The Summer I Wasn't Me by Jessica Verdi

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Author: Jessica Verdi
Genre: Young Adult | Contemporary
Release Date: April 1st 2014 
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Rating: ❤❤❤❤❤
Read: March 28, 2014

Synopsis
Lexi has a secret.

She never meant for her mom to find out. And now she's afraid that what's left of her family is going to fall apart for good.

Lexi knows she can fix everything. She can change. She can learn to like boys. New Horizons summer camp has promised to transform her
life, and there's nothing she wants more than to start over.

But sometimes love has its own path...

My Thoughts

More like a 4.5 to me...

To make her recently-widowed mother happy, Lexi agrees to take an 8-week de-gayifying program at a Christian camp. There, she, along with other campers, is "trained" suppress her SSA (Same-Sex Attraction.)

I have read several GLBT books and by far this is one of the best. I did enjoy it more than I had expected. The writing, the characters and the plots were excellent. I have always loved fast paced books and I had no complain about this book on that part.

It started out pretty simple. A little on a lighter side, if you ask me. I found myself laughing at several scenes featuring Matthew, one of the campers. Then as the story progressed, it became very emotional, and I was so furious at what they did to those kids. The most horrifying part was that it wasn't hard to believe it really did - and still does - happen in real life. Being told you are having a disease, an addiction, a demon inside just because you love someone of the same sex is brutal.

The belief that girls and boys should act certain ways was ridiculous. Not every girl likes pink, just as not all boys are sporty. At this de-gayifying camp, the campers were forced into these absurd gender roles and to deny their which irritated me way too much.

In short, this was a great read for me. I loved the characters, especially Matthew. It might not have been all rainbows and sunshine, and I really didn't mind the intense parts of this book. It was simply beautiful.