Book Review | Dear Alyne: My Years as a Married Virgin tries to be an exposé, but ends up being textspeak confessional

After living by rules, set by her faith, Alyne’s world shatters when her husband asks for divorce over email. So, is author Alyne Tamir's story worth the read?

Raised in a strict Mormon environment, online personality Alyne Tamir was taught to be dutiful and selfless and to always put others first. The church’s grip on her formative years was intense until she finally broke free from its constraints and societal expectations.

Cover of the book, Dear Alyne: My Years as a Married Virgin.

But alas, this book reads like an unedited confessional that tries to be brutally self-aware, but the sentiment is lost amidst the persistent textspeak littering through the prose (LOL!). Alyne is honest, yes, but her honesty doesn’t translate into true revelation. The opening chapters are self-effacing, while the ending comes across as little more than a bloated attempt at self-discovery.

There’s a voyeuristic pleasure in glimpsing the private world of a former Mormon wife, complete with her tentative explorations of intimacy. To the book’s credit, her fears around sex are neither exaggerated nor sensationalised. They don’t tumble into the overexposed, performative ‘sex content’ that dominates much of today’s mass media. Instead, what a reader gets is a candid, slightly rough-edged account of an ex-Mormon navigating life after faith, full of awkward realisations. It may not be groundbreaking, but it indeed is a compelling peek behind the curtain.

Title: Dear Alyne: My Years as a Married Virgin

Author: Alyne Tamir

Publisher: HarperCollins

Price: ₹999

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