Jess Silver Concepcion's Reviews > The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary

You think you know someone until you read their memoir….

I cracked open this book believing I knew the story already: kid is unhappy being a missionary, calls in a bomb threat to go home. (Ok, yeah, I oversimplified a bit.) But no, that is not the story. The story is how he got there, and it is amazing.

From the very start, Shunn immerses you in his world of rigid, restrictive religion, where questions are unwelcome and doubt has consequences. It can be disconcerting to realize your entire future is set out for you, and any misstep can lead you to lose your family, your sense of belonging.

This is Shunn’s Mormon upbringing, and it is suffocating.

Woven throughout is a fascinating history of Mormonism, from its first spark of perseverance to some ugly terrifying ends. As a non-Mormon who didn’t know any of this history, it was astonishing. And with every newly learned fact held up beside Shunn’s missionary adventure, my stomach dropped.

This is a story of disenchantment bringing a kid to finally recognize and find validation in his own sense of self. I closed the book and immediately wanted to give Shunn a hug.