A novel written by or about a member of the LGBTQ community - The Miseducation of Cameron Post

This novel by Emily M. Danforth from 2012 could probably be also filed under the YA category. Emily M. Danforth herself came out in college, and the novel is about (shockingly) Cameron Post, who is identified in the story as a lesbian.

This is certainly an American coming-of-age type story, starting with a very young Cam Post growing up in Miles City, Montana.  Miles City is where the author herself hails from, a fact I found out after reading the novel.  Cam Post realizes very early on that she is attracted to other girls, and the story follows her life through the death of her parents, middle- and highschool, and being send to a "gay reform" camp by her evangelical Aunt Ruth.

This story is very straightforward and the writing is fine.  I think that "fine" or "okay" are the most accurate reflection of what I thought of this book.  The pacing was quite slow in my opinion, but almost always when I'm faced with a YA novel that doesn't have fantasy/sci-fi elements my opinion end up being that pacing is slow. I enjoyed looking into an account of the struggles a pre-teen and then teen faces when coming out in a different setting than the one in which I grew up - I was blessed (#blessed, if you will) to grow up in a very supportive, atheist environment where there was never any question that homosexuality/bisexuality/whatever was the cool thing to call being LGBTQQA at that moment in history was not a matter of choice nor something for which we should ever treat someone differently in my household.

A solid read. I would still like to read some of the others on my "LGBTQ" list and am definitely open to suggestions to get some books to compare this one to!