The House Party

Starred review from July 18, 2022
Cameron’s riveting latest (after Ophelia’s Muse) explores class and economic divisions in an affluent Philadelphia suburb during the late-2000s housing bubble. High school senior Will O’Connor looks forward to attending Princeton on scholarship alongside his rich friend Hunter Finch, the son of prominent real estate developer Dom, who’s too wrapped up in work to be much of a father. At a year-end party, Will sees his girlfriend Maddie being sexually assaulted in the house and breaks a glass door to save her, inadvertently encouraging others to trash the place. Homeowner Maja Jensen, a New York City transplant, longs for a baby and had hoped building an expensive dream home would repair her fraught relationship with her husband, Ted. After the Jensens learn of the extensive damage, which occurred shortly before they planned to move in, they demand justice but don’t find much sympathy or cooperation from the parents of those involved, and the police initially suspect the Jensens’ subcontractors before turning their focus on Will, whose older brother has a history of trouble. Cameron does a stellar job at demonstrating how easily stereotyping and wealth can influence outcomes, setting a wide lens on the burgeoning housing crisis by showing how the Jensens are over-leveraged while Dom scoops up foreclosed properties. A seamless plot and believable characters make for an accomplished sophomore effort. Readers are in for a treat.

August 1, 2022
April 2008: The restless teenagers of picturesque New Falls, Pennsylvania, decide to throw a party at a house that's under construction. Perhaps expectedly, the party spirals out of control--but to the tune of hundreds of thousands in damages. The bewildered out-of-town owners go through the thankless runaround with their insurance company, while the local police try to provide some answers, or maybe some scapegoats, for the destruction, and the local DA tries to press charges. The town is firmly divided along economic lines, and it quickly becomes clear that the "rich kids" with connected parents will not bear the brunt of the punishment, but a few "local yokels" will. Familiar character types--small-town DA; hardworking local teen made good; rich, entitled screw-up; emotionally wounded teenage girl; woman longing to be a mother; husband with a secret--are granted grace and complexity. Despite some early narrative setup, this is not a legal thriller. It's a novel about choices and consequences, compassion, and the limits of forgiveness. It's also a novel of reparation, and as the 2008 financial collapse looms in the background, there seems to be a particularly poignant hindsight offered: What if, Cameron asks, we could go back and unwork our mistakes, our bad choices, not just as individual humans, but as an entire timeline? What if we could be a little more cautious and a little less focused on our own gratification? What wonder could be wrought--or at least, what destruction and tragedy avoided? Of course, in the end, we all must face up to the missteps, as all of these characters do, and learn to live in a world where happiness is a little more fragile, love a little more tempered by disappointment. An unflinching look at the dysfunction of a "nice town"; a resonant morality tale.

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Starred review from August 1, 2022
New Falls, Pennsylvania, reinvented itself over the decades: a farming community, an artists' colony, a sleepy commuter town. In 2008, what matters most isn't the town's official identity, but the growing tension. When a raucous high-school party gets out of hand, the class divide is laid bare: campaign donors, doctors, and lawyers make calls to the police chief, and their kids are let off with a warning. But for the kids without rich parents, or those with siblings who already have a reputation with the authorities, punishment is more severe. This is the case for Will O'Connor, unless he can figure out how to tell the truth while saving his own skin. Debut author Cameron uses the idyllic New Falls setting to explore inequity, access, and loyalty in modern suburbia, giving a voice to the high-schoolers, the homeowners, and the police officers involved in the investigation. Fans of Tom Perrotta and Matthew Norman will appreciate Cameron's keen observational eye, while fans of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere (2017) will welcome the closed-ranks mystery. Cameron's novel acknowledges the privilege we all enjoy in different ways and the strength it takes to do the right thing.

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