3 More LDS Reviews

So last Saturday (Nov. 20), I got email message from two Mormon bloggers telling me that their reviews of No Going Back had been posted. Then today, I happened on a third review at another website that I hadn't seen before. Below are a few excerpts from these three reviews (plus links to the full reviews), followed by some philosophizing about the value of blog reviews like these for No Going Back.

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Lisa at The Book Worm's Library awarded 4 stars out of 6 ("good read"). She wrote in part, "[T]he beauty of this book is that it simply presents the two different perspectives, as well as the difficulties anyone struggling with this moral dilemma encounters. How does a young person, still learning to come to terms with their own sexuality, and still struggling to understand their own identity outside of the sexual definitions of society, cope with being in the minority? How do young people confront the problem of overcoming their desire to remain faithful to their religion, their church teachings, and still come to terms with their sexual orientation?… Mr. Langford is sympathetic in his presentation of a very difficult topic, and he does so in a way that helps shed light on both sides of the picture in this difficult situation."

While unsure who might be the natural audience for No Going Back, Melissa at One Librarian's Book Reviews was mostly positive in her review. She wrote in part, "With a main character professing to be both gay and Mormon, there are lots who could take offense. I found myself entirely impressed with the skill and ability that Langford was able to capture the essence of what it must feel like to be torn in such a way. Paul felt very realistic to me — a teenager with the regular problems and a whole lot more stacked on his plate…. I especially liked how the ending was not so much happy as hopeful."

In a sidebar under the heading Worth Your Time to Read, Pam Williams at The Write Stuff wrote in part, "No Going Back by Jonathan Langford is a difficult novel to read, but worth it…. Definitely not a young adult book, this is a must-read for adult leaders who deal with teens…. Most outstanding in the book is Paul's bishop who loves and guides him with the kind of compassion many of his peers don't have."

So yay for me! And yay for book blogger/reviewers too, who read and share their thoughts and provide a way of publicizing books that's not tied to mass media or corporate marketing budgets. May their tribe increase.

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So just what am I hoping for from these blog reviews?

Chris Bigelow, my publisher, made an interesting comment. Lamenting the fact that blog reviews don't seem to add many actual sales, he wrote: "But we have to also count the great responses as rewards unto themselves that make it worth it." The fact that each reviewer is one more person who's read and talked about No Going Back has some (non-monetary) value in itself.

I suspect that readership among LDS-focused book blogs overlaps enough that few if any readers of any particular blog that reviews No Going Back won't have heard about it before. Instead, I suppose what I'm hoping is that a generally positive buzz will develop among the community of LDS readers — that people who hear about No Going Back will also get a kind of vague sense that it's good, and possibly worth reading. Not so much a matter of picking up new readers right now, but rather of building a base for oingoing positive referrals.

I think we're now past that point where any new pool of readers is likely to be discovered out there (though I'd be happy to be proven wrong). Over time, though, I think there's a good possibility for a moderate number of new readers to encounter the book: people who heard about it but didn't jump on it right away, and people hearing about it for the first time. For those readers, a relatively widespread net of positive approval could (I'm guessing) exercise a gentle pull that makes them just that bit more willing to give the book a chance.