Yes, Darcy and the campers at Nightlight have been dealing with the crisis of the therapy camp before Connor arrived, but he too has been dealing with his own in-progress crisis, and now their crises are intersecting. One of the biggest themes of the book is that, for most of us, to be queer is to be in pain for the formative years of our lives. It’s a chilling line that hints at just how much Connor has to learn about the Lord of the Flies-esque situation into which he’s been dropped, but like much of the novel, it also works on another level. He’s on an island, away from society, away from his family, and away from his boyfriend… and the frightening Reverend who presides over the camp won’t let him leave until they turn him straight. It’s Connor’s first morning at Nightlight Ministries, the gay conversion therapy camp to which he’s been dragged by the burly men his mother hired to kidnap him, and Connor is terrified. “Welcome to our crisis, already in progress,” says fellow camper Darcy Culpepper to Connor Major, the hero of Adam Sass’s phenomenal new debut YA horror novel Surrender Your Sons.
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