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yetilibrary's review against another edition
4.0
A friend recommended this to me. It WAS really good: Crane is an engaging writer with a lot of stories to tell. The book is a little disorganized, however, and the timeline gets blurry in ways that's not intentional. There are also typos of the inexcusable variety ("teaming" for "teeming" and "stationary" for "stationery"), but I just caught a national newspaper using "principals" instead of "principles," so let's all just go hug a copy editor today, shall we?
The memoir talks a lot about sex work, stripping/ exotic dancing, terminal illness (including euthanasia), and drug use. One thing I learned: the physical toll stripping/dancing takes on the body after years of doing it. One ick factor: how gross sex work can get. (If you can make it past the opening chapter, you're fine.) One omission: the violence sex workers experience is largely glossed over. Crane mentions a few harrowing incidents in one paragraph near the end of the book, but that's mostly it (aside from danger sensed or feared). I can't blame her for not wanting to talk about it, and yet she was so open about so many other aspects of her life and her jobs, its absence is notable. She often makes the point that sex work is easy money but it isn't easy work, and it can be dangerous work, but here those dangerous edges have been smoothed over so much it looks deceptively safe overall. That strikes me as a disservice.
The memoir talks a lot about sex work, stripping/ exotic dancing, terminal illness (including euthanasia), and drug use. One thing I learned: the physical toll stripping/dancing takes on the body after years of doing it. One ick factor: how gross sex work can get. (If you can make it past the opening chapter, you're fine.) One omission: the violence sex workers experience is largely glossed over. Crane mentions a few harrowing incidents in one paragraph near the end of the book, but that's mostly it (aside from danger sensed or feared). I can't blame her for not wanting to talk about it, and yet she was so open about so many other aspects of her life and her jobs, its absence is notable. She often makes the point that sex work is easy money but it isn't easy work, and it can be dangerous work, but here those dangerous edges have been smoothed over so much it looks deceptively safe overall. That strikes me as a disservice.
katrinky's review against another edition
3.0
I like her voice and her story is compelling. Sex work memoirs are important, and this is a particularly powerful one. The chronology is weird; there will be a big breakup scene and her car will die once and for all, and then the next chapter the ex is still around and the car is still running. confusing, but not deal-breaking.
rebeccafromflorida's review against another edition
4.0
Not for everyone!!! A detailed look into the world of a sex worker, and I assume there are some exaggerations in it as well. But it’s intriguing and gripping to see inside a “hidden” secret world and that’s what I liked about it.
joeh's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.25
Well-written and engaging, Spent focuses on the author's experiences as a sex worker and her tumultuous, loving and intricate relationship with her mother. I deeply appreciated Crane's ability to humanize the variety of individuals who illustrate the scenes of her memoir. While Spent feels scary, mucky and disheartening at times, Crane imparts both empathy and beauty into this world that we generally seem more prone to ignore.
infiniteviolette's review against another edition
4.0
At the risk of sounding cliche, this memoir was so very raw and real. Sometimes disgusting, sometimes depraved, sometimes uplifting - Crane holds nothing back as she takes you through her history in the sex work industry. A gripping read, and one that will likely haunt me for some time.
cwolfeboynton's review against another edition
4.0
My review of Spent in ForeWord: https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/spent/
clairelorraine's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked Crane's tone and thought her writing was nicely...balanced. Like gross things were gross but she wasn't sensationalizing or glamorizing anything. It just seemed real (even when the stuff happening was unbelievable)! I felt respect and understanding and not pity, which was nice in reading something that could have easily turned into either Pretty Woman or Prozac Nation.
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