Speaking as a non-Mormon who's lived in Provo, Utah, and had good Mormon friends, if you know little about the unique Mormon culture, this book will give you some key high points. Difficult to read in some places, but never over-told.
Welcome back. Horrific and remarkable - truly worth the read!
So sad that our own families act like our enemies because of bigotry, ignorance and intolerance. Alex Cooper is gay, and at 15, she was brave enough to come out to her strict Mormon parents. Today however, she becomes the one person that things are done to. .orange-text-color {font-weight:bold; color: #FE971E;}Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more. Yeah, well Jeff Hunt who directed the film had approached me after he read her book. Then the nightmare began. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. What if something worse than the abuse she suffered occurred while she wa. It was a little bit different back then, but still, this notion that however you're born is how you're born, but you can't act on it sort of thing. They believed that being gay was a choice, a bad choice that would keep her out of paradise. At church and at home, Alex was taught that God had a plan for everyone. I empathize with Alex’s fear of losing everything important to her, but Alex’s story will help pave the road for more young people to accept who they are, and hopefully for families to understand how to better love their gay and lesbian children. I think the fact that Jeff and I both have a background as Mormons, and that I'm also gay I think probably gave her a lot of confidence. This was a strong 4.25 almost 4.5 for me. Difficult to read in some places, but never over-told. Along with Alex's story, this is a story about abusers and how they get away with it. In this deeply personal book, Alex Cooper recounts her teenage years undergoing conversion therapy after her parents, devout Mormons, discovered she was gay. This book is as horrific as you might expect based on the title. When Lola Dakota is murdered he could be the logical suspect, however he had been arrested just before the murder.
It's also a nice retort to the loons blathering about Sharia law in the US, as even after her escape, Cooper is forced to lock horns with a homegrown version in the Utah legal system. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Series list: Alexandra Cooper (20 Books) by Linda Fairstein. Not acceptable to god or your family. The author's prose is expressive, honest, and moving as she writes about how she battled to balance her own sense of faith and acceptance of her sexual identity with the strong tenets being forced upon her, which excluded gay people completely. I also saw quite a few people in the church who were so supportive of gay people, and who recognized that it's not a choice, you don't just choose to do something different. An exhilarating read that I couldn't put down.
She moves from the back alleys of lower Manhattan to expensive salons within the Upper East. Saving Alex book. .orange-text-color {color: #FE971E;} Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip. Their methods included wearing a backpack made heavy with rocks and standing face to a wall to "Feel" the weight of her bad "choices" and to realize that she was deluding herself by believing she was gay. I hope so. VERDICT A moving, timely memoir perfect for teens who love autobiographies or LGBTQ books, or reluctant readers who need a short biography to fulfill a class assignment.—Sarah Hill, Lake Land College, Mattoon, IL, “Alex Cooper’s story is a call to action - we must put a stop to this brutal practice of conversion therapy and ensure that every child is embraced for who they are in their homes, schools and communities.” (. Conversion therapy, in general, is so deeply harmful to young people's psyches. The writing was decent, but not amazing. Powerfully told, authentic story. Cooper emphasizes the hopeful elements in her nightmarish experience: you are never alone; there is always help. Alex was physically and verbally abused, and many days she was forced to stand facing a wall wearing a heavy backpack full of rocks.
Auto Suggestions are available once you type at least 3 letters. This is sad that someone has to go through so much just because who they fall in love. One day, she told her mom she was gay.
Oklahomo: Pee, Peeping, Police, Pistols, Puritans, Pedophiles, and a Witch, High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life, Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality, Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and The Problem of Racial Innocence, Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family, A Queer History of the United States (REVISIONING HISTORY), Captive: A Mother's Crusade to Save Her Daughter from the Terrifying Cult Nxivm, Raising Ryland: Our Story of Parenting a Transgender Child with No Strings Attached, Once a Girl, Always a Boy: A Family Memoir of a Transgender Journey, Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith, Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life, Raised in the Mormon Church, Cooper was always a rebellious teenager. I also felt like I was left with some unanswered questions at the end of the book, although perhaps they are unanswered because Alex is still so young and might not even know the answers yet! However, this story is an important one- change. This memoir is sure to rile teens to action.
Saving Alex is a courageous memoir that tells Alex’s story in the hopes that it will bring awareness and justice to this important issue. After Alex came out to her parents as a lesbian, they sent her to strangers who subjected her to physical and emotional torture and an orthodox version of Mormonism in hopes of making her realize her sexuality was a choice. Why does Alex’s current lover and former Senate candidate try to cover his involvement with the late actress? And that's I think the great thing about this is that anyone will have access to it. When Alex Cooper was fifteen years old, life was pretty ordinary in her sleepy suburban town and nice Mormon family. Now a Lifetime Original Movie--Trapped: The Alex Cooper Story! The writing was redundant and amateur, which can be ignored mostly because the story is so intriguing. Heart-wrenching, suspenseful. Yeah, it does. Could not put. Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2018.
So they found a place in Utah to send her to cure her by making her choose to be straight and to stop choosing to be gay. There are so many things I like about this book. Alex is a truly remarkable and inspirational girl and not just because she survived her ordeal and fought for her survival and freedom. Use up arrow (for mozilla firefox browser alt+up arrow) and down arrow (for mozilla firefox browser alt+down arrow) to review and enter to select. This is simply another break neck thriller; it captures the heart of New York City, the possibility, its glamour and worst of all an endless capacity for its darkness. At church and at home, Alex was taught that God had a plan for everyone. Alex Cooper made legal history in Utah by winning the right to live under the law’s protection as an openly gay teenager. I felt so terrible for Alex and I was so relieved when she was able to get some justice. It also showed how a young person especially can be affected by those with ulterior motives of control and repression through manipulation. It's still legal in I believe all 50 states for anyone. Horrific and remarkable - truly worth the read! Information about Gay-Straight Alliances, PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People), and student rights is integrated effectively into the narrative, and even reluctant readers will enjoy this memoir. While reading this memoir to teach to one of my senior independent study students, I felt a connection to Alex Cooper's words. The rest of it is all stuff from the book, and things that Alex actually experienced, which to me is one of the most incredible things that she experienced all of that, and came out the other side, and is now able to advocate for people so that they don't have to go through the same thing. I think I read it in an evening, and I called him the next book, and I said I'm in. What you're seeing onscreen, the one thing that did change from the book, just for the dramatic purposes of the ending, I brought the girlfriend into the end, so there was a nice bookend with the girlfriend. I wanted EVERYBODY in this book who had a hand in sending Alex Cooper to “therapy” to go to jail. Alexandra Cooper made her debut in the novel Final Jeopardy. Alex’s story is a gripping example of the reality too many LGBT youth face across the country. In her case, the fact that the abusers were well-regarded in the community while she was an outsider led people to ignore what was happening right in front of them. Congratulations. At church and at home, Alex was taught that God had a plan for everyone. Alex’s horrifying story is one that needs to be heard, and her book is an eloquent testament to that. You can view Barnes & Noble’s Privacy Policy. If your child is born and grows up to love the same sex, then they are going to be the most awesome gay kid ever.