Book Review: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

Hey everyone, happy April! I am so excited for this weeks review, as it's of one of my all-time  favorite books that I recently reread. After seeing the new movie adaption for the second time recently I was hit with the need to reread the book. Emily M. Danforth's The Miseducation of Cameron Post is one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful stories in the world so I figured I'd share it with all of you. Here's a little about it:

When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they’ll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl. But 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. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. 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.

Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship — one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. 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.

The first time I read this book I think I cried about 30 times. While the movie is very strong and beautiful, this book is so incredible on its own. Maybe its the fact that this book is over 400 pages long but the whole time it feels as if you are on this journey of discovery and acceptance with Cameron. You fall in love for the first time with her and get your heart broken too. And that brings me to one of the two things that makes me love this book so much: Danforth's incredible characterization.

For the whole story, you are rooting for Cameron, even through some of her more questionable decisions and the fact sometimes she isn't fully likable. She reminds me of myself and of my other teenage friends in her wit and her passion, and in the way she thinks and loves as she meets the world outside her small town. But Cameron has flaws, as do her friends and her love interests and her family, they are all developed deeply in this novel, something that makes it stick with you even longer.

My other favorite thing about this book is the writing and the feeling it brings on upon you. While Cameron's thoughts and narration let me live in her mind, Danforth's writing let me live out and see her life for myself. The opening chapters of childhood innocence and summertime first love, the way she writes about music and movies, the simpleness of Cam's small town, all resonated so deeply in my heart, even if I hadn't experienced it myself. This book is beautiful inside and out and I hope if you haven't read it yet you will check it out, before seeing the movie, and hopefully at least some little part of it will resonate with you, and it will live deep inside your heart like it does in mine. 

-Claire

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