*Thank you to NetGalley and Word On Fire Publishing for the free copy*

This book has a number of flaws, both as I try to read this as someone of the target audience (older Catholic parents/relatives) and as someone who was never raised Catholic.

Part of the issue stems from the fact that much of this book points to other books if you’re genuinely looking for advice. The author gives some answers to questions, but ultimately asks you to look elsewhere, which isn’t really helpful if you came to this looking for answers directly.
Some of the advice is ‘pray about it’ and ‘fast about it’ which is something that I’d imagine a religious person would *already be doing* before picking up this book. Ultimately much of the advice seems redundant as a Catholic person must’ve already considered some of these options.

Another part of the issue is that when it comes to the reasons why (young) people leave is sparingly explored deeply, and the material suggested is incredibly inaccurate and offensive.
I can’t say much for the books listed that I haven’t personally read, but recommending parents read ‘When Harry Became Sally’ is egregious. I’ve explored that book more in my own review, but the summary is this book is this;
“…the most conservative of all anti-trans books, and its direct ties to The Heritage Foundation make it clear that it’s not in for the benefit of trans or gender non-conforming people. It refuses any and all input from trans people themselves…The citations it made in (especially in regard to detransitioners) have since been deleted or the creators of said citations themselves have called out this book for its appropriation of their work/experiences.”

Saying that gay people are perfectly welcome is also a misnomer, as the author and a large portion of The Church will not be ‘welcome’ to Catholics who are in gay marriages/relationships. The book only offers lifelong celibacy as the only way for a gay/lesbian person to participate.
Criticisms of abuse and sexism are also brushed aside, and if this is to be used on a person who was directly abused/mistreated with sexism because of The Church, having one’s experiences be responded with ‘Well that’s sad but not *all* churches are like that’ is unhelpful.

A nitpick, but I also dislike that the book refers only to the child as ‘he/him/his’, and the author gives a poor excuse that it would be too ‘confusing’ to use ‘they’. It’s not confusing, and it’s more fitting than just defaulting to calling someone a boy.

This isn’t a great book, and is way too shallow on too many topics to actually dive into why people leave Catholicism and go elsewhere. Please do not implement these methods, especially when many of them are dismissive of other people’s perspectives and lives.