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Father, I Am Losing My Footing in This Place Beside the Sea
332 pages, Paperback
Published February 19, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 9, 2026
This book comes with an extreme trigger warning from me. Proceed with caution if you decide to read it.
I think that this book is not intended for somewhere between 95-99% of all people who read books. I’m not kidding. I don’t know that I could genuinely suggest it to someone in good conscience.
I am someone who finds meaning in and enjoys dark stories and themes, often finding them to be much more illuminating and engaging than the stuff from the other end of the spectrum. However, this book was dark in a way that tested my limits. What made it worse was that the darkness, while fiction, could have been seen as re-tellings of real world experiences. What an unpleasant experience to read awful sentences knowing that for someone, somewhere, that is reality.
Joshua Porter pulls no punches and asks his readers to stare evil full in the face alongside his MC as he contends with the darkness of the world, the existence of that darkness in his own heart, and the separation that this darkness causes between him and those closest to him in his work as a minister. As a minister myself, I couldn’t tear my eyes from the page. Anxiety filled my heart and mind even as I forced myself to put it down in order to go to sleep. I dreamed about it while I slept. After waking up, I picked it up as soon as I could and finished it. My anxiety climbed steadily, only to find its peak as I turned to the last page and discovered that there would be no way down.
It took me two sittings to finish it and I can already tell that it is “sticky”. I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.
Am I glad I read it? Yes. Did I enjoy it? I have no idea. Will I ever read it again? Maybe? But, there is a large part of me that hopes that I never feel the need to.
I think that this book is not intended for somewhere between 95-99% of all people who read books. I’m not kidding. I don’t know that I could genuinely suggest it to someone in good conscience.
I am someone who finds meaning in and enjoys dark stories and themes, often finding them to be much more illuminating and engaging than the stuff from the other end of the spectrum. However, this book was dark in a way that tested my limits. What made it worse was that the darkness, while fiction, could have been seen as re-tellings of real world experiences. What an unpleasant experience to read awful sentences knowing that for someone, somewhere, that is reality.
Joshua Porter pulls no punches and asks his readers to stare evil full in the face alongside his MC as he contends with the darkness of the world, the existence of that darkness in his own heart, and the separation that this darkness causes between him and those closest to him in his work as a minister. As a minister myself, I couldn’t tear my eyes from the page. Anxiety filled my heart and mind even as I forced myself to put it down in order to go to sleep. I dreamed about it while I slept. After waking up, I picked it up as soon as I could and finished it. My anxiety climbed steadily, only to find its peak as I turned to the last page and discovered that there would be no way down.
It took me two sittings to finish it and I can already tell that it is “sticky”. I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.
Am I glad I read it? Yes. Did I enjoy it? I have no idea. Will I ever read it again? Maybe? But, there is a large part of me that hopes that I never feel the need to.
April 14, 2026
3.75/5 or 77/100
Father, I Am Losing My Footing In This Place Beside The Sea is most likely unlike anything you have ever read. It is messy, in both good and bad ways, and attempts to engage topics and themes that most people wouldn't dare deal with in this medium.
All of the trigger warnings, btw.
This book engages the fictional life of a pastor and former boxer who is sent to a coastal town that has been designated by the government as housing for criminals of the child sexual crime variety. Our MC is tasked with ministering to this community for two weeks, just before Christmas, but is able to drive home to see his family. If he doesn't do it, he is at risk of losing the church he pastors, that was his father's before him.
Do these people deserve grace? Are they merely the result of all of the evil that has been done to them? Do they have an excuse? how deeply does the brokenness of the world infect that humans can do these things to each other, especially the innocent and the vulnerable? How does family fit into the call of ministry, and what happens when pastoring your home conflicts with what you feel is your calling in ministry? All of these questions swirl as our MC tries to be faithful in the midst of immense evil, brokenness, and generational trauma.
Also, there is more to the story than just that, but I'll leave that for you to find out, if you can handle it.
Overall, I thought the execution was solid, but not masterful. The questions, though, and the themes, will stick with me, and I have a feeling I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
Father, I Am Losing My Footing In This Place Beside The Sea is most likely unlike anything you have ever read. It is messy, in both good and bad ways, and attempts to engage topics and themes that most people wouldn't dare deal with in this medium.
All of the trigger warnings, btw.
This book engages the fictional life of a pastor and former boxer who is sent to a coastal town that has been designated by the government as housing for criminals of the child sexual crime variety. Our MC is tasked with ministering to this community for two weeks, just before Christmas, but is able to drive home to see his family. If he doesn't do it, he is at risk of losing the church he pastors, that was his father's before him.
Do these people deserve grace? Are they merely the result of all of the evil that has been done to them? Do they have an excuse? how deeply does the brokenness of the world infect that humans can do these things to each other, especially the innocent and the vulnerable? How does family fit into the call of ministry, and what happens when pastoring your home conflicts with what you feel is your calling in ministry? All of these questions swirl as our MC tries to be faithful in the midst of immense evil, brokenness, and generational trauma.
Also, there is more to the story than just that, but I'll leave that for you to find out, if you can handle it.
Overall, I thought the execution was solid, but not masterful. The questions, though, and the themes, will stick with me, and I have a feeling I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
April 20, 2026
A little bit Lovecraftian combined with very real horrors and what does redemption look like for those who have been subjected to horror and have subjected those horrors on others. More than that, what does it look like to have to be the face of care in those situations.
The stories involved here test the limits. I’d agree with others that not everyone should read this book. It could easily be triggering to most. It goes into brutal details. Be careful.
Got hints of “the Mist’
The stories involved here test the limits. I’d agree with others that not everyone should read this book. It could easily be triggering to most. It goes into brutal details. Be careful.
Got hints of “the Mist’
March 10, 2026
Not for the faint of heart, Porter fearlessly brings the heat in this book, examining faith, fear, evil, the tension of bringing the Gospel to people whose acts you loathe, the tension of giving time to ministry v. family, and the resentment that can bring. There’s just so much going on in this short, punchy book.
March 12, 2026
Don’t read this is you’re in a bad mood and hate the world. I’m a showbread fan so I’m biased but it’s something I probably would have picked up anyway.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews