Book Review: "Boy Erased: A Memoir"

I recently read Boy Erased: A Memoir by Garrard Conley and thought I'd offer a review of it.  I found out about it when I saw a trailer for the movie (with Nicole Kidman and Russel Crowe) based on the book.  The trailer looked intriguing, and I figured I'd read the book first.

From Wikipedia:

Boy Erased: A Memoir is a 2016 memoir by Garrard Conley recounting his childhood in a fundamentalist Arkansas family that enrolled him in conversion therapy.

Conley recounts what it was like to grow up in an extremely conservative and fundamentalist religious town as a young man struggling with his sexual orientation.

The book itself was a great read.  Conley is a gifted author with a knack for using incredibly moving language.  He has a way of connecting the reader to his story that feels intimate, like you are there with him through his experiences and feeling his emotions along with him.  The book is mostly chronological, but he interjects various moments in time to help the reader better understand the story at large.

One could argue that this memoir is more about Conley's relationship with his dad, a highly respected religious man in his church and community.  If nothing else, it is clear that the underlying theme throughout the memoir relates to his father.

As a heterosexual Christ-follower, I had a surprising and unbelievable sense of his struggle between his sexual orientation and his religious upbringing.  He so clearly articulates how he grappled with the desire to please God and his family and his undeniable sexual preferences.

Before reading Conley's memoir, I felt like I had a solid opinion about sexual orientation (from a Biblical standpoint).  The real compliment to Conley is that he now has me re-evaluating what I believe.  I'm not saying my opinions are necessarily going to change, but his memoir has stirred within me the desire to take a closer look at what the Bible says about homosexuality.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Boy Erased and would certainly recommend it.  (Note: while Conley does a fantastic job of using appropriate expressive language, there are some situations in the book that are of a more mature nature.)