Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite

Embrace the Truth is the third book in the Desert of Dreams Series by Amanda LaPera; the story of Misty and her coming-of-age in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Antelope Valley, California. She grew up in a household with a father with a split personality who could be really nice when sober and a wife-beater when drunk. Her mother is a devoted Catholic. To escape the chaos at home, Misty would explore the beauty in the Mojave, tend to a Japanese garden, and rescue desert creatures. As an adolescent, she experiences complex relationships. When Casey kisses her, Misty discovers an unusual attraction to women, but then her siblings discover her secret diary, and she suffers a humiliating backlash. Her struggles magnify when her father loses his job as an aerospace engineer and becomes a religious fanatic. What happens when Misty refuses to follow the humiliating Purity Ring Ceremony?

Amanda LaPera’s novel has the characters I want to read about, real and complex. She presents a young girl struggling with sexuality and faced with a father who grows from being abusive into something even worse. A lot gets you thinking in this book: queer identity that follows Misty’s arc from a compliant, docile child into a survivor; religious trauma that escalates into the Purity Ring. The characters are thrust into a world of exploration, and the author builds dialogues that reflect the world of teenagers and things that matter to them. Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Gary are characters who got my attention and admiration. Added to the exceptional characterization and the witticism in the dialogue, Embrace the Truth delivers excellent prose. The symbolism in the story is profound. The author depicts the desert as both a place of refuge and a threat, and the theater as a place for more than performance. Embrace the Truth teaches readers to reject shame and honor their inner compass against the hypocrisy of performative Christianity.