Some kind of balance needed to be struck between the two, I think. It took so long for things to get properly started, but once the author decided to wrap thins up, the story was over in record time. And then, in contrast, the concluding chapters could have been far less rushed.

The beginning chunk of The Miseducation of Cameron Post could absolutely have been more streamlined and efficient. The author took early half the book to arrive at “meaningful” conflict-the rest was merely setting the stage. That being said, I do think that the novel’s page count, sitting just shy of 500, was a bit excessive. This isn’t bad, but compared to the overwhelming majority of YA novels, The Miseducation of Cameron Post does stand out as a book that requires a bit more patience from its audience.Īs a reader who does generally enjoy quieter, more introspective literary novels, I was comfortable with Danforth’s style and slower pace. This is a slow-moving, character-driven coming of age story, one that focuses less on plot and more on the protagonist’s transformation. And considering the years the author has spent in academia-both an MFA and PhD in creative writing-it isn’t surprising that Danforth’s novel fits into this designator. However, one thing that’s somewhat rare to find is literary fiction for young adults, which is undoubtedly what The Miseducation of Cameron Post is. Young adult fiction is an audience category that encompasses many genres. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to ‘fix’ her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self - even if she’s not exactly sure who that is.

She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship - one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Relief they’ll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl.īut that relief doesn’t last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief.

The miseducation of cameron book