I wish I could write an unbiased review of this book, but I can’t.

Matthew Paul Turner is one of my best friends and a gifted writer and I only have glowing things to say about his newest release. In his last book, Churched, I think he found his voice, in his new book, Hear No Evil, I think he perfects it. Released last Tuesday, he already has readers talking, laughing, and creating playlists. Hear No Evil is his best work yet. (Yes, I know I said that about his last book, but he just keeps getting better as a writer and storyteller.)

Matthew grew up in a fundamentalist church filled with some crazy characters and he wrote about many of them in Churched. In Hear No Evil, the story continues as Matthew heads off to college–Belmont, in Nashville, TN–to become the Michael Jackson of Christian music. Yes, that really was his college plan. Fortunately, things turned out differently and now he writes full-time.

If you have more than a casual conversation with Matthew, he will tell you that he’s spent most of his life trying to overcome his fears. But you can’t tell that from his writing. He writes fearlessly of his past. I know many people (me included) who laugh out loud when they read some of the things Matthew encountered on his journey from extremely sheltered life to, well, conservatively sheltered life.

But when I read Matthew’s take on his childhood, I mostly just want to hug him for being brave enough to write about it and to do so in a way that is both gentle in his treatment of others and raw in honesty.

If you love Christian music or hate it, if you ever felt like living in the Christian bubble is a good idea for your family, or if you want to see why it takes Matthew two pages in his book to acknowledge me, you need to get a copy and read it.

Download the first chapter here.

Buy it from Amazon here.

After you’ve read it, come back and leave me a comment telling me your thoughts.

~Jennifer