You don’t see a lot of YA memoir. This one is really terrific. About a boy growing up in a strict fundamentalist Christian family. Turns out, he’s gay. That sounds a bit ho-hum, but Hartzler tells his story in a really nuanced, compassionate, and funny way. ( )

This memoir chronicles the author’s conflicted feelings about his parents’ Evangelical Christian faith and describes the teenage Aaron’s growing rebellion and search to determine his own beliefs

A lovely YA memoir about growing up fundamentalist and coming to doubt while still loving your family and friends. Hartzler is Gay, and I am sure that fact was a part of what led him to question, but this is not a coming out story. It is both broader and more unique than that. Hartzler is charming and funny, and this reads like a chat with a friend who is a fine raconteur. The prose is not elegant, but it's an enjoyable read. ( )

Apparently I'm in to memoirs about growing up in fundamentalism now. Cool. This one was more on the funny side than Girl at the End of the World, but I am going to stop the comparisons there because the two books do not really share that much ion common in tone, message, or topics.

Aaron Hartzler grew up in Missouri, going to church multiple times a Sunday, attending a Christian school, performing in evangelical plays, and never quite feeling like he fit in. He creates the "perfect son" mask and wears it the best he can, hiding his love for secular music, sneaking out to movies, watching tv, even drinking at a friend's. This book is about the soul-crushing responsibility of maintaining discrete personas with various groups of people. It is about hiding yourself so completely that maybe you can bury part of yourself where even you can't find them. And it's about the consequences of the mask falling away. It's about accepting people, loving people, as they are, even when their worldview is different from yours. And it's about giving them the chance to love you back.

Aaron Hartzler is gay. But this book wasn't about that. It was mentioned, but it was not the plot-driver of this book. I think that was one of the things that made this book so good. It managed to tell a story about bring true to yourself and showing the world who you really are, told from the perspective of a gay teen, that was not about being gay. It was certainly about questioning the status quo and how best to deal with parents,but that is a struggle for every teen, not just the gay ones. ( )

The memoir of growing up in a strict Baptist household. Hartzler conveys the terror of Hell and breaking the rules that his parents/church/school/camp taught, but he also gives us scenes of joy and family togetherness. It's a more nuanced description than I think most people would be able to give.

I didn't love this--there isn't much of a driving force to this book, and Hartzler isn't much of a writer. But he describes his changing mindset and the evangelical context well. ( )