I'm interested in the topic and would probably read a full-length work on most of the authors' lives in extreme religions, but the short essay doesn't work. The cover is pretty, and a lot of the writing is good. And there are some good quotes. I like how Naomi J. Williams characterizes her parents' disgust with "church-hoppers," as "ecclesiastically promiscuous."
That same essay led me to a revelation (heh) that reform* has opposite meanings in Christianity and Judaism. Reform Jews' reformation is contemporary, and they are the least conservative flavor of Judaism, whereas Reformed Protestantism is Reformation based, as in 17th century.
In an essay about Orthodox Judaism, specifically Hasidism, Leah Lax groups the religions to which her 1972 peers adhered. "Others of our friends were affecting a hippie air or carrying around Quotations from Chairman Mao or The Communist Manifesto, Siddhartha, or Dune. Dune!
Elise Brianne Curtin basically lumps religious icons with systemic oppression, "I'd decided a long time ago that God and Jesus and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were all lumped into the same category of lies adults tell children to keep them wondering and guessing and believing in power structures and mythical characters that have the capacity to influence and dictate good, moral, and socially acceptable behavior."
I also want to shout out my friends Caitlin Constantine who has an essay about her Mormon teens and Joshunda Sanders whose contribution is provocatively titled Seducing God.