Summary

The book opens in Memphis, Tennessee in June of 2004. Garrard Conley was 19 years old and had checked in to Love in Action (LIA), a Christian Organization dedicated to converting attendees away from homosexual behavior. The leader, John Smid, informed Conley that Conley’s problem was that he had become dependent on sex in place of being dependent on God. Life at LIA was defined by strict gender conformities, as well as rejection of all secular aspects of life in favor of a strictly religious Christian lifestyle. Conley felt desperate to be rid of his homosexuality and was willing to do whatever the people at LIA told him to do. His mother was the one who drive him to the facility. Ion the lobby, the receptionist confiscated all of Conley’s belongings, including the notebook in which he wrote short stories. Conley agreed to spend...