Tell the Rest

January 2, 2023
Two queer people who escaped Christian conversion therapy as teens find their way back to each other as adults in the keenly observed latest from Bledsoe (The Evolution of Love). Delia, who is white, was 13 when she ran away from Celebration Camp with 16-year-old Ernest, who is Black. Twenty-five years later, they’re successful in their respective fields—Delia as a college women’s basketball coach, Ernest as a poet—but they both carry deep wounds from the conversion therapy and neither have any idea where the other ended up. The collapse of Delia’s marriage and the loss of her job send her back to her hometown of Rockside, Ore., to coach the high school girl’s basketball team. Earnest, who is teaching in Portland, reads about Delia’s return in the newspaper. After they reunite, they grapple with their anger and anguish, which include memories of a fellow camper at Celebration who was punished for his defiance. Ernest’s story line is less developed than Delia’s, though Bledsoe paints an engrossing and complicated picture of small-town life and queer survival. Even if this doesn’t reach its full potential, it’s nevertheless a triumph of compassion. Agent: Reiko Davis, DeFiore & Co.

February 15, 2023
Delia Barnes and Ernest Wrangham first met at Celebration Camp, a horrific and baseless Christian conversion camp that targeted young people grappling with their sexuality. Their bond was fused forever when they escaped hand in hand, fleeing violence. Now adults, they're stumbling their way through relationships and careers. Delia's marriage to her wife has ended, and she lost her job coaching college basketball. Forced to return home and coach her alma mater's high school team, she moves from the East Coast back to Oregon. Also on his way to the Pacific Northwest is Ernest, now a daring, successful poet with a temporary teaching gig. Ernest and Delia are sucked back into each other's orbit with no choice but to face the trauma they endured as young adults at Celebration Camp, returning to the roots of their pain in an effort to set themselves free. Delia and Ernest are beautiful, complicated characters, and their journey is important for readers to witness, as it also gives voice to voiceless victims of conversion torture.

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Starred review from March 31, 2023

In this latest from the ALA Stonewall Award--winning Bledsoe (A Thin Bright Line), Delia Barnes courageously returns to Rockside, OR, a small town holding perhaps too many memories of her teenage years. Caught by her local pastor kissing another girl in the church basement, she is sent to "Celebration Camp"--a Christian conversion-therapy camp where people who are not straight are sent to be "delivered" from their so-called perversions. Now grown up and a successful basketball star and coach, Delia is coaching a team of girls at her old alma mater. Perceptively, she realizes that helping the girls work together for a common goal and balancing the personalities and individual preferences of her players is the best outcome for the basketball season in lieu of winning a state championship. VERDICT Writing in a graceful, fluid style, Bledsoe examines life in Rockside in all its dimensions while revealing how Delia makes peace with a traumatic time of her past. Delia's reconnecting with Ernest, who bonded with her during camp and is now an accomplished poet, gives the novel a definite upbeat tone and message. Both insightful and page-turning; highly recommended.--Lisa Rohrbaugh

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Starred review from January 1, 2023
Two conversion therapy survivors go back to the site of their trauma, hoping the truth will set them free. Delia Barnes, 38, returns to her Oregon hometown after her wife leaves her and she's fired from her coaching job at a Massachusetts college. Is this a fresh start or a reversion to adolescence? After all, she'll be the girls' basketball coach at her old high school, Rockside, where her ex-boyfriend Jonas is principal and her brother, Dylan, a custodian. The whole area harbors troubling memories. Twenty-five years ago, Pastor Cody Quade found her kissing a girl named Shawna in New Day Church's basement and arranged for her to be sent to Celebration Camp, where she was subjected to conversion therapy until she--with Ernest Wrangham and Cal, two other gay teenagers--ran away. Ernest, too, has been drawn back to Oregon as an adult; every few chapters, the novel cuts to his perspective. A poet with a boyfriend back in Brooklyn, he's in Portland for a year to teach at Lewis & Clark College. These two central characters orbit each other, and the camp, as they come to terms with the spiritual abuse they suffered there. "Basketball as addiction" fuels Delia's anger issues and means her self-esteem relies on a state championship win. Yet redemption sneaks in by other means--she shows compassion to her players and accepts the new pastor's friendship. There are no simple recovery narratives here. Flashbacks fill in Delia and Ernest's past, long withholding the worst of what happened at Celebration Camp to maintain tension. The compelling leads, engaging blow-by-blows of basketball games, and small-town feuds ground a heartening, issues-driven book. Secondary characters shine, too: nonbinary student Mickey; philosophical janitor Robin; even Ernest's cats, Virginia Woolf and Audre Lorde. This satisfyingly nuanced story tackles sexuality and spiritual abuse, offering connection and redemption.

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