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sarah_lou_ise's review against another edition
4.0
really good read. I don’t realize it was more a collection of essays than a full narrative, which I found a bit jumpy. probably my own fault for not noticing since I got it as a library ebook and read it on my little phone screen
monsieurhannah's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
gmd316's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.5
Choppy and not enough context given at times
abbie_'s review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Thanks to Libro.fm and Penguin Canada for my free ALC!
A collection of essays from a white, queer ex-Jehovah’s Witness turned porn star turned author, this book intrigued me from the get go. However, I expected more of a memoir and overlooked the fact it was written as essays. As a result it felt quite disjointed and scattered. It seemed we’d spend ages on one topic that could have been shorter, then quickly brush past a huge chunk of his life to arrive somewhere else - it could be a bit disorienting. I actually found the later essays, when Cox had left the JWs and Canada for New York and was forging his own path as a model. These sections felt raw and honest and well thought-out, whereas the sections about his youth growing up in the JWs felt muddled. I imagine it takes a lifetime to heal from the trauma of growing up in a cult-like religion which hates queer people, and so I can forgive that Cox might not have the ability yet to write with utter clarity about that time in his life.
Would definitely seek out some of this author’s fiction, and would be interested in reading from some of the other authors mentioned in this book who left the religion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Religious bigotry
raych_arles's review against another edition
4.0
Favorite quotes:
“This kind of fearmongering couldn't stop me from leaving the cult; rather, it made me eager to become the kind of sexual outlaw they shun. I joined a queer community that took care of one another during a plague and that religion had already left for dead. Revelling in the touch and warmth of queer and hated bodies would indeed mark the first time I felt that a new world was actually possible.”
“If the Witnesses were committed to caring about people in a way that mattered, they would mobilize help for their immediate communities instead of preaching to them about an imaginary Paradise where "death and sickness will be no more." They would stop shunning those who've left, those whose isolation is compounded by a pandemic that makes the task of finding new communities more difficult than it already is.”
“This kind of fearmongering couldn't stop me from leaving the cult; rather, it made me eager to become the kind of sexual outlaw they shun. I joined a queer community that took care of one another during a plague and that religion had already left for dead. Revelling in the touch and warmth of queer and hated bodies would indeed mark the first time I felt that a new world was actually possible.”
“If the Witnesses were committed to caring about people in a way that mattered, they would mobilize help for their immediate communities instead of preaching to them about an imaginary Paradise where "death and sickness will be no more." They would stop shunning those who've left, those whose isolation is compounded by a pandemic that makes the task of finding new communities more difficult than it already is.”