This book was beautifully written. I know that Jackie Hill Perry is a spoken word artist and the words of her book flowed together so well and were easy to read.
She portrayed her life before Christ and all that it entails without unnecessary details but enough to clearly show how she was living far from the Lord.
Her transformation by the gospel was compelling and encouraging to read! I would definitely recommend this book.

I wanted to LOVE this book. I enjoy reading memoirs regardless of whether or not I have much in common with the author. I often read memoirs of people with whom I disagree because it is nice to see our similarities.

With this book, I wanted to cheer Jackie Hill Perry on in her journey. This book was described as her journey to wholeness, however on most pages I found my heart breaking for her. It read like anything other than wholeness.

I would not recommend this book to people who are wanting to better understand how to love their LGBTQ+ community members.

I have great respect and love for Jackie, her writing style is easy to connect to and she was vulnerable in her story. There were parts of her story that I found enlightening, but I couldn't help but hurt for her and the pain she has carried.

The publisher provided an ARC through Netgalley. I have voluntarily decided to read and review, giving my personal opinions and thoughts

I love to know people. I like to have new friends, I like to hang out with people who are very different than me, unique, radical opposition to the things I know, like and enjoy. I've learned a lot of things that way. Jackie is that kind of friend I'd like to have, to understand a lot of things, to ask, to share. The way Nancy DeMoss introduced this book got me like oh yes, she gets it, she is also very different and I feel the same way and we both enjoy and admire Jackie. Yes, the way she wrote about Jackie is the way I felt about her. Our looks, childhood, sins, friends, family, our everything is different, but so God is the same, is good and this book helped me to understand another girl's history. If you want to enjoy other girl's words and the musicality and depth she puts into everything go get the book (it is going to be ready in Spanish "soon", I know that). We need this kind of topics so very much, the other side of the story, not just the one that gets more attention.

Gay Girl, Good God is simply incredible- one of the most powerful and transparent autobiographical books that I've ever read. It's a wonderful story, beautifully written (and beautifully narrated by the author if you have the audiobook). Jackie Hill Perry is so real in telling the story of her struggles in life, how and why they came, and how Jesus Christ transformed her life. It's messy, and often heart-wrenching, but it's a story that needs to be told and needs to be heard. Jackie talks about her struggles with sexuality and self-identity, her wrestling with singleness and marriage, and her long journey towards finding her identity in Christ. Read this book; it will impact your life.

I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher and was not required to write a positive review.

Gay Girl, Good Good: the story of who I was, and who God has always been by Jackie Hill Perry
This is Jackie Hill Perry’s story of how she became a Christian. Yes, she was young when she realized that she was attracted to the same sex. She embraced the lesbian lifestyle shortly after high school. She changed the way she walked and what she wore to look more masculine. She had a long time girlfriend but always found herself wanting more.
Jackie Hill Perry describes her life in a very conversational way in the first part of the book. She lets the reader into her life, struggles and her relationships. In the second part of the book, Ms. Perry brings the reader into the process of how she accepted Christ. She also discusses how she struggled with her sin including homosexuality. Throughout the second part of the book, she not informs the reader of the Gospel. How it changed her life and who was instrumental in her hearing it. She also, shares scripture supporting what she tells the reader and for encouragement. The last third of the book, Jackie shares resources for reader’s who are attracted to the same sex.
The book was very readable. It is broken down into Jackie’s life, her conversion and then her marriage to her husband. The story is hers to tell so I will not review that part of the book. Written in such a way that you get the impression she is having a conversation with you the reader. The last part of the book is a treasured resource. The resources she shares are useful for all Christians not only same sex Christians. Our identity is not in who we are (sexual identity) but who’s we are. Ms. Perry lists several scriptures that point to that Truth. The other take away from the book is that same sex attraction is not a sin but it is when acting on that attraction is a sin.
This book is a memoir to be shared with same-sex Christians who are living out their life in Christ. A very powerful read. Share it with people wanting to have loving faith discussion with homosexuals.
I received an ARC ebook from Netgalley and the publisher, B & H Books in exchange for an honest review.

I picked up this book more out of curiosity then anything. I ended up reading it for revelation.

This book was hard for me to read, not because I dealt the same-sex attraction, quite the opposite, I have dealt with opposite-sex lust. Even though the way we (Jackie and I) expressed our sin was different the feelings are the same.

As I read her description of choosing sin I couldn’t believe how it described me and I choice sin. The feelings, the “freedom”, I felt the same way.

Jackie definitely has a gift with words and the revelation God has given her in relating this subject to others.

This book is powerful in truth and wisdom. Even if you don’t struggle with sexual sin we all struggle with a sin and I am seeing now the pulled, the desires might be and feel the same for us all.

I don’t have enough time to write about everything I loved about this book, but it is worth the read, and it is a quick one too.

Visit Jackie here.

Grab your copy at your local bookstore, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Christianbook.com or your favorite retailer.

A copy of this book was given to me through Netgalley.com. All opinions are my own.

Gay Girl, Good God is the story of Jackie Hill Perry and the intersection of her life with God. Jackie is a very gifted poet, which is seen throughout this book. Jackie weaves the story of the transformation in her identity from being one who identified herself by her temptation to one who has found her identity in who God is and who God created her to be.

I think one of the most important themes in the book is the focus on the gospel and what the gospel does/does not promise to do in the life of a believer. Hill Perry warns the reader against believing or proclaiming a heterosexual gospel. By this Hill Perry points to the all too common tendency in the church to say, whether blatant or not, that the gospel includes that God would merely take away same-sex attraction. Hill Perry highlights the fact that this is not God’s promise. God desires to rescue and redeem people. He desires to draw people to Himself. The hope of the gospel is that God will remove the power and penalty of sin, but this does not mean the removal of the temptation toward sin.

The message throughout the book is compelling. Hill Perry is a gifted writer, and she makes much of God throughout the book. As I read the book, I found myself in deeper awe of God and the incredible power of the gospel. I recommend this book for all believers who desire to be left in a greater sense of wonder concerning who God is and what He has done.

I am taking part in a book club online this year and this month’s book is Gay Girl Good God by Jackie Hill Perry. Also, Netgalley was offering it as a review, so I thought perfect timing, or I should say God’s timing!! In all honesty, I probably would not pick this book up myself to read. It just isn’t a subject I was all too interested, though I know I should be. Thankfully Jackie changed that for me in her book. This girl can write!! She shared her story, through presenting the Gospel, and that my friends is the way we should tell our stories!

I think everyone should read this book, but I know many won’t want to pick it up. So maybe you don’t have any gay friends/family, but this book is so much more than that. In addition to her struggle with same-sex attraction, she also shares about fatherlessness, abuse, identity temptation, addiction, misconceptions of womanhood, and fighting lust with the gospel. What amazes me about this woman, is that she points all the good in her, the changes that were made in her to Christ. He is the One that gave her the power to change, He is the One who opened her eyes to the truth, He is the One she turns to when she is facing temptation and lets Him help her fight her sin. None of this was easy for her. She says this “The God who does the miraculous. And we can be sure that the salvation of a sinner is the greatest miracle the world could ever see.” I never thought of my salvation as a miracle, I know I don’t deserve it, but to see it as a miracle is a beautiful truth! She talks about her marriage “We were brought together for the primary reason of pointing to the mystery of God’s gospel. Marriage was the way God wanted me to glorify Him.” Just a wonderful reminder of what the real purpose of marriage is. Here are a few other highlights from my book:

If the truth is what sets us free, then why not walk in it at all times? With wisdom and love, of course, but also with the reality that truth is where freedom begins.
Unbelief doesn’t see God as the ultimate good. So it can’t see sin as the ultimate evil. It instead sees sin as a good thing, and thus God’s commands as a stumbling block to joy.
This body was never mine to begin with, it was given to me from Somebody, for Somebody. Somebody whole made it for glory and not shame. Until I got to know Him though, my identity it would be made up of whatever dust that flew up from the devil’s feet at he ran through the earth.
The same Bible that condemned me held in it the promises that could save me. I just had to believe it. It – being what is said about God.
What You are calling me to do, I can’t do it on my own, but I know enough about You to know that You will help me – I said to God.
I could’ve without question, done what I’d always done, allow this body to rule me. In it sat another master, however – One who was involved with an empty tomb and a risen Savior.
I was able to want God because the Holy Spirit was after my affections just as much as He was after my obedience.
Light has a way of welcoming in the truth and letting it put its feet up, which in turn means that everything not like it, though it may invite itself over, can’t get comfortable enough to stay.
You have to believe My Word is truth, even if it contradicts how you feel.
The temple being used rightly was important to Jesus, and I felt as if there was a shared passion for my womanhood. How I moved about the world as a woman mattered to God.
Faith let fear know where it could go, away.

The last part of the book is more of resource section, to those dealing with same-sex attraction or those wondering what they can do to reach out.

Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been, by Jackie Hill Perry, is a brave book. Perry tells the reader that she was a lesbian who became convinced that hers was a sinful lifestyle. She repented, embraced the Bible and left her girlfriend to live a celibate life; eventually, she met a man and married, and today she says she is a happy wife and mother.

I'm sure Perry will face criticisms from people who are born gay and do not agree that they should have to change or even that they can change. It takes courage to reveal that kind of personal information, knowing you'll draw fire from those who disagree.

Most of Perry's book is about finding God's grace and mercy and living a forgiven life. She witnesses to all readers, those who are gay or straight, and their families and friends. I wish she'd told us more about her transition from being gay, however. I wasn't looking for intimate details, but I'd like to know how a person "goes straight," so to speak, especially when many people report having suffered through conversion therapy that did not change who they really were.

And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new" Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true,". And he said to me, "It will be done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. Revelation 21:5-6. It should be an expectation of both newer and older believers coming out of the LGBT community that they will experience the temptation to identify as something other than what Scripture has declared as true. Whether it is the identity of sin, the identity of the Church or the Identity of God, there is a real enemy that takes delight in our doubt. But the greatest weapon we have against him and even our own flesh is faith in God's word. By trusting it as having the final say, we will remain strong even when we are weak! Be Encouraged.

Identify is the key word and Jackie Hill's testimony reflects how she came to identify with Christ. Christ became her identity. That is key for all of us in walking with the Lord. What is your identity? What ever is taken from you, will you be able to go on? Will you find purpose? This is a question that we all must ask because the answer is life and death. Jackie's story starts with her childhood and the pain she had with her father. How her identity became wrapped up in the LGBT community and how God pursued her.

Please know that this is not a hate book but a testimony of love that was found. A love that our soul longs for and our hearts find rest. Jackie Hill profession is a poet and so you know she is speaks profoundly. I have included a link to youtube with her and her husband sharing the word. Her story cuts to the heart. She is transparent and she speaks truth! I Highly recommend.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwAw3...

A Special Thank you to B & H Books and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

In the culture we live in today, where things like reversal therapy and calling homosexually a sin are forbidden, books like this are so incredibly important. Jackie is so brave to come out with her story when it's highly likely she will be shouted down by the majority of the world. The world doesn't want us to know that it is possible to turn away from homosexually and love a fulfilling, happy, God-honoring life! Thank you, Jackie, for proclaiming your message and the truth.

I really wasn't sure what to expect, but wow...this woman's heart for God really jumped off the page. I didn't know anything about Jackie Hill Perry, so I wasn't expecting the highly poetic prose. I really enjoyed her writing style.

Now, the book isn't a strict course of theological apologetics: this is Jackie's heartfelt testimony of what all God saved her from. She doesn't attempt to answer all the naysayers; she preaches Jesus and what His holiness and grace drew her out of. As a testimony of her salvation, this book is beautiful and well done. I agreed with all her theological points, something I find all too rarely. Well done, Jackie.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy. A positive review was not required.

“This work is my worship unto God that, with prayer, I hope will leave you saying, God is so good!” – Jackie Hill Perry

I, for one, can say that Perry has succeeded in her goal. After concluding this book, I did hear the testimony presented in the court of my inmost being that ‘God is so good’. Indeed, he is good. His mercy endures forever.

Gay Girl, Good God is one of those books that is not easy to put down. Jackie Hill Perry doxologically narrates her own story, which is filled with heart-aching yet God-glorifying content. Perry had a very dark childhood, to say the least. She was molested at a very young age. As an unplanned baby, her father didn’t really love or care about her. When age dawned on her, while other girls were attracted to boys, she felt strangely attracted to the same sex and… I don’t want to spoil this beautifully written story for you, so to know about God’s work in her life, read the book.

But this much I can say: this story is multifaceted like a diamond. It plunges the depths of Biblical theology. Perry, who is a poet, employees word-pictures masterfully to paint scenes, evoke emotions, and stir feelings. The author excels in wordsmithery. Like a skillful tour guide, she takes her readers to every important corner of her life. This is not a dead story but is full of heartfelt reflections which I suspect will help many people to understand SSA persons better. Also, this pleasurable read manifests a gentle apologetic, warm evangelistic and robust pastoral edge. That is to say, locked in the pages of this book are floods of insight.

The only potential weakness of this book is several typos. But that shouldn’t be used as a motivation not to read this wisdom-filled and heartwarming book.

I thank B&H Publishing Group for providing me with a complementary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is Jackie Hill Perry’s story. But it’s not just her story. It’s the story of how sin affects us all and how desperately we need Jesus Christ.

Mrs. Perry’s childhood was not an easy one and it definitely affected her negatively. Aside from that though, she was born with a sinful nature just like the rest of us. As much as we may try to ignore it we’re all sinful and desperately in need of a savior. Perry’s teen/young adult years were filled with lesbianism. Even after she came to Jesus she still struggled with SSA and the consequences of her past sins. It’s only with God’s help that she had the strength to break up with her long-term girlfriend, make drastic lifestyle changes and leave the LGBT community she’d grown so comfortable in. Through all the pain and bad choices in her earlier life God still had a plan for her. Now at age 29 she’s a wife to a Christian man and a mother who uses her story to encourage others and spread the gospel.

I, personally, went into this book in hopes of understanding LGBT people I know better and learning how to shine Jesus’ light to them. I didn’t realize that in addition to that I’d find so much in her story about our sinful nature as humans and God’s goodness to apply to my own life. The bottom line is that whether we’re gay or straight we’re all sinful and in desperate need of God’s mercy. When Perry came to Christ her eyes were opened to not only lesbianism being a sin she struggled with, but also her pride and selfishness. Just ‘going straight’ wouldn’t have fixed her ‘problems’. She needed Jesus. Just like we all do.

I highly recommend this book to older teens and adults, whether they’re Christian or even secular. Read this if you’re interested in what makes Jackie Hill Perry’s story remarkable. (Spoiler alert: It’s God’s goodness. The same goodness he shows to all of us.)

Jackie Hill Perry writes beautifully about her life and God. I’d recommend this book to anyone that’s curious about who God is or skeptical about His love for them.

Reading a Jackie Hill Perry book is exactly like listening to her album or hearing her speak. Her language is powerful, poetic, shocking, evocative, and deeply revealing of how little I know of a world that I've never experienced, but should absolutely not be ignorant of. Perry is a wonderfully skilled wordsmith which makes her book hard to put down. Filled with carefully crafted sentences that paint vivid pictures of sometimes painful memories, she simultaneously shows how a sovereign God was intentionally seeking and saving her. Also a solid theologian, Perry intimately tackles questions of homosexual identity and SSA from her own journey and pushes back against the notion of a 'heterosexual gospel' with clarity and Biblical wisdom. The trick with 'Gay Girl, Good God' is not to pre-emptively box Perry in with expectations based on the book's title. Rather, Perry weaves a wonderful story of how God uses all of our brokenness to reveal his grace. This book is for all of us, because it's actually all about Him.

I had never heard of this author until this book. I was intrigued by the title and its being promoted by a few blogs I follow. Before I give my review, I must say that my liking the book does not make me a fan of the author’s rap music, nor do I completely agree with her view on social justice. This review is simply based on this book and not on on the author’s other works.

The most important part of this book is the author’s biblical emphasis when talking of her sin, conversion and sanctification. I’ve read a blogpost where Ms. Perry was accused of neglecting the Holy Spirit’s work in sanctification by her emphasizing that the purpose of the gospel is not to make one heterosexual, but to make one love Christ above all things, including one’s sexuality.

She states multiple times that we are more than our sexuality, so heterosexuality should not be the goal of the same-sex attracted (SSA) Christian, Christ is! She is quite clear in her book that SSA is wrong and the Christian who struggles with that has to fight to the death to kill that sin. For some like the author, it results in a heterosexual marriage. For most, it may not. But the fight keeps on going for both groups.

Ms Perry is clearly a poet. I usually do not like artsy wording (e.g., Vosskamp), but the author’s way with words grabbed both my heart and mind. Her skill in mixing and combining words to make her point is quite inspiring.

She starts the book with her life in sin before Christ, but ends it with her life with Him. This book is not about the gay girl really, but about the good God who saved her, who made her see that everything else is unimportant in comparison to Him, and who continually sanctifies her in her daily battle with sin and walk with Him.

A gay girl once? Yes. Now? I am what God’s goodness will do to a soul once grace gets to it.
Jackie Hill-Perry’s book is a poetic memoir that opens with this perfect encapsulation of her book’s focus. She says herself that her chief sin before coming to Christ was not homosexuality, but unbelief. That is not to diminish actions, but to get to the root of the problem. She did not truly believe in a good God to save her, so her thoughts and actions reflected that unbelief in a myriad of ways. And isn’t this true of all of us? My core sin was unbelief as well, and a pursuit of desires outside of God. We all need a good God to save us from our own choices.

I say that her book is poetic because at every turn I wanted to read a string of words again. She is a wordsmith by trade, and it is on full display. For example:

Words like gorgeous, amazing, wonderful, or breathtaking are easy, borderline lazy when used to describe the Holy One. If, over coffee, we could ask Adam what word came to his mind the moment after he exhaled and saw God for the first time, he’d probably say, “Good. I saw Him and knew He was good.”
All that He said was good was good because He was. Including all that He’d commanded me not to do, for He knew that the cruelest thing He could ever do was to not tell me and everyone alive to avoid what would keep us from Him.
She can even make the word “good” come alive like never before because of how she connects it to who God is. This passage also gives insight into Hill-Perry’s primary theme: God is good, and he shows that by saving you from yourself.


If you don’t accept Hill-Perry’s central conviction that homosexuality is a sin that people need to be saved from, this isn’t the book for you. I suggest you start somewhere else and come back to this one later. But she is also clear with her Christian audience that our treatment of gay individuals is not acceptable a lot of the time.

Saint Louis, being not too far removed from the Southern culture of holiness or hell, passed down through each watcher’s bloodline, must have made them think that making a terrible face would make me pick up a Bible.
What makes this reaction from Christians so disconcerting is illuminated a few pages earlier:

My hands, head, face, legs, hips, hormones, private parts, voice, feet, fingers, feelings, were all made by Him and for Him. Apparently, this body was never mine to begin with — it was given to me from Somebody, for Somebody. Somebody who’d made it for glory and not shame. Until I got to know Him though, my identity would be made up of whatever dust that flew up from the devil’s feet as he ran through the earth. (Emphasis mine)
Why do we expect non-Christians to act like Christians? Why do we expect them to understand what we only understood after a good God showed us? Can’t we show them the same good God and trust in Him to save them? Or must we act like we have it all figured out when we still sin against God every day?

She also lovingly calls out the church for elevating straight-ness over the gospel. Placing marriage over a relationship with the Creator. Making an idol of the here-and-now at the expense of eternity. I can’t help but use her words because they are just so good.

I know now what I didn’t know then. God was not calling me to be straight; He was calling me to Himself. The choice to lay aside sin and take hold of holiness was not synonymous with heterosexuality. From my prior understanding of God as told by the few Christians I’d met, to choose God would be to inevitably choose men too. Even if my liking of them became a way for me to chase away the gayness without God’s help, I figured, that’s what would please Him most. That when He looked at me, He saw a wife before He saw a disciple. But God was not a Las Vegas chaplain or an impatient mother, intent on sending a man my way to “cure” me of my homosexuality. He was God. A God after my whole heart, desperate to make it new. Committed to making it like Him. In my becoming Holy as He is, I would not be miraculously made into a woman that didn’t like women; I’d be made into a woman that loved God more than anything. If marriage ever came or singleness called me by name, He wanted to guarantee by the work of His hands that both would be lived unto Him.
That is the crux of our issue as the church, focusing on external signals more than someone’s internal, eternal status. We will only reach those who God wants us to reach if we reach out as He would: with compassion, and words that show what God has done and how we are all unworthy. Culture wars can’t win souls. The gospel wins souls.

If you have same-sex attraction, know that you are loved by God. And pick up this book. You will find a God who is good and wants to share His goodness with you. If you have a loved one who is same-sex attracted, pick up this book. You might learn a lot about your loved one by reading Hill-Perry’s story. If you are a child of God who wants to know more about how to reach those with same-sex attraction, still pick up this book. It will help you immensely in finding empathy and approaching everyone with the love of God.

Near the end of Gay Girl, Good God, Hill-Perry mentions a book that had an effect on her life: Christopher & Angela Yuan’s Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope. I had already had an advance copy of Christopher Yuan’s upcoming book, Holy Sexuality and the Gospel, on my bookshelf. I immediately picked it up. It is less a memoir and more a theological study, and I can’t wait to tell you about it next.

You can buy Gay Girl, Good God at Lifeway, many other Christian bookstores, or on Amazon.

I received this book as a review copy and an eARC courtesy of B&H Books and NetGalley, but my opinions are my own.