Compelling tale of kids sent to conversion camp to force the gay away. The abusive nature of this is a troublesome concept, and I am glad there are some books and movie addressing this topic. I really enjoyed this, but the pacing was quite inconsistent, with the last part being too much crammed in.

Conversion camp is evil on its own but this is next level twisted. Every kid that survives is a hero. The ending continues to punch after you think the punches are done.

Surrender Your Sons was a completely messed up book. Just wow. I had no idea what I was walking into but I also couldn't look away from it either. Oh lord, this book was so sad that I felt my heart strings being pulled and twisted throughout the entire book.

No idea if these places actually exist to this day, but shame on parents who do this. I don't know how many times I wished I could reach into a book just to knock some sense into a person. Especially when it came to Connors' mom. She really needed a reality check and maybe a visit from baby Jesus every now and then.

I’m having a tough time determining how I feel about this book. There were some things that I really liked about the book and some things that I didn’t care for. It was a slow book at the beginning. The end definitely picked up and was more enjoyable. I think some people will love this but it ended up just being alright.

Surrender Your Sons was an expertly crafted story. Without spoiling anything, I will say that it required a little bit of suspension of disbelief for some of the more action-oriented scenes, but sadly, the overall idea behind it (a gay teen gets sent off to an out-of-country ex-gay conversion camp by his ultra-religious mother) was all-too-believable. Sass calls attention to something that is still an important issue despite how much many of us wish it was a thing of the distant past. I had a few minor gripes with the book -- some of the religious language made it seem like maybe the camp was run by a Catholic priest, for example, but then we find out it was previously run by his father, also a minister, so it seems like they weren't Catholic -- but overall, I would recommend the book.

Although this book had a slow start with the set up of Connor's situation, I ended up finishing it rather quickly once I got into it because I just had to know what happened.

I liked Connor's humor and snarkiness in this. He had some great internal dialogue that made me actually laugh out loud. He may not be mighty in size and strength but he is mighty in snark.

I kind of wished they spent more time at the camp. It took me out of the story a little when it would mention that they were only there a day and all this stuff had already happened. I think it would have made more sense to have it be like a week or something. (Also appreciate the Lord of the Flies reference because I was thinking it and then they said it).

I also liked the conversation this book brought up about pushing people out of the closet when it might not be safe for them to do so. It's an important discussion that needs to be had in the LGBTQ+ community.

I look forward to reading more if there is more.

This book was son incredibly entertaining. It was so outlandish, but I loved every second of it. I found myself laughing so hard at so many points in the story. I was actually pretty disappointed when it was done. I can't wait to read more from this author.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:⁣
You"ll find queer pain in this book. But it's not about queer pain. It's about what queers do with pain. ⁣
⁣
Pain is something queers deals with regularly, even if it's just occasional feelings, isolation and otherness. Queer people process pain in many ways, but a big one is through humor.⁣
⁣
In #SurrenderYourSons, you'll find queer kids put through bad experiences and then sometimes, they'll make a joke about it.⁣
The consequences of conversion therapy. ⁣
⁣
You'll find scary things in this book, but just like in life, when the trouble hits, you'll also find humor, good friends, and courage you couldn't imagine in your wildest dreams.⁣
⁣
This book was a lot.... But I'd reccomend it always 🙌🏾.⁣ And it's officially out! Many thanks to the publisher @fluxbooks via #NetGalley for the eARC
⁣
Trigger warnings:⁣
Homophobia,⁣
Slurs,⁣
Conversion Therapy, ⁣
Transphobia, ⁣
Abuse,⁣
Religious fanaticism, ⁣
Suicide
.
.

DNF'd at 25%

I was excited to read Surrender Your Sons because there was a lot of early hype and conversion therapy has not been a topic that comes up regularly. However, I had a lot of problems with the book and I'd rather give it up instead of forcing to go through it. Firstly, the writing felt off and it was not polished at all, which I can overlook since I had an ARC. I haven't seen a finished copy, so I cannot say if this has been fixed. Although, the pacing was abysmal with too many flashbacks that caused a messy timeline.

Secondly, connecting with the main character, Connor, was difficult for me. He's very annoying and rather naive - his boyfriend was horrible, constantly pressuring Connor to come out, but despite feeling uncomfortable, Connor doesn't think what his boyfriend does is wrong. Lastly, I had trouble understanding some of the choices Sasss made. Here, the conversion therapy camp was located in Costa Rica, outside of US. It would have been more impactful to place the camp in the US soil in order to show that the camps still exists in the country.

Overall, there was so many things that bothered me. I also checked the other reviews and apparently there's cheating, and I'm not here for it at all, no matter how horrible Connor's boyfriend is. The topic is important and I hope there will be other books to discuss the conversion therapy and the incredible damage it does to people. This one just isn't for me.

DNF
The main character was too immature and annoying to me. It was like reading from the perspective of someone who bases their entire vocabulary on Twitter. He is a teenager though, so maybe teenagers would like this book.

oh yessssss this book is the one!!! I have had the pleasure and feel very grateful to have been able to read this absolutely amazing novel early and I can not tell you how excited I am for surrender your sons to be released so everyone can experience this stunning Novel,One of my favs of the year I must add too.

This novel I feel will impact so many people and will become one that will be read for years to come and be a really important read that should be read by EVERYONE!!!
Adam Sass has created a one of the kind novel that is beautifully tragic and delves really deep into some really tough topics. side note be sure to check the CW for this one as this one doesn't hold back on how dark it goes. Its written so well and just has you clinging on to your seat and gets you entranced and need to know what twist and turns come next.

This novel is a story of fighting back, having power and showing to never give up!!! wether that's for something you believe in, for fighting what's right and most of all for fighting against people who try and make you try and be the person your not but you know what we say to that...a very important two words :)

everyone please please when this arrives in bookstores, online, independent bookstores go and buy this book!!! I cant express enough the importance of this novel.

❊ a gripping thriller that captivates you, a triggering read with the harsh reality of conversion camps, and a narrative voice that amplifies important, devastating, and heartbreaking themes through a great prose. ❊

➼ raw, unfiltered, harsh reality of a conservative parent, religious scrutiny, and the possibility of someone loved sending you miles away to a camp that guarantees to convert queers, is unravelled unflinchingly in this novel—leaving you shaken at times.

➼ a gay teen representation appreciated by majority of ownvoices readers so worth positively highlighting, and the broader aim of depicting LGBTQ+ characters fighting the overestimated homophobes who tried to shackle the queer is needed in YA stories.

➼ even in the midst of absolute horror, the growing solidarity flourishes into romantic and platonic relationships to ultimately speak the truth of emerging from darkness through the strength of love, friendship, and shared identity.

➼ excellent writing but the pacing sometimes falters, considering the entire story is set in a very short time span, and there exists the unintentional under-representation of the BIPOC side characters who contributed through way more effort but the story overpowers them by the white boy who conveniently saves everyone in a single day.

Ultimately, I feel like this book had more potential.
I really liked this book for its queerness, and the dangers that come with it. The way Connor's mom acts, the pastor, the conversion camp - all of it tugged on my heart and it conveyed exactly what the author wanted to say.

But the way this book handled certain things was questionable.
This book shows minimal awareness of how racism works from the eyes of a white protagonist. Although Connor understands and comments on racism and racist microaggression, he never does anything about it even on a personal level. The way the story is structured, it almost feels tied together by convenience because clues just fall into Connor's lap and he just conveniently hears conversations that might help him. The entire story happens along the course of a single day, which I found incredibly unbelievable given the amount of events that happen. The whole exposing and mystery solving of this conversion camp was worked on by two Black girls, and Connor just looks like big damn hero who barges in, makes life harder for everyone and somehow ends up saving them all. Too white saviour for me.

Although, I did enjoy the writing and the characters.

3.5 stars. I don't have a ton to say about this book, other than the concept is fantastically inventive and fun, but also hard to read. Connor Major is a 17-year-old from a small, rural town in Illinois, raised by a single mom, and just newly out of the closet at the urging of his boyfriend, Ario. His mom, a diehard Christian with a fanatic relationship with their town's Reverend, is not happy about the revelation that her son is gay - as "punishment," she confiscated his phone and put him on Meals on Wheels duty for the entire summer, making him deliver dinner to a bed-confined man named Ricky Hannigan.

One night, Connor wakes up to some strange men in his room - they kidnap him, clearly approved by his mother, and put him on a plane to Puerto Rico. Despite his best efforts to escape, Connor soon finds himself in a conversion therapy camp called Nightlight, run by none other than his hometown's Reverend. At first, Connor is fine to pretend the camp made him straight to get the hell out of there. But the more he learns about the camp, its other campers, and its nasty history - much to do with the Reverend and Ricky Hannigan - Connor can't bring himself to lie. He becomes determine to get to the root of what happened to Ricky and get him and his fellow campers back home.

I really didn't know a lot about conversion therapy before reading this book - to be honest, I thought it was an outdated and archaic practice that wasn't at all present in the US anymore. But silly me, of course it is - and the fact that it's frowned upon and banned in many states does mean that these camps can go overseas and be just fine, as long as the campers are under 18 and still under the control of their parents. Although it deals with difficult topics, this book actually turns out to be somewhat fun - almost like an escape or counterfactual fantasy. The teenagers are in control, and they fight back - which I'm guessing is rarely the case in real-life conversion therapy camps. The mystery with Ricky Hannigan is interesting, although I felt there was a bit too much emphasis on that narrative, and I didn't feel connected to the characters in the B-story.

Overall, this is a fun narrative, a quick read, and overall, an inventive new story. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC!

Ugh this book, this story. Connor is having a rough go. Made worse by his overly religious mother who ships him off for conversion therapy to a hell-like camp. I couldn’t put this book down.

When I read this one was set in a conversion camp, I braced myself.

The exposition surely hooked me: the oppressive home town; the controlling, holier-than-thou preacher, and the "kidnapping scene" were definitely promising, but then the book became about finding a way out of this island in the middle of nowhere. You'd think that would keep the momentum going, and in a way it did, but I just couldn't get over the secondary characters. The cast of characters who worked on the island were a motley crew of messed up people but I felt bad for them. I was never really invested in their getting their comeuppance.

The book was heart-pounding for sure, but the conversion camp's program, what little readers get to see of it, was not well-developed.

This was a story about Connor Major who has been keeping his love life a secret from his mom. There are some messy things that happened with Connor's parents, his dad is across the pond and his mother moved them to the bible belt. His mom gets this conversion therapy camp to kidnap him and hopefully convert him to being straight. Little does she know, there is more to the camp than she thinks. There is so much going on in the camp. It was a wild ride to say the least.

This book took me a little longer than expected to read but I was happy to have the chance to review it. I won't be able to add this to my shelf in my office at work, Working at a middle school I have to be careful about some of the books I add to my shelves.

🌴 𝐻𝑜𝓌 𝓃𝒾𝒸𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝓋𝒾𝓈𝒾𝓉 𝓂𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓂𝓎 𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈

I am starting off this review with this quote because in all honesty I just read it again after months of my first read of the book. I completed this book back in January where I was in an extremely different stage in my life (I was dating someone that cheated on me) and so I must admit that writing this review is not going to be an easy experience seeing that it brings back a lot of unwanted memories. I guess this is where I say: everything happens for a reason. You may be asking: why do I care about your past relationship Filipe? To which I answer, this is a book about queer pain, something that I had to navigate in these past few months.

This pain can come from your parents that do not accept the person you became and love you unconditonally because you are their child and that is what a parent is supposed to do but society taught them that feeling embarrased for having a gay child is more important than your sons happiness. (I would like to point out that my relationship with my parents is great at the moment, but I still dont talk about being gay with my dad, probably never will).

Conversion therapy stories always disgust me because I truly reflect and wonder how a person who should take care of you wants to do the exact opposite of that but in their mind they are doing the best for you without even paying attention to your feelings. Connor Major, our main character, was sent to a conversion therapy camp. I can't even express into words how action-packed this book is, it will *literally* leave you at the edge of your seat, as cliché as that may sound. Shortness of breath? Check. Bouncing your leg up and down? Check. Turning your page so fast it rips at the corner? I would say check but I read an e-arc.

Despite it being marketed as a thriller, this book is so much more than that. It touches on violence towards queer people and how it can affect you mentally to the point where you start to forget how you truly are. This is a twisted story that I urge everyone to read, especially this month if you like to read suspenseful books during this time of year.

Most importantly, Surrender Your Sons made me cry. And it was not a simple single tear. It was bawling my eyes out at the coffee shop to the point where I had to stop, breathe and continue my read at home. It was so important to me because it taught me and told me things I needed to hear but I had no idea of the existence of this necessity until the moment I read them. It's not about about queer pain. It's about what queers do with pain. With my pain personally I always strived to transform it into love, into self-love especifically. Every time someone made me feel bad for expressing who I am, I would express it even harder to show that I am stronger than a hateful comment or a guide on how to be myself when the only person who lives my life is me.

If I had to sum up what I thought of Surrender Your Sons in just one sentence, I would say: "mindf*ck of EPIC proportion". I love a bold plot twist and SYS had several that pulled the rug under my feet so hard I'm still shaken.

Before you even consider reading it, though, I beg you to check the TW. It's not trauma porn by any mean but it does depict a raw and dark reality for a lot of queer people out there, like verbal and physical abuse coming from many people including parents, statuatory rape, even suicide and murder. In a way, I'd say it's kind of an exact opposite of Camp, by L. C. Rosen. It's an important read, and a damn good one, but be prepared.

I wasn't expecting Ricky's story to be the main focus of the story but I'm glad it was. In a way, it pushed the conversion camp in the background by making it the setting of the story rather than the story itself, which offered a welcome distraction from the violence going on there. The mystery also happens to be flawlessly written, with bread crumbs satisfying enough to let the reader feel like they're closing in on the truth yet vague enough to not let them find out too soon. This is where the multiple plot twists do a tremendous job because we're so busy chasing false leads that we can't see the big picture before the end.

The only flaw that I could point out is that the events at the camp take about one day. That's a very small timeframe. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing I didn't like.

Basically: read it, buy it, shout about it and then read it again. 5 well-deserved stars and I'm looking forward to reading more by Adam Sass!

Adam Sass’s debut novel, a young adult queer thriller, is the perfect read for to kick off your Spook-tober. Surrender Your Sons follows Connor Major, a recently out gay teenager who is isolated in a small town in Illinois.

His only salvation from the Reverend who has taken over every inch of his tiny town, including his mother, is his boyfriend, Ario, and his weekly Meals on Wheels delivery to a disabled patient, Ricky Hannigan.

Unfortunately for Connor, his mother and the Reverend discover he uses his Meals on Wheels trips to also see his boyfriend, and put him under strict house arrest.

It’s not long after this that his mother willingly has him kidnapped and taken to a secret island in the middle of Costa Rica with the hopes that when he comes back, he’ll no longer be gay.

Even worse, Connor soon learns that the Reverend is at the center of this horrible conspiracy, his power looming even larger on the island, as Connor tries to unravel the mystery thanks to a clue from Ricky.

Conversion therapy and its many sins and cruelty are the throughline of Surrender Your Sons. Sass does a masterful job of proving that, despite the loss of focus on the topic, conversion therapy has never gone away; it’s just better at hiding itself.

With the dramatic Lost setting and Wilder Girls vibes, Surrender Your Sons threads plenty of tension and mystery on top of the devastation, making it so that readers keep turning the page, even as the realities become more gruesome.

But even though much of the queer experience for many people (both on the page and off) can be traumatic and violent, Sass also weaves in a powerful narrative of queer resilience, joy, strength, and love.

When Connor makes it onto the island, he learns he’s not the only person in his situation, eventually having to choose whether to save himself, or work with the other teens to defeat the Reverend and escape together.

This includes a blooming romance with another camper, Marcos. Unlike Ario, who pressured Connor to come out before he was ready, unwittingly putting him in danger, Marcos and Connor have matching scars.

Beyond the numerous beautiful and powerful queer themes, Surrender Your Sons is a masterful thriller and mystery, begging to be read and re-read with its numerous breadcrumbs and easter eggs and incredible supporting cast. You can get your copy today at your local library or wherever books are sold.