Beautifully written and bravely honest, Wayward is an eye-opening memoir I connected with in surprising ways.
When I wrote the first draft of my own memoir last year about escaping from toxic religion, I had no idea I was engaging in a larger discussion with a community of people with similar experiences. As detailed in Wayward, the author and I share parallel experiences growing up within the confines of fundamental evangelical Christianity: speaking in tongues, being slain in The Spirit, the Purity Movement, awaiting The Rapture, and so on. At one point in my teenage walk with The Lord, I was Luke – the character in Wayward who had delusional beliefs about love and marriage.
What happened after Alice lost her religion? After having the narrative of her reality erased?
Alice had to find her true self and begin rewriting a reality on her own terms.
It’s enough to make you scream from the trees.
In the end let’s just say she escaped with a few flesh-eating wounds, as have I. Wayward is a compelling, intense read for everyone who has left The Fold.
For more info, visit the author’s nonprofit Dare to Doubt.
