Same Love is a book that tries to explore Christianity, being a teenager and being gay. It made me extremely sad because, in real life, there are such things as these Christian camps and unfortunately, there are parents who while professing to love their child will send them to these camps to be cured of whatever is considered a sin. Be it that they are gay, having sex outside of marriage, being depressed….you get the gist.

I felt bad for Adam. He was caught with his friend Mike, who is out and proud of it, shopping at the GAP. He gets home and is basically forced to come out to his mother and father. I couldn’t get over how his Christian parents treated him after he came out. His father didn’t talk to him and his mother treated him like he was dirt on her shoes. I was left shaking my head at their interactions after his coming out and during his time at the camp.

I really don’t get why Adam had such a crush on Paul. Paul really didn’t give me any indications, other than singling Adam out a lot, that he liked boys. When Adam did confess his feelings for Paul, I was a little surprised that he returned them. And then I was surprised when he turned around and dumped Adam a few days later because he wasn’t sure about what he felt for him.

I was also a little surprised about the Bishop. I was actually thinking that the book was going to go in a totally different direction and then the Bishop made his confession. That yes, he was gay but he went to see a doctor specialized in turning gay people straight and he is now married. He said it was basically “you can look but you can’t touch“. All the while, I was thinking to myself “WTH am I reading??” I knew that there were camps that did that but I didn’t know that there were real Doctors that did it and that made me sick to my stomach.

The romance between Paul and Adam was not believable, to me, and seemed somewhat one-dimensional. Besides that one talk and one kiss, all the feelings seemed to be one-sided and even when Paul admitted to being attracted to Adam.

The two characters that I did like, Mike and Rhonda, really didn’t have any time in the book. Mike was the first part of the book for half a chapter, the second part of the book for a half a chapter and the last part of the book. He was flamboyantly wonderful and I do wish he was more in the book. Rhonda was the other one. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind and challenge the counselors on Biblical verses. I freaking loved her.

I did think that the author did a great job of ending the storylines. I do wish, though, that there was an update on Martin. I also loved how the story ended for Adam.

How many stars will I give Same Love: 2

Why: I thought that the storyline was very interesting and I hadn’t of read a book about a gay reform camp before. But, it was the characters and some statements (comparing taking blood for diabetes to breastfeeding….which is flipping ridiculous if you ask me) that killed the book for me. I also felt that the love story between Paul and Adam was a bit one-dimensional and not at all believable, as stated above.

Will I reread: No

Will I recommend to family and friends: No

Age range: Older Teen

Why: mild language, mild violence

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

The concept of the book is really good, but the way it was written wasn't. The chapters are short, so I found myself reading this in only a few hours, but everything seemed to go by really fast and nothing really developed. I'm wish there was more character and story development because this book does have the right things going for it to be awesome.

A lovely read. An interesting insight to homophobia, told from the point of view of a young Christian battling with his sexuality. Horrible to see such appalling homophobic language and actions used and accepted by a family. I would have been interested to see the book start a little sooner to hear more of the story before the camp.

The synopsis intrigued me, I find "Christian and gay" is an interesting subject and I was curious how it was dealt with. But after reading it, the only word that comes to mind is: disappointing. It feels like it is written by a teen for other teens. It's just a glimpse into Adam's life, not much in-depth development, not much character growth - it's just suggested but not delved into! And that's such a pity as the subject is so interesting. You could do so much it with, it could make for such an emotional story. But instead it just let me desiring more, so much more than what I've got.
A short story(definitely not a novel!!) that might be enjoyable for teens or innocent young adults, especially if they might find themselves in a similar situation but not for me!

I really enjoyed the premise of this book, as well as the characters. The reason for such a low rating though was that the entire story, characters included, lacked depth and background. There was so much more that could have been done with each boys' personality. So much more about the camp's origins and the main character's parents could have been revealed. I feel like it was only at the end that we started glimpsing Adam's true personality.

**I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review**

DNF at 22%

After reading the blurb of this book I had really high hopes as it is my kind of story but I have to say I regretted downloading it after reading the first few pages.

It just didn't work for me for several reasons. I feel like the storyline of this book is actually very good but it was just wasn't very well written. I found the writing very disjointed at times and everything seemed to happen at break neck speed. I also found it hard to connect with the main protagonist Adam I felt as though the character wasn't fully developed and was lacking emotion.

While I understand that the subject matter carries some level of homophobia, I felt that the language used was a bit too much and there were too many slurs used for my liking. I kind of get what the author wanted to achieve with this story but for me it just fell flat. As much as I wanted to I just couldn't seem to warm to the story or its characters.

I was provided a free copy via netgalley.

Just to pre-warn you this is a super ranty review.

I don't know what it is about the month of June but I am having no luck with books... this was so close to being a DNF.

The basis of this book is about a guy called Adam and his family is very religious. Adam is coming to terms with the fact he is gay and waiting for the right time to tell his parents. That isn't the case he is outed by someone at the church. He then goes home to his parents hurling extremely offensive terms at him (which I was mortified to read, however I do understand why this was done... Kind of). He's then shipped away to a religious camp and the story moves on from there.

My issues were that we literally went from chapter to chapter, this had the potential to be something really good and showing us how people deal with these types of things. Instead we just got a play by play of things that happened with not much development. Revelations happened so quickly, the hypocrisy in this book is one thing that had my eye twitching with rage. Before I even start I'm going to make this <v>very very clear</b> I <u>do not</u> have an issue with gay characters what so ever. My problem with this is that throughout the book they are preaching to Adam that homosexuality is wrong and a sin etc. However along the way we meet three other gay characters, TWO of those tells Adam how wrong he is, and want him to go into therapy. One even states "he has homosexual thoughts, but he has a wife". I mean. I can't. I really can't. Another character doesn't want to admit he's gay, Adam accepts this and is then told "you would be lucky to have me as a boyfriend". How does this make any sense when you're arguing with someone, telling them it's a sin etc. THE HYPOCRITE. Finally we have the final person who comes out (but doesn't really), he grinds on Adam and wants to make him love him. It's just really not well done. Moving on from that I had a few other issues, the female character was portrayed as a slut for sleeping with her boyfriend outside of marriage, I mean fair enough. HOWEVER my issue was that this wasn't addressed, no one stood up for her and they just dismissed things. It really is infuriating. One of the characters is Diabetic, and depends on insulin. In one part of the book, they take there blood and a character says "It's not like I'm breastfeeding" HANG ON A MINUTE. I didn't realise that feeding your child was such a disgusting act. That really really rattled me. Suicidal feelings isn't handled well, it's just ignored, like this is a big thing. Things need to be addressed properly not ignored.

For me the saving features of this book were Rhonda and Mike (who we only see/hear from in like 3 chapters). Rhonda stands up for what she believes in, she questions things and is continually shot down. She was just such a good character, but even then we didn't see enough of her.

Randall literally reminded me of Randall from Recess, if you've seen it and read this you'll 100% get what I mean.

I honestly wouldn't recommend this book if you are all for equal rights, this really grated on me. I see where this book comes from, but there were so many things that I found disturbing, and things weren't addressed/handled well/not at all.

I got a free copy of this from NetGalley. This book was a really quick read for me because it was short. I read it in less than 2 hours. Adam, the main character is gay but is from a very religious, Christian family and his parent do NOT approve at all. They send him to a Christian camp in hopes of reforming and changing him. The camp isn't all terrible for him. He makes a few friends in Martin and Rhonda and has a huge crush on his roommate Paul, who is super-religious and will barely even admit to having feelings for Adam. Eventually they talk and kind of start to work things out between them but circumstances keep them apart in the end and Adam leaves the camp. I felt really bad for Adam because his parents just do not accept him and make little effort to even try. It sad because it is probably very realistic. The book was good and made a point but the writing was pretty simple and kind of boring actually. Adam was a strong character and I was rooting for him throughout the book.

The idea was really interesting, but the execution was somehow lacking. The characters felt shallow at times, and there was too much tell and not enough show to give the story the strength it could have had.
The ending, while realistic, felt anticlimactic.

Set in Canada, this was a short but sweet story that I fell in love with just from the blurb. The idea is that a young Christian guy, Adam Lethbridge, with religiously strict parents, is suspected of being homosexual - it's true, but the condemnation is based on the flimsiest of evidence - he was seen shopping in the mall with a "known gay"! Clearly this 'raving pooftah' needs to be saved from Hell, so he's promptly dispatched to a Christian summer camp to be 'deprogrammed', aka saved by Baby Jesu, but there he meets another guy, a Korean-Canadian named Paul, who is questioning his own sexuality, and the two fall for each other!

I thought that was hilarious, but the story isn't a romantic comedy by any means. There is humor in it, but it's a story which is told seriously and thoughtfully. I really enjoyed it.

There's nothing explicit in it - nothing more than a kiss and holding hands - so it's a safe read for anyone who is bothered by a lot of overt physical affection. The funniest thing about it was highlighted by controversial comedian Lenny Bruce many years ago: how do you punish homosexuals for breaking the law? Lock 'em up with a bunch of guys! The same thing happens here, and the lack of straight-thinking behind that kind of philosophy boggles the mind.

Of course this seems like it was always worse for men because the white male authorities behind this asinine approach to relationships were not only horrified by, but scared of homosexual men, while they never took homosexual women seriously. As queen Victoria was supposed to have said, "women simply don't do that sport of thing!" That doesn't mean women had it so much easier, by any means. In some ways they had it worse.

I confess I had a bit of a time getting into this at first because the story seemed so full of conversational prose and very little descriptive prose, but after Adam arrived at camp, the reading became very easy and comfortable. He's bunking with three other guys including Paul: a depressed guy named Martin, and a weirdo named Randall. The dynamic between these four was fascinating. Adam also meets Rhonda on the bus up to the mountain retreat. She's being sent to the camp to be have the 'slu't removed from her - and she and Adam bond quickly.

I loved that the author pointed out the hypocrisy and cluelessness in these approaches, although I would have loved it more had there been a complete deconstruction of Biblical teachings, but the thrust of this novel was not in that direction, so that was fine. The point was clearly made that there's a difference - and sometimes a huge one - between what's in the Bible and what people claim is in the Bible. I loved that bit!

Speaking of which, as is often the case in novel for me, one of the more minor characters was the most interesting. Rhonda intrigued me and was the outstanding character. I loved how feisty, confident, and outspoken she was, and would have liked to have read more about her, especially taking the camp religious teachers to task over their poor understanding of the bible, but of course the focus was on Adam and Paul, and his other roommates.

If there was a weak spot, for me it was Randall, who didn't quite ring true at times, but other than that, the story was great, well-written, instructive, and it had a beautiful ending. I recommend this one.

I liked this book and I'm glad I read it. Correia did a good job of exploring teenage faith and sexuality, and some of the dialogue ("We shuffle off the bus like senior citizens in line at Tim Hortons") made me laugh. I'd expected a the book to be a romance, but it was more thoughtful about these teens' lives than I had guessed it would be. That said, I had some reservations. I felt that a few of the characters - Mike and Randall in particular - were more two-dimensional than I would have liked. But I ended the book wanting to know the rest of Paul's and Adam's stories, and I wanted to know more about Martin. (Tony Correia, if you read this, please consider a spin-off about Martin!)

This book focused on a realistic tough topic on being Christian and gay. I like that the novel focuses on a revelation camp and doesn't really single out a specific description. I did find the responses a little dramatic in the beginning but they improved throughout. It's sad that some people completely think the Bible is the way to be. The romance wasn't too heavy and this was an interesting read.

I feel like I should start this review off by saying that I was hoping I would like this book. I was hoping to love it, even, and it hurts my heart a bit that I didn't.

The premise of this book is great, it was just executed very poorly. Besides the bland characters, the lack of backstories, and the random gay racist, the story just happened TOO FAST. I feel like the plot, or lack thereof, wasn't fully fleshed out like it could have been. So many characters, and not one of them I connected with, not even the narrator.

Adam is a 17-year-old boy who wants to be a graphic novelist and is understandably struggling with his sexuality, for fear of his parents finding out. The story opens with him in the mall with a high school friend who's flamboyantly gay, and they get "found out" by some nosy Christian neighbor and her daughter who act like they caught the two boys humping among the racks in The Gap when they were only looking at clothes (because apparently two boys can't go shopping together and remain straight). Adam's nightmare about his parents comes to life, and they send him off to this camp for teen sinners (homosexuality, premarital sex, and more).

For me, it's at this "camp" where this story begins to fall apart. I didn't feel the chemistry between Paul and Adam; I don't know why there's an attraction there besides both think that the other is good looking. There's a definite insta-love to the perceived "happy couple" (who can't even date because of where they are) that I disliked, too. I don't know why one character had to be not only gay but a blatant racist, as well. I'm pretty sure I understand what the author was trying to accomplish with this tale, but it came off as a bash toward Christianity and religion instead of the open dialogue that this could have been. Now, maybe that's being optimistic, but this book fell flat in its execution.

The concept and setting for this book is great an I can say A for effort but the writing needs improvement.
The story was a little disconnected and did not flow well . Furthermore the plot and characters were a little flat.

A charming coming-of-age tale about Adam, a young gay Christian male struggling between his religion and his sexuality. After discovering that their teenage son is gay, a strict Christian couple send him to Camp Revelation, a Church run camp with prayer meetings and bible studies. During his stay Adam befriends Rhonda, a wild girl who upset her parents by sleeping with her Muslim boyfriend. At the camp he developed a crush on one of his bunk mates.
All the kids at camp have strayed somewhat from their church and during their time there, they go on their own voyage of self-discovery.
The story is well crafted and has believable characters.

A short and sweet story with some angst thrown into it. Mostly easy and relaxing read with religion messing up with people and trying to repress 'troubled' people's personality. I liked the ending, but I was hoping for something more definite, less open. However, all in all, great read to relax.

This should have ticked off all the boxes for me. Reading the about blurb I was really excited to read this, but from page one, it was a struggle for me. I really had trouble connecting with and liking the main character. Adam just never really did it for me and given the subject matter, I went in expecting to be a cheerleader for him. By the end he felt underdeveloped and I wasn't invested in him having a happy ending. I also think it was overly homophobic. Yes, that is needed, given the topic, but there were so many slurs it got to a point where I felt like it took away from the subject matter. This concept was excellent, I just wish it was executed better.

4* A good read about decent kids, deluded parents, good parents and the differing interpretations of the Bible and Christianity.

This tale is quite a light read in the sense that it doesn't make this camp a totally evil, bandwagon one that's often portrayed as those that help de-gay kids. It's a Christian camp, though those running it are Christian to varying degrees, as are the attendees.

I liked the lead couple, the female 'sinner' and the poor guy who ended up in a bad place, but I also liked the portrayal of the 'baddie', who wasn't really a bad guy, just one conflicted about his feelings/urges vs what he'd been told about Christianity. I also liked the really camp gay kid's parents, who were accepting and loving, not only of him, but of the main lead who ended up needing their help at the end, when he didn't even bother going home to his supposed Christian parents - that kind of Christianity isn't welcome in my book or my life.

What I didn't like was the main leads' parents, their gossipy friend and her hypocritical daughter, but, I suppose that people like this exist still in this day and age. People who feel that they can judge others, who feel it's their due to be the moral police, and yet don't see that their minds are closed off and prejudiced.

Luckily, with education, future generations will hopefully spawn fewer and fewer of the latter and kids will have the courage and resources to speak up and find protection from other adults, if their own parents let them down, e.g. educators, people who run teen helplines and homes, etc. I can only hope.

ARC courtesy of the author and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

*Spoilers ahead: I have listed all the warnings and whatnot I could find in the book. They do spoil some of the plot, but it’s better than to go blindly into the book*

Warnings: Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Medication overdose (supporting character overdoses on his insulin). Supporting has depression and nothing is done about it. Intense dislike towards a diabetic person and their disorder. Racist language. Racist character. Non-consensual harassment (rubbing body parts up against another unwilling person). Slut-shaming. Lastly, the view of Christianity is a harsh one, and not necessarily true (from someone who has experienced a positive view of Christianity).

*Received from Netgalley*

So the cover caught my attention and the description made it seem as if it was a good book…and it just wasn’t. I’m going to do my duty and tell you why I didn’t like it and the few reasons why I did. Prepare for a long review and quotes. Get your snacks and towels, kittens.

I started not feeling the love for the main character within the first 50 pages of the book. He’s so flighty and indecisive and while those are two traits associated with teenagers, the way Adam portrays it and how he comes across in the book makes him out to be childish. And he’s not. He’s in his final year of school, but the way he’s been written, it feels like he’s 14/15.

Those of you who are wondering if Christianity is like this – well, it depends on how harsh your church/pastor is. My old one was pretty harsh – part of the reason why I left – and this book’s just bringing up all the old feelings I had when attending the church and believing. I didn’t mark the book down because it brought up old feelings – I speak about the way faith is portrayed in the book in the next paragraph.

So I marked the book down half because of the characters/plot/dialogue (all usual reasons) but I also marked the book down because of how Christianity is portrayed, and more accurately, how the author portrays Christianity. Please note the following: I do not know the author, and therefore I am not aware of his religion, or lack of one; which is to say that I am discussing how the author writes the religion that is shown in the book, and not the author’s religion. So there are a few quotes in the book that…irked me, but I’ll mark all those quotes in the ‘quote’ section of the review – there’s a quote section because I couldn’t stop myself from commenting on the quotes.

But anyway – so the author writes from the main male character’s point of view, and he goes to Christian camp to try to turn straight – because you can pray the gay away, didya know? And obviously at the camp, there’s a lot of talk about faith and God and most of it is negative towards anything that some readers might deem not sinful (masturbation, premarital sex, etc.). Like I know the author is trying to get into the whole religious thing to show the readers how heavy the camp is, but the way he's writing the story is just…not cool. It’s too much. I’m not sure if it’s just me and the feelings I have towards Christianity but I’m not liking the way everyone talks about faith in the book. I feel that the author is writing the Bible Camp view of faith (if you’re understanding me) with too much vigour – like he's enjoying it.

And speaking of the parents – look, I grew up with Christian parents and family. My friendship circle and my parents’ friendship circle is basically made up of Christians (well, not mine so much anymore). I know what’s expected (from parents) and what God expects. But the parents in this novel are terrible…It’s like the author was tired the one night of trying to flesh out the parents and decided: ‘all right! I’ll make them crappy and just make them send Adam away so they won’t have to deal with him!’

Ok, so, warning – I’m going to talk about one of the characters and depression. So one of Adam’s roommates is depressed. They don’t really talk about why he’s depressed and they do absolutely nothing to help the poor guy. Adam and mostly everyone at the camp calls themselves Christians and yet they do nothing to help him? *cough cough* very unchristianlike.

The only reason why I sort of liked this book is because of three characters – Martin, Mike, and Rhonda. That’s it.

I think the author thinks we can read Adam’s mind. He makes Adam think/say sentences and he’s like ‘ah, yes, I was thinking about this.’ like where? Please show me. Do you know what that’s called? Inconsistency.

Another problem I had with the book was the fact that Adam met one of the male characters – his love interest – basically immediately had a crush on him *cough cough instalove* and then when the love interest and Adam have a disagreement, Adam stops having a crush on the love interest.

Quotes:
“It’s about a preacher who uses an app to brainwash his followers into believing God is speaking to them on their phones.”

- I will literally pay you to be able to read this instead of the book.


“Two boys shopping for clothes,” Greta says. “How interesting.”

- So if boys can’t shop for clothes then they can’t wear them, right? And also let’s just bring up the fact that if they were two girls shopping together no weird thoughts would be there (but then again we could argue that if the one girl is a confirmed lesbian, the other would surely follow – if we were to play by the rules shown in the book.


“Camp Revelation.”

- A camp named after the book in the Bible that’s about the end of the world? Yeah, ok. That’s what the book’s about, right? Hopefully the Bible hasn’t changed the last time I read it. Which was in high school.


Turns out khakis and polo tops were the only things we’re allowed to wear at the camp.”

- Because jeans and a tank top will turn you to sin.


“Screens get between you and God.”

- Except the Bible tells us that God is everywhere and the only reason why screens get between us and God is because we allow it to.


“The way a man finds another a man’s wife attractive. And you know the commandment against acting on that.”

- ok A: If you’re happy in your marriage, you shouldn’t be looking at other women.

B: I’m like half sure that even thinking about finding another’s man’s wife is lust or covetousness (because women are property of their husbands – right?).


“I don’t know if I would compare being gay to being addicted to drugs.”

“Both end in death and destruction.”

- Hang on – how does being gay make you more likely to die? Romeo and Juliet were straight and they died. Gatsby was straight(ish) and he died. Jack Dawson was straight and he died (ok let’s stop with all the Di Caprio references).


“Rhonda gave everyone a scare yesterday. And she may have hurt the reputation of the camp.”

- The…reputation…of a camp that converts (or tries to convert gays or stop sinners or whatever)…is good? Oh right, people think they can pray the gay away.


Sarah is sitting next to Paul. I watch her as she takes his hand in hers. She looks into his eyes while she sings out of key at the top of her legs.

- *whispers* is that not a sin? Because seriously my youth had a whole talk on how to hug the opposite sex. Spoiler alert: Approach from the side, hug must not last more than 5ish seconds.