Guest Post: Jessica Verdi, The Summer I Wasn't Me

Published: April 1st, 2014
Goodreads Summary:

Lexi has a secret.

She never meant for her mom to find out. And now she's afraid that what's left of her family is going to fall apart for good.

Lexi knows she can fix everything. She can change. She can learn to like boys. New Horizons summer camp has promised to transform her life, and there's nothing she wants more than to start over.

But sometimes love has its own path...

Hi Kristin! Thank you so much for having me on your blog! I’m feeling in a musical kind mood right now, so I thought I’d talk a little bit about the song that inspired me to write The Summer I Wasn’t Me. The story is about seventeen-year-old Lexi, a girl who agrees to spend the summer at an ex-gay camp (also called a conversion camp) in an effort to try to become the daughter she knows her god-fearing, traditional mother wants.

I got the idea for the book one day while listening to Lady Gaga’s “Hair”—in particular the acoustic version she performed on the Howard Stern Show. Check it out here:. 

It’s such a gorgeous song, and the chorus goes, “I just want to be myself and I want you to love me for who I am… I just want to be free, I just want to be me, and I want lots of friends that invite me to their parties. Don’t want to change, I don’t want to be ashamed.” And I started thinking about all the kids who aren’t loved for who they are, and it made me so sad. And that’s when I knew I had to tell Lexi’s story. I wanted to write about that girl. I wanted to write for that girl. I hope readers enjoy reading about Lexi and her friends. And hopefully someday soon ex-gay camps will truly be a thing of the past.