Ain't No Messiah
Joshua's father raises him as the returned Messiah, and surviving every attempt to escape the prophecy may be the most frightening evidence that the old man is right.
What if you were the Second Coming, and couldn't believe it? Joshua is born into a prophecy he never asked for. His father reads the boy's survival as a divine sign and builds a church around the belief that Joshua has returned to judge the living and redeem the faithful. Instead of love, Joshua gets worship, fear, abuse, and a lifetime of expectations he can't outrun.
He insists he's not the Messiah. Then he survives accidents and attacks that should have killed him. As he grows from a frightened boy into a man who just wants an ordinary life, his father's movement swells around him, old secrets surface, and every brush with death becomes more proof for the people determined to sacrifice him to their faith.
Perfect for fans of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Chuck Palahniuk.
A dark coming-of-age about fanaticism, identity, and the terrible weight of being someone else's prophecy.