Strong writing, and a compelling story. The best part is about 200 pages in when the narrator describes his life as a student at Brigham Young University. He also explains in convincing detail just WHY so many people have such a hard time leaving a religion they know is hurting them. His discussion of Mormon psychology alone makes the book a must-read, but it is the sweet and painful story of innocence destroyed that is the real meat of the novel. While my husband was living in Salt Lake in the 1970's, his bishop tried to get him to undergo electroshock therapy at BYU. Thankfully, my husband refused. Far too many others, however, were brutally coerced into torture, all in the name of love. It is vitally important that this atrocity is not brushed under the rug.

Johnny T. Townsend

The story is an ex-mormon life adventure, one in which Mormonism is a force that will either kill you or make you stronger, as you test your own strength against it. The protagonist’s experience is shaped by growing up gay and Mormon in a rural Mormon town in the 60′s and later attending BYU in the early 70′s, and the reader is invited to see how adversity fertilized the flowering of the gay community in the 70′s. It’s clear to the main character as a child that he doesn’t fit, and that his differences will ultimately be a ticket to some faraway experiences he could hardly imagine. Meanwhile, his childhood peers mostly end up settling down young, following their parents’ well-worn life path.

Carol Hamer