Summary
Connor and his mom have been in a stalemate for weeks. Connor’s boyfriend, Ario, insisted his life would be better if he came out to his mom. But it’s only made things worse. She took his phone, his laptop, his Switch. She’s not speaking to him, and she’s cut him off from Ario who is going to be leaving for college soon.
Connor’s mom is convinced he’s the father of his best friend’s baby. She’d much rather he be a teen father than be gay. She thinks she is doing him a favor by setting “boundaries” like refusing to acknowledge any boyfriend he might have or refusing to have anything to do with any future family Connor might have with another man. It’s so bad, Connor starts to wonder if he needs to find somewhere else to live for his senior year. But where could he possibly go?
Before Connor can even cobble together a plan, though, a group of men dressed all in black come into Connor’s home and physically remove him and toss him in a van. His mom watches this happen, but does nothing to stop it. The men say his mom has paid for him to take a “vacation.” In Costa Rica. But that’s not even close to what is happening. Connor is taken to a conversion camp called Nightlight where he finds other teens. Sent there by their own parents so the camp can “reprogram” their gay children.
Review
Wow! The first time I read the plot for this book, I was immediately captivated. A “Christian” conversion camp for gay teens where there’s more going on than meets the eye? I was intrigued. There’s no way I wasn’t reading this. I had to know what the secrets were.
And this story was a doozy! The author uses some carefully constructed time jumps to set up the larger questions of the book early on. Those questions carried Connor to Nightlight. I expected Connor to discover the mystery once he got there and started working on a way out. But this was so much better than the set up I was expecting. The suspense here and all the weird little puzzle pieces that had to fit together were so well constructed.
The subject matter makes this a hard book to like in some ways. I was heart-broken for Connor and the other kids at Nightlight for how they were treated, both at home and at the “camp.” The hate, the manipulation, the “conversion” techniques were all awful. There are dark moments here.
At the same time there are these awesome, resilient teens at the center of this story. I loved them. And I was rooting for them from the start. The ending is satisfying yet realistic. The kids have varying responses after their trauma. This was honest, but also sad in some cases.
Suspense fans should not miss this one. The hook will draw you in, and the characters will keep you turning pages until you get to the end. Readers should be aware of the trauma that could be triggered by things in the story. The author includes a note at the start of the book that should be helpful. (Language, sex, violence, LGBTQ+, TW: Suicide, hate crimes and trauma around sexuality and gender identity)
Rating: ♥♥♥♥*
*♥♥♥♥= Great!