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Break the Chains: A Fictional Memoir and Self-Healing Guide Through Fire, Family, and the Fight to Move Forward
“The chapter doesn’t feel ‘written’; it feels survived. And the way you put the reader inside your body—distance, pressure, the repetition, the system grinding you down—lands hard in the best and most honest way. The piece holds two truths at you’re strong, and you were broken open by something that would break most people.”
—Michael McConnell, author and professional editor for major publishing houses
THE ABUSE ENDS WITH ME.At three years old, Jake learned that monsters were real.
By six, he learned that “no” meant nothing.
By fourteen, running was the only prayer he had left.
From the foster care system to religion weaponized as control, from childhood terror to adult survival, Break the Chains tells a story that 1 in 6 men live but rarely see reflected: male childhood sexual abuse — and the decades-long fight to keep it from defining the rest of your life.
But this is not just a trauma memoir.
This is the story of a father who looked at his children and made a
the blood we don’t pass down.
In unflinching detail, Jake chronicles the years of abuse, the patterns that followed him into adulthood, and the moment everything changed — becoming a parent and choosing, daily, to break generational cycles. No redemption arc. No inspirational shortcuts. Just the brutal, honest work of building peace one day at a time.
From therapy sessions to theme parks, from rideshare grind to five acres in Florida, from dissociation to determination — and finally, to a 2026 courtroom testimony so traumatic the case was stayed — this book exposes what happens when survivors are asked to prove their pain over and over again.
This is not a story about overcoming.
It’s a story about not quitting.
For readers drawn to the raw honesty of I’m Glad My Mom Died, the survival reality of A Child Called “It”, and trauma narratives that refuse to be polished for comfort — Break the Chains is a survivor memoir written without apology.
CONTENT This book contains explicit descriptions of childhood sexual abuse, physical and emotional abuse, religious trauma, and PTSD. Crisis resources included.
—Michael McConnell, author and professional editor for major publishing houses
THE ABUSE ENDS WITH ME.At three years old, Jake learned that monsters were real.
By six, he learned that “no” meant nothing.
By fourteen, running was the only prayer he had left.
From the foster care system to religion weaponized as control, from childhood terror to adult survival, Break the Chains tells a story that 1 in 6 men live but rarely see reflected: male childhood sexual abuse — and the decades-long fight to keep it from defining the rest of your life.
But this is not just a trauma memoir.
This is the story of a father who looked at his children and made a
the blood we don’t pass down.
In unflinching detail, Jake chronicles the years of abuse, the patterns that followed him into adulthood, and the moment everything changed — becoming a parent and choosing, daily, to break generational cycles. No redemption arc. No inspirational shortcuts. Just the brutal, honest work of building peace one day at a time.
From therapy sessions to theme parks, from rideshare grind to five acres in Florida, from dissociation to determination — and finally, to a 2026 courtroom testimony so traumatic the case was stayed — this book exposes what happens when survivors are asked to prove their pain over and over again.
This is not a story about overcoming.
It’s a story about not quitting.
For readers drawn to the raw honesty of I’m Glad My Mom Died, the survival reality of A Child Called “It”, and trauma narratives that refuse to be polished for comfort — Break the Chains is a survivor memoir written without apology.
CONTENT This book contains explicit descriptions of childhood sexual abuse, physical and emotional abuse, religious trauma, and PTSD. Crisis resources included.
269 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 30, 2026
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