Reviews - Soft Core | The StoryGraph

367 reviews for:

Soft Core

Brittany Newell

3.75 AVERAGE

agfavorite's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Loved this book and the way it describes everything- from the San Francisco fog to the sticky floors of the strip club. All of the characters are intriguingly flawed, but in a “trying to do their best” way.

Content Warnings

hhbomb's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really loved this book. I loved how it was written so that the world was tactile. This book felt round and full of color, tastes, and smells. It was a love letter to San Francisco, second chances at love with a partner and at loving yourself, and the fierce love between women have for their friends. It's also about loneliness and sex work and how that work allows everyone involved a double life between their everyday selves and their fantasy selves and how this affects everyone involved.

laurajane78's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

goodneighborbooks's review against another edition

3.5

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

phoebedwang's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

gmknitter's review against another edition

3.0

a little too unhinged and drifty for me (a la myor&r) but lots of positives for this one

whatzoreads's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This is Soft Core, feminine, suggestive, a slice of sex worker life for the vibes girlies who want to explore the emotional side of the transactional pay-the-bills job. Soft Core reminded me of a SodaStream, a flat baseline with occasional bursts of fizz from a high pressure cylinder , the work is pedestrian, repetitive, and I loved Baby’s blunt chat and matter of factness. It reminded me of the movie 'Anora' without all the shouty scenes.

Ruth dances in the club as Baby and is lost in life, she lives with her ex-boyfriend Dino, a drug dealer, who has gone missing. Soft Core is not a plot driven book about finding Dino it instead focuses on loneliness and what Baby learns about vulnerability as a basis for intimacy in relationships with interesting conversations about gender and gaze. Soft Core has a super lush languid feel and is one for the lit-fic girls, especially with that ending.

Thank you to the 4theEstate publishers, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this in exchange for my honest thoughts. I know I will be thinking about this one for a long time after reading.