Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing: Essays

I found Lauren through her viral article about being a cable guy/blue collar worker with PTSD as a lesbian. When I learned that she got a book deal I immediately put it on my TBR list and it doesn't disappoint. Every essay is a brutally honest accounts of her life growing up in a cult, her integration into “real life” not once but twice, her experience and discharge from the air force after receiving death threats and being the victim of arson.

Hough does not paint herself as a victim or a martyr or someone who is now in a better place because she was able to make good decisions. She's honest about her shortcomings, which combined with the lack of resources and being trapped in systems that consistently make it impossible for her to reach a maintainable lifestyle leave her in vulnerable to most.

Is Hough someone I would want to hang out with? Probably not. But she's a good a writer with a very compelling story that examines the pitfalls of her own mental health and the systems of America.