First published 2026
Emilee Hackney grows up in southwestern Virginia's coal country, an eighth-generation Appalachian surrounded by family stories of mining's harsh realities. At fourteen, she meets Sam, a high school senior who introduces her to Deliverance Christian Church and radical Pentecostalism. Eager to please, Emilee submits to the church's extremist teachings and becomes engaged to Sam at nineteen. She doesn't realize her fiancé hides his true identity. Years pass. Emilee finds herself cut off from friends, family, and her own instincts. Shame and doubt consume her as she reaches a crisis point. In a bold move, she applies to Harvard and wins acceptance. She leaves Tazewell's mountains for Cambridge's academic halls, beginning the difficult work of rebuilding her relationship with home, faith, and personal values during the turbulent 2016 election season. This memoir chronicles Hackney's journey from religious control to hard-earned freedom, revealing how she found her voice after being taught silence.
Genres: christian, abuse, coming-of-age, autobiography, cults, contemporary, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family, religious-trauma
Setting: Appalachia, Cambridge, Tazewell, Virginia
Period: 21st-century
384 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press
Content warnings: abuse, emotional-abuse