Final Girl, by Debbie McNulty

Surviving Church and Childhood

A candid memoir of religious trauma, survival, and the long road back to self-trust.

Before Debbie McNulty had words for trauma, she had monsters: the Rapture Monster, the Family Dysfunction Monster, and the fear that God was always watching, waiting, and ready to abandon her. Raised inside a world of end-times terror, family instability, neglect, and abuse, she learned early to hide her needs, silence her questions, and survive what no child should have been asked to.

But survival was never the whole story. As an adult, Debbie begins the painful work of naming what happened, untangling faith from fear, and confronting the beliefs that shaped her nervous system long after childhood ended.

The Final Girl is a raw, compassionate memoir for anyone healing from religious trauma, abuse, or the lasting ache of being unseen—and for every survivor learning that the monster was never theirs to fight alone.