A short and sweet story with some angst thrown into it. Mostly easy and relaxing read with religion messing up with people and trying to repress 'troubled' people's personality. I liked the ending, but I was hoping for something more definite, less open. However, all in all, great read to relax.

This should have ticked off all the boxes for me. Reading the about blurb I was really excited to read this, but from page one, it was a struggle for me. I really had trouble connecting with and liking the main character. Adam just never really did it for me and given the subject matter, I went in expecting to be a cheerleader for him. By the end he felt underdeveloped and I wasn't invested in him having a happy ending. I also think it was overly homophobic. Yes, that is needed, given the topic, but there were so many slurs it got to a point where I felt like it took away from the subject matter. This concept was excellent, I just wish it was executed better.

4* A good read about decent kids, deluded parents, good parents and the differing interpretations of the Bible and Christianity.

This tale is quite a light read in the sense that it doesn't make this camp a totally evil, bandwagon one that's often portrayed as those that help de-gay kids. It's a Christian camp, though those running it are Christian to varying degrees, as are the attendees.

I liked the lead couple, the female 'sinner' and the poor guy who ended up in a bad place, but I also liked the portrayal of the 'baddie', who wasn't really a bad guy, just one conflicted about his feelings/urges vs what he'd been told about Christianity. I also liked the really camp gay kid's parents, who were accepting and loving, not only of him, but of the main lead who ended up needing their help at the end, when he didn't even bother going home to his supposed Christian parents - that kind of Christianity isn't welcome in my book or my life.

What I didn't like was the main leads' parents, their gossipy friend and her hypocritical daughter, but, I suppose that people like this exist still in this day and age. People who feel that they can judge others, who feel it's their due to be the moral police, and yet don't see that their minds are closed off and prejudiced.

Luckily, with education, future generations will hopefully spawn fewer and fewer of the latter and kids will have the courage and resources to speak up and find protection from other adults, if their own parents let them down, e.g. educators, people who run teen helplines and homes, etc. I can only hope.

ARC courtesy of the author and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

*Spoilers ahead: I have listed all the warnings and whatnot I could find in the book. They do spoil some of the plot, but it’s better than to go blindly into the book*

Warnings: Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Medication overdose (supporting character overdoses on his insulin). Supporting has depression and nothing is done about it. Intense dislike towards a diabetic person and their disorder. Racist language. Racist character. Non-consensual harassment (rubbing body parts up against another unwilling person). Slut-shaming. Lastly, the view of Christianity is a harsh one, and not necessarily true (from someone who has experienced a positive view of Christianity).

*Received from Netgalley*

So the cover caught my attention and the description made it seem as if it was a good book…and it just wasn’t. I’m going to do my duty and tell you why I didn’t like it and the few reasons why I did. Prepare for a long review and quotes. Get your snacks and towels, kittens.

I started not feeling the love for the main character within the first 50 pages of the book. He’s so flighty and indecisive and while those are two traits associated with teenagers, the way Adam portrays it and how he comes across in the book makes him out to be childish. And he’s not. He’s in his final year of school, but the way he’s been written, it feels like he’s 14/15.

Those of you who are wondering if Christianity is like this – well, it depends on how harsh your church/pastor is. My old one was pretty harsh – part of the reason why I left – and this book’s just bringing up all the old feelings I had when attending the church and believing. I didn’t mark the book down because it brought up old feelings – I speak about the way faith is portrayed in the book in the next paragraph.

So I marked the book down half because of the characters/plot/dialogue (all usual reasons) but I also marked the book down because of how Christianity is portrayed, and more accurately, how the author portrays Christianity. Please note the following: I do not know the author, and therefore I am not aware of his religion, or lack of one; which is to say that I am discussing how the author writes the religion that is shown in the book, and not the author’s religion. So there are a few quotes in the book that…irked me, but I’ll mark all those quotes in the ‘quote’ section of the review – there’s a quote section because I couldn’t stop myself from commenting on the quotes.

But anyway – so the author writes from the main male character’s point of view, and he goes to Christian camp to try to turn straight – because you can pray the gay away, didya know? And obviously at the camp, there’s a lot of talk about faith and God and most of it is negative towards anything that some readers might deem not sinful (masturbation, premarital sex, etc.). Like I know the author is trying to get into the whole religious thing to show the readers how heavy the camp is, but the way he's writing the story is just…not cool. It’s too much. I’m not sure if it’s just me and the feelings I have towards Christianity but I’m not liking the way everyone talks about faith in the book. I feel that the author is writing the Bible Camp view of faith (if you’re understanding me) with too much vigour – like he's enjoying it.

And speaking of the parents – look, I grew up with Christian parents and family. My friendship circle and my parents’ friendship circle is basically made up of Christians (well, not mine so much anymore). I know what’s expected (from parents) and what God expects. But the parents in this novel are terrible…It’s like the author was tired the one night of trying to flesh out the parents and decided: ‘all right! I’ll make them crappy and just make them send Adam away so they won’t have to deal with him!’

Ok, so, warning – I’m going to talk about one of the characters and depression. So one of Adam’s roommates is depressed. They don’t really talk about why he’s depressed and they do absolutely nothing to help the poor guy. Adam and mostly everyone at the camp calls themselves Christians and yet they do nothing to help him? *cough cough* very unchristianlike.

The only reason why I sort of liked this book is because of three characters – Martin, Mike, and Rhonda. That’s it.

I think the author thinks we can read Adam’s mind. He makes Adam think/say sentences and he’s like ‘ah, yes, I was thinking about this.’ like where? Please show me. Do you know what that’s called? Inconsistency.

Another problem I had with the book was the fact that Adam met one of the male characters – his love interest – basically immediately had a crush on him *cough cough instalove* and then when the love interest and Adam have a disagreement, Adam stops having a crush on the love interest.

Quotes:
“It’s about a preacher who uses an app to brainwash his followers into believing God is speaking to them on their phones.”

- I will literally pay you to be able to read this instead of the book.


“Two boys shopping for clothes,” Greta says. “How interesting.”

- So if boys can’t shop for clothes then they can’t wear them, right? And also let’s just bring up the fact that if they were two girls shopping together no weird thoughts would be there (but then again we could argue that if the one girl is a confirmed lesbian, the other would surely follow – if we were to play by the rules shown in the book.


“Camp Revelation.”

- A camp named after the book in the Bible that’s about the end of the world? Yeah, ok. That’s what the book’s about, right? Hopefully the Bible hasn’t changed the last time I read it. Which was in high school.


Turns out khakis and polo tops were the only things we’re allowed to wear at the camp.”

- Because jeans and a tank top will turn you to sin.


“Screens get between you and God.”

- Except the Bible tells us that God is everywhere and the only reason why screens get between us and God is because we allow it to.


“The way a man finds another a man’s wife attractive. And you know the commandment against acting on that.”

- ok A: If you’re happy in your marriage, you shouldn’t be looking at other women.

B: I’m like half sure that even thinking about finding another’s man’s wife is lust or covetousness (because women are property of their husbands – right?).


“I don’t know if I would compare being gay to being addicted to drugs.”

“Both end in death and destruction.”

- Hang on – how does being gay make you more likely to die? Romeo and Juliet were straight and they died. Gatsby was straight(ish) and he died. Jack Dawson was straight and he died (ok let’s stop with all the Di Caprio references).


“Rhonda gave everyone a scare yesterday. And she may have hurt the reputation of the camp.”

- The…reputation…of a camp that converts (or tries to convert gays or stop sinners or whatever)…is good? Oh right, people think they can pray the gay away.


Sarah is sitting next to Paul. I watch her as she takes his hand in hers. She looks into his eyes while she sings out of key at the top of her legs.

- *whispers* is that not a sin? Because seriously my youth had a whole talk on how to hug the opposite sex. Spoiler alert: Approach from the side, hug must not last more than 5ish seconds.

I thought this book was good but I felt like it was kind of anticlimactic unfortunately. I thought that it was an interesting topic being written about but I didn't like how everything that happened was very subdued. It was a short read so it didn't really go in depth about how he was feeling. I would've liked to hear more about how his relationship with his parents affected him. I also didn't really like the location because I actually live right near where it takes place and I just think it's kind of inaccurate the amount of unaccepting and close minded religious people the author made it seem lived here. I did however like how he managed to also touch on other minorities that people pick on by making the main characters not just four whites guys. Overall I think the book was good but I only really enjoyed it because it was an LGBTQ+ book.

Thank you for this advanced copy. As a teen librarian, I am always looking for LBGTQIA books to add to my collection and was excited to read this new title. Unfortunately, this particular book fell flat. I did not feel invested in the characters and wasn't surprised by how any of the story played out.

<b>Received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</b>

This book was well written, but in all honesty it made me feel quite tense through my reading of it. Perhaps because I knew a few people who would use their religion as a way to punish others whilst I was growing up.

There is an honesty to this book I didn't expect, considering it is aimed toward a YA audience. Adam is a character who despite the adversity he faces sticks close to his ideals and who he is as a human, something that is truly hard to do at the age of seventeen especially.

The other characters, such as Paul were interesting as well but I did find myself wishing this book was just a touch longer, with more information about the other secondary characters such as Rhonda, Paul and Martin.

The racism and sexism inherent in this novel also served to rile me and make me feel uncomfortable, which I know was partially the point. It was realistic in its casual nature, as most people who believe in such things don't even realize there is something wrong with being that way. It was nice to have a voice point out how wrong it is to treat women and minorities the way they were treated within this novel and are often treated in the real world.

Also whilst I can understand some people would be bothered by the "Stereotype" of Adam's friend Mike I embrace his presence within this novel, as ignoring that gay people like that exist is an erasure in its own right.

Overall I would recommend this book to others, who are interested in different point of views on what it is like to be Christian members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

While I liked this book, I had some problems with how some of the characters were portrayed and how they spoke to each other. I also felt that there were large blocks of dialog and not very much describing in between the dialog, which made it feel rushed. This is the first fiction book that I've read with much religion in it, and as someone who is not religious, it was kind of strange. I think it would be interesting to hear what someone who is religious would have to say about this book. Overall, after I got into the writing style, I enjoyed the story.