Before he was vice president, JD Vance was the bestselling author of his memoir Hillbilly Elegy. And now, Vance is back with a new book, in which he discusses his conversion to Catholicism, and he’s been going on the media rounds to promote it. The book arrives as doubts are beginning to rise over Vance’s viability as a future presidential candidate, while he’s very much been made the fall guy for the somewhat ignoble end of the Iran war.
And now, the reviews have not been kind.
According to The Daily Beast, the book’s Goodreads page has been flooded with one-star reviews, while the average review, as of Wednesday morning, was 1.27 stars out of five, with 93 percent of reviews one-star.
“Go read bell hooks ‘Communion’ instead,” one reviewer suggested, recommending the work of the late feminist author. “Much better book, and bonus you won’t be financially supporting a Christian nationalist!”
The reviews are in.
https://t.co/lKg1W6qWcN— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) June 17, 2026
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“Hey JD. Maybe if you actually want to find your faith, maybe actually follow the teaching of Jesus and not Donald Trump,” another one-star review said. “Jesus said to give to the poor. That what you do to those with less, you do to him. Y’all are a disgrace, and I’m ashamed being from the same state as you. You are a sheep and a kiss ass and terrible for America and the world. Meow.”
The “meow” was likely a reference to Vance’s 2020 campaign trail comments about “childless cat ladies,” for which the vice president apologizes in the book.
“Of course, his world view has changed from Rand libertarianism to never Trump, to whatever it is now which seems to latch on to Trump, Charlie Kirk, and a mainstream religion. I think the book confirms, this is an ambitious man who really has no idea who he is and doesn’t care,” another one-star review says. “He will become whomever he needs to be in his quest for power and fame. This is a scary man.”
But it wasn’t just Goodreads readers. The Wall Street Journal also published a negative review of Vance’s book.
Barton Swaim, writing in the Journal, described the book as “part religious memoir, part campaign book,” and accused the veep at one point of “egregious sloppiness.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
