GOLD MEDAL WINNER - 2026 Illumination Book Awards

"Wilson does not clean himself up for the audience. The writing has the kind of honesty most memoirs sidestep." - Asher Syed, Readers' Favorite

"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." - Elizabeth Ridley, Coauthor of The Dirt Beneath Our Door (Matt Holt Books, 2025)

Some children are born with a place to belong.
John spent a lifetime looking for one.
Raised in poverty in the backwoods of South Alabama, he grew up amid violence, instability, and fear. Home was never safe. Love was never secure.
Then a small Pentecostal church at the edge of a cotton field offered safety, purpose, and the family he longed for.
But belonging came at a price.
To be loved, he had to perform. To remain part of that world, he had to hide the truth inside him that his faith rejected.
So he abandoned himself and became the person everyone needed him to be.
A husband.
A father.
An Evangelical pastor.
For years, he believed that obedience, sacrifice, and faithfulness would finally earn the love he longed for. Instead, the truth he buried rose and threatened everything he had worked so hard to build-his marriage, his ministry, his community, and the family he loved most.
What followed cost him nearly everything.
Yet losing the only world he had ever known became the beginning of finally coming home to himself.
Raw, honest, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Straight to Hell is an award-winning memoir about shame, identity, authenticity, and the search for a place-and a self-you can finally call home.

*Includes book club questions and discussion guide.