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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A lot more “no plot, just vibes” than I usually get down with, but loved it nonetheless.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was expecting an physical journey to go with the mental one, but that wasn't what this was. No sleuthing. Ruth is definitely coming undone, but I'm pretty sure she's still deep in her delusions in the end. As most others mention, this is a "vibes" book.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When the disappearance of her sweet ex-boyfriend looses the last tie she felt to her life, Ruth, alias Baby Blue and sometimes Miss Sunday, embarks on an unlikely odyssey through San Francisco's erotic underground to find him. Between strip club and dungeon, late-night car parks and early-morning walks, Baby looks for Dino in every face she sees, but what she discovers is more complex.
In a word, I LOVED this.
Firstly, Brittany Newell can WRITE. Her prose is smart and fleet-footed, yet infused with a wonderful haziness embodied by the fog that periodically rolls in from the Bay and blankets the city. The whole book has this aura of faded decadence, a heavy-lidded half asleep feel that I couldn't get enough of. It's definitely one for the no-plot-just-vibes readers among us — think the humdrum cadence of contemporary Japanese fiction, except here sometimes there are whips, or someone drinks pee and enjoys it.
Newell is so attuned to the interplay of the erotic and tender, the grittiness and sexiness of Baby's world. Through different forms of sex work she explores restriction and liberation, using Baby's various work aliases as sites to examine her identity, desires, and conceptions of love and intimacy. She's such a soft, open witness to the spectrum of desire she sees, with Newell resisting pearl-clutching to the point of making Baby's world mundane. Exactly like what it is: just work.
I loved the recurring motif of 'soft core' — from the signature fragrance Baby wears in the club, the category of sex work, and the idea of vulnerability she gradually opens herself to — it's there throughout the novel, tying together moments from Baby's ever more diffuse sense of reality. Through softness, vulnerability with herself and others, Baby finds selfhood and true intimacy in unlikely places. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.
Thank you to 4th Estate for sending me a proof of this for review!
In a word, I LOVED this.
Firstly, Brittany Newell can WRITE. Her prose is smart and fleet-footed, yet infused with a wonderful haziness embodied by the fog that periodically rolls in from the Bay and blankets the city. The whole book has this aura of faded decadence, a heavy-lidded half asleep feel that I couldn't get enough of. It's definitely one for the no-plot-just-vibes readers among us — think the humdrum cadence of contemporary Japanese fiction, except here sometimes there are whips, or someone drinks pee and enjoys it.
Newell is so attuned to the interplay of the erotic and tender, the grittiness and sexiness of Baby's world. Through different forms of sex work she explores restriction and liberation, using Baby's various work aliases as sites to examine her identity, desires, and conceptions of love and intimacy. She's such a soft, open witness to the spectrum of desire she sees, with Newell resisting pearl-clutching to the point of making Baby's world mundane. Exactly like what it is: just work.
I loved the recurring motif of 'soft core' — from the signature fragrance Baby wears in the club, the category of sex work, and the idea of vulnerability she gradually opens herself to — it's there throughout the novel, tying together moments from Baby's ever more diffuse sense of reality. Through softness, vulnerability with herself and others, Baby finds selfhood and true intimacy in unlikely places. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.
Thank you to 4th Estate for sending me a proof of this for review!
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I will always pick up books like this because the ideas of gaze and power interest me. I would have worshipped this book in my early twenties. But having read a few books that addresses these topics, I'm not entirely sure what's new about this one. How does it separate itself from the tens of books that talks about power, sex, and gaze from sex work or adjacent perspectives? It's more slice of life than a thriller-ish book that I thought it was going to be from the blurb, but that's okay, it focused more on Baby/Ruth's everyday feelings and grief.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an audio ARC.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an audio ARC.