I agree that it was great storytelling not to make Aunt Ruth, Grandma, even Lydia and Reverend Rick villains. It would have been easy to. But being able to sympathize a little with each of them (okay, maybe not Lydia…) made the story all the more compelling. I found myself pitying Rick and his struggles, especially when he saw what his method for dealing with them could lead to and how clearly distraught he was over the realization. I would be interested in reading a book from his perspective – one that hopefully found him coming to some kind of acceptance of himself as he was, instead of who he felt he needed to be. This is a book that will rightfully become mandatory reading for kids growing up gay, but as someone who didn’t, it’s still a wonderful world to inhabit for a short while, and Cameron Post and her friends are fantastic people to explore it with.

And yes – that cover is a masterpiece – I found myself just examining it every now and then.

Malinda, this is definately a crossover, with adult appeal. And yes, all the details of the time was perfect. I guess I half wonder, what will teens think of it? Does placing it then make it something they would think is “too old”? And then I remember to give teens more credit. (And wow I just thought of a great teen program — a movie program of the films that Cam watches). In a perfect world/bookstore/library, I’d buy 2 copies and have it both in adult and YA.

Anyway, I also admit I kind of feel like CAMERON POST is more of an adult novel than a YA. I know it’s published by a YA publisher, but because Cameron’s looking back on her life, it felt very adult to me. And I think that queer adults my age are probably the prime audience for this book, because we’ve lived through the same coming out time period. I do wonder if that makes it a more difficult read for teens today?