On Bad Marketing & Adultery

A Review of "Floating Up to Wherever" by Joy Towers Neal (ARC)

Cover belongs to Unsung Voices Books. Image taken from their website.

Star Rating; ☆☆☆☆
Spoiler-Free Review.

I received an advanced reader copy (ARC) from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As a former Jehovah’s Witness, I spent my childhood weekends knocking on doors in a modest dress and handing out pamphlets on the end of times. I was immediately drawn to Joy Towers Neal’s debut Floating Up to Wherever, advertised as a former missionary’s slow abandoning of her faith. Hell yeah. Sign me up.

Instead, what I got was a woman going from one type of Christian to another—one that preaches and studies the Bible’s verses literally to a more passive (and more common) type of Christian that believes in creationism but not necessarily the Bible. This isn’t a problem. Neal’s story still deserves to be told, but the marketing set an expectation it didn’t meet.

Most of the book is about Neal’s complex and layered affair on her husband with a much older pastor, and how this affair sowed a deep-seeded distrust for religious authority and its handlings of sexual misconduct. Religious authority and sexual abuse go hand in hand (just look at the Catholic Church¹) and Neal’s experience of being vilified, manipulated, and disbelieved is unfortunately quite common. As for the rest of the book, Neal describes her evangelical missionary trips abroad and her (often politically incorrect) descriptions and stories from these countries. The scenes are short and rapid, and Neal spends a great deal dunking on Christian misogyny—as she should. She describes feeling out of place among devout believers and the judgement she faced whenever she presented an unpopular biblical opinion.

The book was gripping. The author’s dissolving marriage and secret affair had me angry, shocked, and even scoffing. Joy Towers Neal holds nothing back in her own mistakes—even sharing her abandoning of her beat-up kitten in a casual, passing description. I felt conflicted by the end. She’s a victim, a mother, and a lost soul; she’s also, at times, selfish and unempathetic. I loved her. I hated her. In my eyes, writing that stirs emotion and presents a blunt, honest reflection of their own personage is good writing.

I recommend this book to anyone who’s felt like the odd one out. Just know you may not fall in love with the protagonist.

1. Giuffrida, Angela. “Catholic church still failing to deal with sexual abuse cases, says Vatican report".” The Guardian. October 29th, 2024.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/29/catholic-church-still-failing-to-deal-with-sexual-abuse-cases-says-vatican-report