At 3a.m. one night during the quiet shade of the pandemic, a 17-year-old boy entered his parents’ bedroom to reveal a truth he’d been navigating alone for years. In his confession, he not only came out as gay, but also conveyed the depths of the mental health struggles he’d been battling as a result of conflicting messaging he’d endured in the religious institution in which he'd been raised. Autumn McAlpin’s haunting literary memoir, But Jesus: A Conversation replays the various conversations that emerge during one family’s coming out story—interchanges with loved ones who lean in and those who pull away, the back-and-forth with various LDS church authorities, and the quiet (and not so quiet) pleas of a mother as she petitions the higher power she believes in—one who offers unconditional love and hope for all.