Unveiling Grace: The True Story of How We Found Our Way Out of the Mormon Church

Wilder’s memoir belongs to a new breed of ex-Mormon exposé. It’s not salacious. It’s not full of wild revelations. It’s not even particularly angry, though the former BYU professor and stake relief society president does express regret for the decades she spent as a Mormon. Now an evangelical Christian, she explains that her family’s decision to leave “the Mormon Lord” and embrace a “bigger God” was spurred by the unexpected defection of her most spiritually attuned son. While the tone of the book may represent a fresh direction in Mormon-evangelical relations, as memoirs go this account feels workmanlike, even plodding. It’s overly detailed, about 80 pages too long, and riddled with a surprising lack of narrative tension. The same elements are present in the author’s life at the Mormon beginning and the evangelical end—happy and close family, various miraculous experiences, stable lives, etc.—with the only differences being a move from Utah to Florida and an involvement in music and ministry to persuade the “dear Mormon people” of the truth of the biblical Jesus. (Aug. 20)