FAQs about my book :)

Audiobook, orders going live now, whether it's for YOU, etc.

Sup, I wrote a novel, available now. (Update: We’d planned to do a three-month preorder period, but nah lol. Ebooks bought at Payhip will arrive instantly, ebooks at Amazon and almost everywhere else are going live 12/22, paperbacks bought wherever are likely already shipping, and we’ll be shipping our Payhip physical copies ASAP.)

All money I make from Hell Is a World Without You sales by February 12, 2024 will go to the Trevor Project.

Also, our book launch party is on February 16 at Monday Night Brewing’s Garage in Atlanta, with the Shutdown Fullcast doing “Church Disasters” live. Tickets and details here. (Update: Sold out within 24 hours. #niche)

And here are answers to some things I’ve been asked!

Which site should I order from?

Wherever’s best for you! Three examples:

• Shutdown Fullbooks‘ signed hardcovers and ebooks both mean pay-what-you-want charity money.

• Book Shop paperbacks might get us onto the radar of, well, book shops.

• Amazon ebooks/paperbacks have the most widespread sales benefits (and mean I can screenshot myself ranking ahead of Mitch Albom).

• And so on!

Audiobook?

[Update, May 2024:] We’re working on it! It’ll be available ASAP.

Will you do the whole audiobook in [wacky comedy character voice]?

Lots of people have said the book made them laugh, but about as many have said it’s made them cry. (This is a way of saying “no.” Still, we’ll have some fun with it.)

Will you do my podcast? Can I have a review copy for an article? Want to visit my venue for a book event?

Email jasonkirkbook at gmail for all stuff like that. The answer’s yes, if I can!

And if you know anybody who writes/talks/whatever about religion, books, or anything, put us in touch! I want this book to leave my bubble and enter others!

Is it YA? I don’t read YA.

I love some YA authors, but no. Publishing-industry people, including my professional book-editor, William Boggess, agree it’s a coming-of-age story for adults.

How authentic to the Evangelical experience is it? Does it mention ______?

By the end of sentence one, you’ll get a Switchfoot title and “eternal conscious torment.” On Twitter, we’re seeing if anyone can stump me with a reference I failed to include.

• April Ajoy: “Like reading my own teenage Evangelical diary.”

• Jon Bois: “Almost astonishingly accurate. Unlike anything else I've read about the Evangelical church.”

• Blake Chastain: “Will remind you what it was like to be — or be classmates with —the religious kids. Cathartic.”

• Jane Coaston: “No book I've read has better or more lovingly depicted teen Evangelical terror.”

• Brian Dannelly: “Took me back to my days as a hopelessly confused church kid. Absolutely adored.”

• Mason Mennenga: “As if Jason wrote the biography of many of us.”

• Tyler Parker: “I’d never before read a book so in tune with what it’s like to grow up in an Evangelical church.”

• Brian Phillips: “I grew up in one of the most Evangelical places on the planet. Jason Kirk’s hilarious, big-hearted, and deeply humane novel transported me right back.”

I’ve never been a hardcore believer. Is this book for me anyway?

Perfect! Surely you’ve wondered what goes on inside the monolith that sways the world’s most powerful empire, right?

Not only will I show you what those people’s whole deal is, I’ll show you what it would’ve been like if you’d had zero choice but to spend your first two decades hoping that monolith conquers the world — even if that required conquering you.

• Independent Book Review: “A wonderful novel.”

• Publishers Weekly’s BookLife: “A resonant novel, briskly told, with laugh-out-loud comedy and poignant insight.”

• Spencer Hall: “As a non-Evangelical, I had no idea what it’s like. Jason writes his ass off about it: beautifully, angrily, and with deep empathy.”

• Will Leitch: “Whoever you are, you’ll find some of yourself in it.”

• Zito Madu: “Enthralling story, as engaging as it is hilarious. Sweet yet biting.”

• Claire McNear: “A magic trick: almost tactile in its specificity, yet utterly universal.”

• Ryan Nanni: “For anyone who's ever felt disappointed by an institution (or experienced formative moments via AOL Instant Messenger)."

• Victoria Zeller: “Devastatingly funny, heartbreaking, and incisive. Will resonate regardless of background.”

(Alex is smarter than me, but his anecdote is true. There were scenes I had to keep working with until they felt plausible to outsiders. Awana veterans, meanwhile, were DiCaprio-pointing at those scenes.)

I’m still part of a conservative denomination/non-denomination. Is this book about how much you hate me?

1. Nope. The Bible says you and I are animated by breaths of the same Spirit.

2. You’ve never seen your world reflected more accurately. Who ya trust to write an authentic lock-in altar call: me or some coastal agnostic? Thanks.

3. The book’s actually about something much bigger and older than White American Evangelicalism.

I’m not a Novels Person. Shouldn’t I instead read books with facts about Rome?

My Rapture chapter will teach you a fact about Rome. Also, this novel’s 99% inspired by real stuff, so you can think of it as mostly non-fiction, if that helps.

Hardcovers for librarians?

Coming ASAP at Ingram Content. (ISBN 9781735492650.)

Does the book have a soundtrack? Granted, that’d be a weird thing for a book to have.