Calgary, Alberta – August 21, 2026 — In Shattered Faith: The Cost of Eternity, A. L. Beck highlights the emotional cost of being raised inside a system that defines truth, loyalty, and identity for you. Set in Calgary, the novel follows Quinn, a young man born into Scientology, where belonging comes with conditions and self-doubt is treated as something to be corrected rather than understood.

Instead of framing Scientology as a distant curiosity or media headline, Shattered Faith places it inside the routines of ordinary life. The Church in the novel is not hidden in a remote land or behind dramatic barriers. It operates above a strip mall, close to the streets and storefronts of everyday Calgary.

At the centre of the book is Quinn’s struggle to separate his own inner life from the rules that have shaped him since childhood. The Church provides structure, language, and a sense of belonging, but it also teaches him to distrust his own instincts. What is presented as spiritual guidance gradually reveals itself as surveillance, pressure, and control. The more Quinn tries to be good, the less space he has to be fully himself.

The novel is especially sharp in the way it handles identity and intimacy. As Quinn grows older, his personal feelings begin to clash with the rigid framework around him. In Shattered Faith, this conflict is not treated as abstract doctrine. It is lived at the level of fear, shame, secrecy, and longing. Beck keeps the focus on the human reality of that tension, showing how high-control systems can reach into the most private parts of a person’s life and try to reshape them.

Shattered Faith is now available in print and digital formats through major online retailers.

About the Author

A. L. Beck was born in Hamilton, Ontario (“Steel City”) in the early 1970s and raised by their maternal grandparents. A bookish “weird kid” with a quiet, insular childhood, Beck went on to earn three degrees in literature, including a PhD completed while caring for their aging grandparents. Their academic work has explored vampires, Catholicism, Rikki Ducornet, Pre-Raphaelite art, and especially the influence of the Catholic Church on Anne Rice.

After watching Leah Remini’s Scientology and the Aftermath, Beck felt compelled to write Shattered Faith, using fiction to examine how a group like Scientology can break a person from the inside. Beck now lives in Calgary, Alberta, with their husband, four dogs, and a housemate, and enjoys gardening, animation and anime, horror, baking, and fostering dogs—occasionally with “foster fails.”

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Faith-Cost-Eternity-Scientology-ebook/dp/B0GL46TN25