Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing: Essays

Lauren Hough has worn a lot of hats: she has been a member of the Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer, and—as we see in this essay collection—a writer. She also grew up in the Children of God cult, also called The Family, an upbringing that took her around the world and forced her to take on a new name and identity at each new place she settled. In this collection, we bear witness to Hough’s upbringing, its effects on her adult life, and what it’s like to be a queer woman in the many places her life brings her, from the gay club where she works to the air force base where she’s stationed.

Hough’s voice as a writer is raw, frank, and unflinching, shot through with both humor and pain. In offering an unfiltered look at her struggles—and her triumphs—Hough gives her readers a sense of the messy, imperfect, terrifying difficulties of life, but also a sense of the unsentimental optimism that can be found in even the most unstable and troubling circumstances.