion Pringles.’
‘But you love Pringles.’
‘I hate sour cream and onion anything. All lesbians do.’
‘I want you to stop using that word.’
‘Which word? Sour or cream?’”