GOOD SLAVE: A MEMOIR OF FAITH, CONTROL, AND FREEDOM
What happens when being “good” means losing yourself?
Raised inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses, R.E. Chatterton learned early that obedience was more than expected—it was tied to love, belonging, and survival.
Good Slave: A Memoir of Faith, Control, and Freedom follows a life shaped by faith, family, trauma, marriage, addiction, shunning, and the exhausting pursuit of being exactly who everyone else needed her to be.
But this isn't only a story about leaving a religion.
It's about what happens when you finally stop asking for permission to become yourself.
What Is Good Slave?
Good Slave is a fragmented memoir about growing up inside a high-control religion, losing yourself in the pursuit of perfection, and finding the courage to rebuild your life from the ground up. Told through vivid memories, reflections, and moments both heartbreaking and unexpectedly funny, the story follows a lifelong journey through faith, family, love, loss, addiction, and ultimately, freedom. This is not a book about having all the answers. It's about discovering the freedom to finally ask your own questions.
Why I Wrote Good Slave
For years, I believed my story wasn't worth telling. I convinced myself that what happened to me wasn't unique enough, painful enough, or important enough to matter. But the more I talked with others, the more I realized something surprising: We all know what it's like to lose ourselves trying to become who someone else expected us to be. I didn't write Good Slave to attack anyone or to tell people what they should believe. I wrote it because I know what it feels like to question everything you've ever known—and because I hope this story reminds someone that they're not alone. If this book gives even one person the courage to ask an honest question, start an honest conversation, or believe that a different life is possible, then every page was worth writing.
The Story Begins Here.
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GOOD SLAVE - AUDIOBOOK
Read by R.E. Chatterton. Release date: 2/7/27
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Free Interactive Reader’s Guide
Finished the book and still thinking about it? Download the free Good Slave Reader’s Guide—created for individual readers, book clubs, discussion groups, or anyone who wants to explore the story a little deeper.
Reflect on the themes of belief, belonging, family, identity, control, freedom, and rebuilding—and type your thoughts directly into the interactive guide.
DOWNLOAD THE FREE READER’S GUIDE
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Some mysteries don’t stay buried.
Twenty-one-year-old photographer Charli Prescott has spent her entire life in Briar Glen—a picturesque Appalachian town of mountain streets, familiar faces, and secrets that seem to settle into the landscape.
When the murder of Ellis Rook, founder of the town’s beloved Harper’s Chicken, rattles the community, Charli finds herself drawn toward the investigation being led by her father, veteran Briar Glen detective John Prescott.
But in a town where everyone knows everyone, the truth is rarely simple.
As old connections surface and carefully kept secrets begin to unravel, John and Charli discover that one murder may be connected to something much deeper—and much closer to home than either of them expected.
Beneath the Surface is the first novel in The Briar Glen Mysteries, an atmospheric Appalachian mystery series about family, buried histories, small-town loyalties, and the things people will do to keep the past from being uncovered.
COMING SOON
Can’t wait to visit Briar Glen? Get caught up on the town, its people, and the secrets already beginning to surface by reading Stories from Briar Glen—a collection of short stories set in the world of the series.