Deposing Nathan

By: Zack Smedley

Narrated by: Daniel Henning

"A superb story, told in an original and masterly way. Smedley navigates the novel's refreshing ideas about sexuality and religion with grace and intelligence." (The New York Times)

"A heartbreaking and important read." (Caleb Roehrig, author of Last Seen Leaving)

"[A] layered, complex depiction of questioning (bi)sexuality.... A heartbreaking case worth revisiting again and again." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

For 16 years, Nate was the perfect son - the product of a no-nonsense upbringing and deep spiritual faith. Then he met Cam, who pushed him to break rules, dream, and accept himself. Conflicted, Nate began to push back. With each push, the boys became more entangled in each others' worlds...but they also spiraled closer to their breaking points. And now all of it has fallen apart after a fistfight-turned-near-fatal-incident - one that's left Nate with a stab wound and Cam in jail.

Now Nate is being ordered to give a statement, under oath, that will send his best friend to prison. The problem is, the real story of what happened between them isn't as simple as anyone thinks. With all eyes on him, Nate must make his confessions about what led up to that night with Cam...and in doing so, risk tearing both of their lives apart.

©2019 Zack Smedley (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Felt very realistic

I am not a YA reader, but this book was recommended to me by one and I thought it was packed with a lot of heavy, hard-hitting emotional themes. Between sexual expression, struggling with identity, and bullying, abuse and manipulation, as well as conflicting religious beliefs and the general independence seeking of adolescence, Deposing Nathan fills a tall order of being approachable reading that gets the reader emotionally invested in the character's lives. No one is perfect. Everyone struggles with doing what they feel is right versus what is easier to go along with. This would make good discussion between teens and adults about what's considered healthy in relationships of all kinds and what isn't.

Beautiful Must Read

Deposing Nathan is a story that is funny, Heavy, light and very dramatic all wrapped into one. Nate and Cam’s journey into understanding who they are is heartbreaking and heartwarming. Awesome read.
I look forward to more books by Zack Smedley
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Intense

I hated this book. And it was phenomenal.

I honestly can’t remember having so many visceral negative emotions about a book as DEPOSING NATHAN.

Narrator Nathan is the opposite of a Profile in Courage. He’s deceitful, mostly to himself, but also to those he loves. Who wouldn’t be brainwashed by a church to believe bisexuality would send him to hell? Who wouldn’t be living with the most controlling, emotionally abusive aunt (Lori), his dead mother’s sister who functions as a parent? Who wouldn’t be with a dad who was never home and ceded parental decision to his brutal aunt?

When he meets Cameron on the first day of junior year, he doesn’t expect to start experimenting sexually. Nate has a girlfriend, after all. Somehow, not a year later, Nathan is being deposed at Cam’s pretrial hearing for having stabbed Nate. But, facts aren’t always as they seem and over the next three days Nathan tells the story of his relationship with Cam and the events that transpired that lead up to the hearing.

Zack Smedley had me angry for nearly the entire book. I didn’t expect religion to play such an important component of DEPOSING NATHAN, if I had, is probably not have preordered it. I didn’t expect the controlling, emotional abuse perpetrated by Lori to hit me so hard. Her brutality hit a little too close to home and was entirely believable. Smedley did a fantastic job portraying the love a child feels for an abusive parent (aunt), taking on the burden of deserving the maltreatment and not realizing the parent (abuser is to blame).

Every word of DEPOSING NATHAN was believable, difficult and important. The only caveat I have is that if we were talking about an opposite sex relationship, Cam’s behavior would have been seen as coercive. I don’t believe in double standards between genders or with LGBT couples. Smedley portrayed both boys as in the questioning, experimental stage of understanding their sexualities. No balance of power existed any more than two friends trying out any form of teenage rebellion (sexual orientation isn’t rebellion, but it felt so to Nathan and Cameron).

The ending of DEPOSING NATHAN blew me away in the best possible way. I’m not suggesting sunshine and roses, far from it. DEPOSING NATHAN will stay with me for a long, long time.

ETA: The audiobook was one of my favorites from a male narrator.