Straight to Hell

<p><strong>★ GOLD MEDAL WINNER - 2026 Illumination Book Awards</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Wilson does not attack faith. He wrestles with it. Honestly. Painfully. And at great personal cost. He writes with candor insight and emotion-and without a shred of self-pity. - <em>Elizabeth Ridley Coauthor of The Dirt Beneath Our Door (Matt Holt Books 2025)</em></strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Wilson does not clean himself up for the audience. The writing has the kind of honesty most memoirs sidestep. - <em>Asher Syed Readers' Favorite</em> ★★★★★</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>What happens when you abandon yourself to stay loved?</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Barefoot in the backwoods of South Alabama John grew up amid poverty violence fear and a family constantly coming apart.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The small Pentecostal church at the edge of a cotton field offered safety certainty and a place to belong.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>But belonging came with conditions.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>To be loved he learned to perform.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>To be accepted he learned to hide.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Deep inside he carried a truth he believed made him unworthy of both-one his faith couldn't accept and he couldn't change.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>So he became the person everyone needed him to be.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A husband.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A father.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A pastor.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>For years he devoted himself to doing everything right believing that obedience and sacrifice would finally make him worthy.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>When the truth finally surfaced it threatened everything he had sacrificed himself to protect. Most of all it threatened the relationship with the two daughters he was determined not to lose.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>What followed was a long journey through grief and exile toward something he had never known before: the freedom to be fully seen and still be loved.</span></p><p></p><p><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Straight to Hell</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is an award-winning memoir about faith family sexuality shame and the long road home after a lifetime of hiding.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>At its heart the book asks two questions:</span></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Who did I have to become to stay loved?</strong></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>What would happen if I finally came home to myself?</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>*Includes book club questions and discussion guide.</span></p>