Bad Mormon by Heather Gay
Drinking and Tweeting meets Unorthodox in this vulnerable memoir about The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star’s departure from the Mormon Church, and her unforeseen success in business, television, and single motherhood.
Straight off the slopes and into the spotlight, Heather Gay is famous for speaking the gospel truth. Whether as a businesswoman, mother, or television personality, she is unafraid to blaze a new trail, even if it means losing family, friends, and her community.
Born and bred to be devout, Heather based her life around her faith. She attended Brigham Young University, served a mission in France, and married into Mormon royalty in the temple. But her life as a good Mormon abruptly ended when she lost the marriage and faith that she had once believed would last forever.
With writing that is beautiful, sad, funny, and true, Heather recounts the difficult discovery of the darkness and damage that often exists behind a picture-perfect life, while examining the nuanced relationship between duty to self and duty to God. Exposing secrets she once held sacred, Bad Mormon is an unfiltered look at the religion that broke her heart.
A revealing and ultimately hopeful memoir, Bad Mormon is a captivating read in the vein of Untamed , Educated , and Me Talk Pretty One Day .
Review:
I love me some Heather Gay, y’all. Surprisingly enough, I am a huge Real Housewives fan. Put me in a room with Chinese takeout and endless replays of Real Housewives or RuPaul’s Drag Race and I will be in heaven. I held out on watching Real Housewives for the longest time. My friend Erin who I did Six Degrees of WTF (a true crime podcast) with and my future cohost of the GenX podcast Back Where We Belong has fangirled over the Real Housewives since it started however many years ago. She always tried to get me to watch it and I refused. Then the pandemic happened. I binged Beverly Hills. I couldn’t get enough. Then I binged New Jersey. Then I realized that there was a Salt Lake City franchise, and being that I grew up Mormon and southern Idaho, I had to give it a go. I immediately became a Heather Gay fan – holy hell is she relatable. Former Mormon – yep we have that in common. Self deprecating sense of humor? Yep. Slightly awkward, tendency to say the wrong thing at the right time, and ridiculously loyal even to people you know you probably shouldn’t be? Check, check check!
It was a no brainer that I was going to buy her book and devour it as soon as it was released, and that I did. In fact, I read it and then I listened to the audiobook which Heather reads herself. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook if you don’t watch Real Housewives of Salt Lake City or know who Heather is. She has a distinct way with words, and hearing her read her book adds a layer of enjoyment that you don’t get from reading it yourself. I’m not at all saying that the book isn’t enjoyable – it totally is – I’m just saying that listening to Heather read it to you is super fun.
If you’re an ex-Mormon like me, you’ll find yourself nodding along as Heather describes growing up “in the church”. And, if your family was jack-Mormon like mine (meaning we were all baptized into the church and went to the occasional function and let the home teachers and relief society ladies come chat, but we rarely went to church), you’ll feel a sense of relief of never getting as entrenched in the religion as some do. I found myself nodding along when Heather mentions some of the thoughts that went through her head, and I also found myself shaking my head at some of the things that happened in the temple. (I never went on a mission, nor did I get married in the temple – they don’t let gays do that), so I never experienced any of those things – nor do I want to.
I think the most heartbreaking moments of the book were hearing about the failure of her marriage. When the show starts, Heather is already divorced and raising her three beautiful daughters while running a business (and kicking ass at it I might add). Hearing how the marriage dissolved and what she went through to keep her and her girls afloat is really inspiring. It was also fun to geta. Behind the scenes look at how the show was cast and who almost didn’t make the cut.
If you’re an ex-Mormon or a Housewives fan, this one is definitely for you.
