The Miseducation of Cameron Post

A very worthwhile Read!

I was slightly hesitant to read The Miseducation of Cameron Post. The synopsis sounded like a cliche "orphaned girl, likes girls, gets sent to anti-gay school, learns hard lessons" tragedy. I had gotten a little dismayed that so many of the LGBT young adult novels that I've read have been very doom and gloom and didn't really want to read another downer (can't there be a happy ending and maybe a less tragic love story for these protagonists?). Having heard some of the horrific stories of ex-gay/de-gaying camps, I was really concerned this would be a focal point for the book and I really wasn't interested in that storyline.

I needed a long book to listen to on a long drive so I decided to go for it since the duration would be just about perfect for the whole trip.

It took me a little while to really get a feeling for the flow and structure of the book but the story was certainly engaging from the start. The language used was really fantastic and largely felt authentic, though there were moments that didn't feel quite right, but they were few and far between.

I was pleasantly surprised that there was a lot of time spent learning about Cameron and watching her her loves (or lusts) develop over the years and it wasn't largely about her experiences at "God's Promise" (and these experiences were far from the physically abusive scenarios that are sometimes connected to ex-gay camps). Some of the story lines I'd wish had been expanded upon but it was a really nice listen (and I ultimately actually got the book to read a second time).

Beth Laufer did a nice job telling this story--her timber and tone were so pleasant to listen to and the various characters were voiced really nicely.

I was not in love with the ending of the book--it just felt like the author rudely left me hanging, but it wasn't so offensive that it ruined the book for me. I still really enjoyed the book, though it wasn't one of the books that left me thinking about it for days, weeks, and months afterward (if I could have given 3.5 stars, that would probably be more accurate of a rating).

15 people found this helpful

Loved this book

Where does The Miseducation of Cameron Post rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

up in the 10%

Any additional comments?

This novel's language and story is brought to life by this narrator. I throughly enjoy the performance and story. Lesbian novels that are well written are hard to come by, i look forward to more of this genre from audible in the future.

4 people found this helpful

The story was good but the narrator wasn't

I really liked this story overall but the ending felt unresolved and left me rather unfulfilled. Also, I didn't care for the narrator. The personality of the narrator and the "voice" of Cameron just didn't seem to match to me. Normally, with a good narrator, you'd swear they were the author with the way that they just become the voice of the character(s) but in this case it was like you just pulled a random stranger off the street to read it to you.

8 people found this helpful

I just couldn't stand the narration

I can't even review the story because I just can't stand the narration. The story may be wonderful, but I won't know until I get it in book or kindle form. Just can't listen to the audible version one more minute. The narrator has a prominent accent, I guess New York or Long Island, and it is so distracting and doesn't fit at all for a young girl from Montana. Her inflections are off and it's so awful to listen to that I absolutely can't finish the book. Her voice and accent just doesn't fit the story and is terribly distracting.

6 people found this helpful

Excellent book about being a lesbian

Loved it so much!
The characters are great and so is the story.
Real lesbian tale, told well.

1 person found this helpful

Part 3 Needed More Work

What did you like best about The Miseducation of Cameron Post? What did you like least?

I loved Cameron's relationships with the girls in her life, and the development she showed in those relationships. However, the character of Cameron herself never truly developed in her emotional or intellectual capacity. Or, at least, the audience never really gets to see/hear that development, which is weird because it's told in a first-person perspective. Cameron never changes in the book. She is the same person at the start of the story as she is in the end. There is more development and change in the peripheral character of Jamie than there is in Cameron.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator was difficult to listen to at times, because I didn't feel she captured the essence of the character of Cameron. Also, the emphasis she put on words like "just" and "maybe" was terribly grating. And, since I'm from eastern Montana, it was really irritating to hear her mispronounce town names. Forsyth=FOUR-SCYTHE. Kearney=CARN-EE. Probably the most irritating part of the narration was that characters were practically indecipherable. Lydia was supposed to have an English accent, which was largely absent from the reading, and when she did try to have the accent, it was truly awful.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes, so long as we actually saw some emotional development in Cameron, and as long as part 3 was speeded up a bit.

Any additional comments?

I love great descriptions, and Danforth did an amazing job with the descriptions of the Montana landscape and weather. Montana became its own character in the story, and I loved that. However, this same fascination with description was also Danforth's Achilles Heel. There was a part wherein Cameron is imagining what it will be like when a character receives a phone call. The various descriptions of places and scenarios in which he receives this phone call is described in excruciating detail and for far too long, particularly when it serves absolutely no purpose. I was literally yelling at my car radio to STFU.

3 people found this helpful

love love loved this story

I only wish there was more I practically inhaled this book, the writing was spot on and the performance brought the whole thing to life.

Indubitably, an important book.

I'll just come out and say it, this is easily the most important teen LGBT to come out since Annie on My Mind. They aren't very similar besides centering on a lesbian main character, but they are books that breach boundaries. By that I mean, I feel like ANYONE can pick up either book and get something out of it without it feeling like the author is on a soapbox.

With that comparison out of the way, let's get back to The Miseducation of Cameron Post. This really is pretty much about a girl retelling her life from when she was a young girl and her discovering who she is. Cameron is a bit of a tomboy, living in rural Montana in the late 80s into the 90s. The book takes a long time to get to the point of the story everyone is probably aware of. But even though it takes 7 hours to get to the major transition of the plot of the book, I really quite enjoyed and felt for our young protagonist getting to that point.

I think overall though, what makes this book so important is that there really is no "bad" guy. I think it handles religion much better than Annie, and that's coming from a very non-religious person. If anything I think this book is really about the human condition. I really felt like most of the characters were relatable and felt like real people and despite being a book didn't feel, for lack of a better term, scripted.

Easily my favorite book this year that I have read!

AMAZING AND A MUST READ

this is so beautiful the way that this is written like there are so many times that i felt what she was saying bc its something that i went through not the conversion therapy but figuring out i was queer and while i could never know what its like losing a parent at such a young age that this made it realistic and feel like its something that happened to me in another life

Destroyed my soul and brought it back again

This book crushed me to my core and left me wanting more in the best possible way. I'm always going to be hoping that there is a sequel to this book. This is one of the BEST LGBT books that I have in my collection. Raw, honest, and heartbreaking. Just read it, listen to it, treasure it.