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Branch Manager Reviews: Boy Erased by Garrard Conley

Boy Erased: A Memoir by Garrad Conley

This book is truly beautiful. It's a meditation on family relationships, coming out and Christian faith. This true story describes a few years in the life of Garrad Conley, a preacher's son. He struggles with his faith and his homosexuality. He is able to successfully hide it for some time, but eventually he's outed and decides to go through "gay conversion therapy."

The experiences he and his family go through are told in honest and beautiful prose. Garrad loves his family and his faith is important to him. He struggles to make everything right. Especially wonderful in this story is the touching relationship between Garrad and both his parents. He goes through a lot with his parents through this story and it's clear they are all trying to do what is right, even if their instincts lead them astray.

I found this book to be heartbreaking and eventually hopeful. Garrad's story isn't unique: many other young people have been forced into conversion therapy and had to struggle with the aftermath of what the program did to them. Recommended for adults and older teens.

Find Boy Erased at the library.
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