I'm about to purchase "Elders," by Ryan McIlvain on BookBub. Can anyone here tell me something about this book? All I know is that it's fiction and about Mormon missionaries. Should I buy it?

Why do I immediately leap to surmise that you're the author's mother?

You COULD buy it. OR...and hear me out on this...you buy a fiction book that isn't about a topic that is mind-numbingly boring.

I'm wondering if this is written with a Mormon "slant" or might be something more honest about a missionary's experience based more in reality (perhaps written by an exmo). I'm thinking by your response, it's more likely the former. I just read Cheryl's fact-based story about her personal experiences with polygamy, and I'm searching for another good read. Sounds like Elders isn't it.

I like to promote the POV that in other than the sciences, there is no such thing as 'non-fiction'. By that I mean that we all edit the accounts we give of our lives. Sure, I can tell a quick truth about something I just did, but stories beyond a certain complexity become steeped in fiction, for this and that reason.

The big secret to enjoying life is to never tell a lie that can be proven.

Regarding mission stories, too bad PostMormon(dot)org is still down. There is a collection of stories there, about 150 of them, about apostate activity by missionaries. Many of them are downright hilarious. And by and large, it was my impression that there wasn't much exaggeration going on.

The worst stories are the ones written by elders and sisters who really, really tried to be righteous.

I wish I could recommend an entertaining book about mormonism...
Which of course rules out the book of mormon...

I read many of those stories on the down server -- I alternated between hilarity and heartbreak. Great collection, I hope it's not gone.

As to Ryan's book...I read around 20 pages of it (somewhat disjointedly) using the "preview" on Amazon. From what I saw, it was honest, unvarnished, and entertaining. While Ryan's still LDS (at least as far as I know), it's not full of "faith-supporting" tales of miracles and obedience. It's just a names-changed, probably enhanced (as EOD points out above) tale of the reality of his mission. I rather liked it and had planned to get the e-book version.

Every story of old dog's life is basically fiction. Truth with crazy additions like pretending to be a dead guy for worthiness interviews haha.

Thanks anyway. The author, McIlvain, apparently resigned in his mid-20s. Sounds like shortly after his mission. Thought he might have something to say about the disillusionment of faith-based dogmas and the misguided energies around proselytizing. I have a list of other books I'm interested in. I'll just move on to one of those. BookBub is pretty cool. All ebooks. Some for free. Most .99 to 2.99.

Oh, he did resign? Thanks for letting me know. :)

There's another service called Freebooksy:

https://www.freebooksy.com/

I signed up with them and BookBub and get an email every day from them with both free and inexpensive books. I've got more books on my kindle to read that I will ever read.

Lots of them turn out to be not worth the effort, but they're free!