History Literature / SurrenderYourSons

* ArmoredClosetGay: A given, considering the setting of the book. [[spoiler: Ben Briggs and Reverend Packard are the straightest examples, though Ben had a relationship with Drew while on the island.]]

* BigScrewedUpFamily: And ''how''. [[spoiler: As teenagers, Reverend Stanley Packard and his cousin, Ricky Hannigan, were both sent to Nightlight to "cure" their homosexuality. However, it was Stanley who betrayed Ricky, feeling guilty after enjoying himself at a gay bar. This betrayal led to a rift between Ricky and his father, Bill. Later, when Stanley is invited to Ricky's commitment ceremony, he brings Bill along in a misguided attempt to stop the event. Afterward, fueled by homophobia and alcohol, Bill commits a heinous act, killing Ricky's husband and leaving Ricky paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Stanley and Bill flee with the help of the Nightlight camp, but Stanley, still resentful of his father and unforgiving of Bill's actions, takes matters into his own hands. He ''kills'' his own father, hoping to force Bill into a MortonsFolk situation, where he would be unable to seek help without incriminating himself]].

* BigScrewedUpFamily: [[spoiler: As teenagers, Reverend Stanley Packard and his cousin, Ricky Hannigan, were both sent to Nightlight to "cure" their homosexuality. However, it was Stanley who betrayed Ricky, feeling guilty after enjoying himself at a gay bar. This betrayal led to a rift between Ricky and his father, Bill. Later, when Stanley is invited to Ricky's commitment ceremony, he brings Bill along in a misguided attempt to stop the event. Afterward, fueled by homophobia and alcohol, Bill commits a heinous act, killing Ricky's husband and leaving Ricky paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Stanley and Bill flee with the help of the Nightlight camp, but Stanley, still resentful of his father and unforgiving of Bill's actions, takes matters into his own hands. He ''kills'' his own father, hoping to force Bill into a MortonsFolk situation, where he would be unable to seek help without incriminating himself]].

* CureYourGays: The book takes place at a conversion therapy camp in the middle of the jungle.

Connor Major, a teenage boy, has recently come out to his ultra-religious mother, but her response is far from supportive. His mother takes drastic action, arranging for him to be "kidnapped" and taken to Nightlight, a conversion therapy camp in Costa Rica, with the goal of "fixing" her gay son.

** Ricky Hannigan was someone who Connor delivered Meals on Wheels too, due to Ricky being disabled [[spoiler: but he is at the heart of the entire story, as he was a former camper at Nightlight and survived a hate-fueled murder from his own father. He even tries to warn Connor about Nightlight and tries to tell Stanley that it isn't too late to change by writing secret messages to them in Playbills.]]

* GildedCage: Nightlight is located in the middle of the beautiful, lush jungle but the kids at the camp cannot leave until they "graduate," a process that can takes months, sometimes ''years''.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The plot is kicked off when Ario, Connor's boyfriend encourages Connor to come out to his mother, with ''disastrous'' results. Despite thinking that coming out would free Connor and he would be better off for it, Ario fails to consider just how different their lives and familial situations are and the dangerous position he put Connor in. [[spoiler: Connor ends up breaking up with Ario at the end of the book due to this, as he can't quite forgive him for it.]]

* BigScrewedUpFamily: And ''how''. [[spoiler: As teenagers, Reverend Stanley Packard and his cousin, Ricky Hannigan, were both sent to Nightlight to "cure" their homosexuality. However, it was Stanley who betrayed Ricky, feeling guilty after enjoying himself at a gay bar. This betrayal led to a rift between Ricky and his father, Bill. Later, when Stanley is invited to Ricky's commitment ceremony, he brings Bill along in a misguided attempt to stop the event. Afterward, fueled by homophobia and alcohol, Bill commits a heinous act, killing Ricky's husband and leaving Ricky paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Stanley and Bill flee with the help of the Nightlight camp, but Stanley, still resentful of his father and unforgiving of Bill's actions, takes matters into his own hands. He ''kills'' his own father, hoping to force Bill into a MortonsFolk situation, where he would be unable to seek help without incriminating himself.]].

* BigScrewedUpFamily: And ''how''. [[spoiler: Reverend Stanley Packard and his cousin, Ricky Hannigan were sent to Nightlight when they were teenagers in an attempt to cure them of their homosexuality; it was Stanley who ratted Ricky out after feeling guilty about being taken to a gay bar and enjoying himself. Soon after, Ricky purposefully estranges himself to his father Bill. Stanley was invited to Ricky's commitment ceremony, and he brings Bill along, in a misguided attempt to stop the ceremony. Afterwards, in a drunken homophobia-fueled stupor, Bills ''kills'' Ricky's husband and seriously injures Ricky to the point where Ricky cannot walk and spends the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Stanley and his father then wisk Bill away and hide him in the Nightlight camp, but Stanley (not forgiving Bill for what he did as well as resenting his own dad for making him hide his sexuality) ''kills'' his own father in an attempt to force Bill into a MortonsFolk situation where Bill can't seek help or else incriminate himself]].