From the Publisher
"Hard to read story, hard-to-stop-reading writing."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"An impressive, dynamic, and riveting debut!"—Booklist, starred review
"Messages about struggles with internalized homophobia and the world’s treatment of those who are different ring true."—Publisher's Weekly
"A must-have for high school collections that are looking to provide representation for all their students, especially those experiencing pain in their journey of coming out."—School Library Journal
JANUARY 2021 - AudioFile
Narrator Daniel Henning's wry tone and suspenseful pacing match the high stakes of Sass's adventurous island mystery. After Connor Major comes out, his mother, a religious zealot, has him kidnapped and sent to a remote conversion camp, led by a minister from his hometown. Embodying courageous teens and menacing staff, Henning builds tension as secrets and murder throw the island into chaos. When campers are tortured and threatened with open-ended detainment, Connor embarks on an increasingly perilous investigation into the true history of the camp and its inhabitants. Through humor, honesty, and deft characterizations, Henning heightens the fear and hope in Sass's narrative as painful and profound moments reflect Connor's growing self-confidence as a leader. K.S.B. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-06-30
A hardscrabble antihero’s coming out lands him in an off-the-grid conversion camp.
Connor Major of Ambrose, Illinois, has quite a mouth on him. But when it comes to the rite-of-passage revelation to his single, hardcore Christian mother that he’s gay, he can’t find his words. At the behest of his boyfriend, Ario, Connor begrudgingly comes out, which is where the book begins. His rocky relationship with his mother is disintegrating, his frustration with exuberantly out Ario grows, accusations of being the absentee father of his BFF’s baby boy haunt him, and he gets violently absconded to a Christian conversion camp in Costa Rica. And that’s all before the unraveling of a mystery, a murder, gunshots, physical violence, emotional abuse, heat, humidity, and hell on Earth happen in the span of a single day. This story points fingers at despicable zealots and applauds resilient queer kids. Connor’s physical and emotional inability to fully find comfort in being gay isn’t magically erased, acknowledging the difficulty of self-acceptance in the face of disapproving homophobes. Lord of the Flies–like survival skills, murder, and brutal violence (Tasers, spears, guns) fuel the story. And secret sex and romance underscore the lack of social liberty and self-acceptance but also support the optimistic hope of freedom. Connor is White, as is the majority of the cast; Ario is Muslim.
Hard-to-read story, hard-to-stop-reading writing. (Fiction 14-18)
