Product reviews for Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith and Family

There is something deeply disturbing about this book, but at the same time there is also something uplifting.
The book on one level is the story of Conley’s trip into a wilderness that destroys his life and those of his family.  Conley who is brought up in the strictest faith of the Missionary Baptists deep in the American bible belt.  When he attends college as a young sophomore, he is raped and then outed by his rapist to his family.  What follows is a description of Conley’s contact with Love in Action, and their twelve step ex-gay therapy.
However the book at a deeper level has actually three stories.  The one of Conley’s journey and rejection of LIA, the story of his mother and father and the story of his father’s ministry in the Church that would ultimately reject the pair of them.
At times the narrative is difficult to the stage where the book becomes impossible to read, but at the same time the text calls you back.  It calls you back not because the subject or the story is pleasant and gives you a buzz, but because you need to challenge and prove that there is a better way for the world to react than the one portrayed in the early chapters.  It calls you back because there must be hope there must be something beyond the harrowing experience that was the mistaken belief that ex-gay therapy was even a legitimate programme to promote.  It calls you back because adversity must be followed by hope…………….. Conley proves this but at a cost, but what the ultimate cost is he leaves the reader to decide.