A young woman’s madcap search for her missing ex-boyfriend takes her into the sexual underground in Brittany Newell’s savage, tender Soft Core.Ruth is lost. She’s living in a drafty Victorian with her ex-boyfriend Dino, a ketamine dealer with a lingerie habit, overdosing on television and regretting her master’s degree. When she starts dancing at a strip club, she becomes Baby Blue, seductress of crypto bros, outcasts, and old lovers alike. Plunged into this swirling underworld of beautiful women, fast cash, ungodly hours, and strangers’ secrets, Baby’s grip on reality begins to loosen. She is sure she can handle it—until one autumn morning when Dino disappears without a trace. Thus begins a nocturnal quest for the one she still loves—through the misty hills of San Francisco; in dive bars and bus depots; at the BDSM dungeon where she takes a part-time gig. Along the way, she meets Simon, a recluse who pays her for increasingly bizarre favors; a philosophizing suicide fetishist named Nobody; and Emeline, the beautiful and balletic new hire who reminds Baby of someone . . . A brutally funny, propulsive story of power, fantasy, love, and loss, Brittany Newell’s Soft Core is an ode to the heartbroken and unhinged, to those whose appetites lead them astray. It is a hallucinogenic romp about a girl coming undone, whose longing for friendship, romance, and revenge will take her over the edge and back again.
DNF at 40%. While I am enjoying the character's inner dialogue and her relationship with Dino, things are not progressing.
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Ruth’s life is a bit of a mess aside from her engrossing love for her ex-boyfriend who randomly goes missing. She’s not sure who she is or what she wants aside from love and purpose, and losing the one person who’s been there for her in her later years of life causes her to spiral. As she’s trying to adjust, she meets a newbie stripper nobody likes at her club, becomes a dominatrix, and goes a little crazy trying to find life’s meaning. Is life worth living without being loved? At what point does companionship truly make you feel less alone?
From the fun and bubbly descriptions of the strippers at the strip club she dances at, to the dark yet lively nights driving thru San Francisco, to reminiscing the bleak and dark days of her childhood with her mom, the narration had me entranced. Ruth is such a complex and authentic character, and you can’t help but root for her to make it in the end.
This book is gritty, introspective, and just a good fun time. I loved it, and look forward to picking up a physical copy.
0Soft Core is a deep dive into depravity and longing from the perspective of a sex worker, Baby. While I thought some sections were a little repetitive, overall I really enjoyed this book. It’s fast paced and the characters are interesting.
The exploration of self worth and creating versions of yourself just to feel something was well done, as was the descension into mania. Darkly funny at times and will leave you guessing until the end.
thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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