Holy Disobedience is a gripping, unflinching story by Melissa Duge Spiers about growing up in the shadow of control, silence, and secrets within the strict, fundamentalist Seventh-day Adventist Church. When Melissa learns that a family member, a respected pastor, was a serial child predator shielded by the church, her world implodes. But this revelation is only the beginning.

From being beaten for resisting a childhood home perm to seducing a forbidden public-school athlete to reclaim her autonomy, Melissa's early years were shaped by repression, shame, and indoctrination. Her escape from high-control religion launched her into a life of risk--Wall Street jobs, New York nightclubs, and Hollywood hookups. And yet, in these extremes, she was searching. Through self-reflection and finding her voice, and through an unexpected friendship with her family member's first victim, Melissa slowly reconstructs the self she was never allowed to know.

Holy Disobedience is not just a survivor's tale. It's a story of fierce honesty, radical freedom, and the beautiful mess of becoming whole.

Melissa Duge Spiers is an award-winning essayist, screenwriter, and advocate for topics of religious abuse and resilience, utilizing her online platforms (TikTok and Instagram, known as "The Glory Whole") to raise awareness and help others find healing. Her memoir Holy Disobedience won the 2022 Book Pipeline Unpublished Nonfiction Manuscript prize, with excerpts featured in The Huffington Post. Melissa's writing appears in magazines nationwide, and she's a contributor to Take the Fruit: An Anthology of Religious Trauma. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Barnard College and is based in California.