What readers are saying. What others are writing.

Writing a book is a strangely private thing. Eventually, though, you have to let it go and allow other people to decide what it means to them.

Since the release of Good Slave, I've had the privilege of hearing from readers who connected with the story for reasons I sometimes expected—and reasons I never could have predicted.

This page is a collection of some of those responses, along with press coverage, interviews, and other places my work has found its way into the world.

READER REVIEWS

In their own words.

Good Slave is my story, but one of the most rewarding parts of publishing it has been discovering the ways readers recognize pieces of their own lives within it.

Some relate to the religious experience. Others recognize the family dynamics, the struggle with identity, addiction, grief, starting over, or simply the exhausting experience of spending too much of your life trying to be who everyone else thinks you should be.

Here are a few things readers have had to say.

IN THE PRESS

The story behind Good Slave

The Dispatch · Lexington, North Carolina

In July 2026, my hometown newspaper, The Dispatch, featured my story and the release of Good Slave—bringing the book back to the community where so much of my life, and so much of this memoir, began.

Reporter Jill Doss-Raines spoke with me about the experiences behind the book, the complicated road that eventually led me to write it, and why I decided that some of the most difficult chapters of my life were finally worth telling in my own words.

For a story that began in Lexington more than forty years ago, seeing it return home in print was a pretty special moment.

A note about the cover

You may notice that the copy of Good Slave pictured in the original article has a different cover from the edition available today.

That earlier cover belonged to one of the book's first editions. As Good Slave continued to evolve after publication, I made the decision to redesign it around something far more personal: an actual photograph of me as a baby.

The current red cover isn't simply a new look. It brings the book visually back to the child at the beginning of the story—the little girl who had no idea how profoundly faith, family, obedience, trauma, and other people's expectations would shape the life ahead of her.

The words inside tell the story of who she became.

The cover now shows you where that story began.