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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
medium-paced
An atmospheric and dreamy coming of age novel, I enjoyed this one quite a bit! I really appreciated the writing style, it was often poignant without being over the top, it felt true to Ruth’s character and her journey through grief and loneliness. I also liked that there was a sort of grittiness to the book while also maintaining a mundane, everyday feeling especially around sex work and desire. This is a book that’s kind of hard to pin down in a review because the style and content is so wispy and weird, but I definitely enjoyed the ride.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
emotional
reflective
slow-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Alcohol
Moderate: Body shaming, Mental illness, Suicide, Stalking, Death of parent
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and found myself rooting for the main character.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4.5/ Weird and spellbinding -- this novel is messy, funny, horrifying, heartwarming, demented, etc. It has the darkness and ambiguity of Emma Cline and Ottessa Moshfegh mixed with the humor and cultural observations of Anna Dorn and Tony Tulathimutte.
Brittany Newell's writing hooked me in, she has a great command of her authorial voice and it carries the novel through slower-paced sections. Don't come looking for a mystery, come to spend a year with an enchanting and bewildering young woman either finding herself or slowly unraveling into the void.
Brittany Newell's writing hooked me in, she has a great command of her authorial voice and it carries the novel through slower-paced sections. Don't come looking for a mystery, come to spend a year with an enchanting and bewildering young woman either finding herself or slowly unraveling into the void.
Frothy and silly and a little odd—like eating off-brand cake frosting. Some beautiful moments but I think at its core this book is a tragedy about making others the center of your world.
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-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
I think it's VERY important to start off this review with this note. This is NOT a drug soaked mystery, a gathering of clues, and a frantic search by a newbie stripper to find the ketamine dealing ex-boyfriend who upped and disappeared one autumn day. This is a reflection of self, the worry of finding purpose, and the connections made in and out of the bedroom and how desire is not always so carnal but soul crushingly yearnful.
What you will find is a soft sometimes dreamlike sometimes painfully raw day by day of the main character Ruth who has recently started dancing under the stage name Baby Blue after breaking up with her lover Dino. Life is repetitive day in and out until one day Baby comes home to find Dino isn't home and after days of waiting find he's disappeared into thin air. Is Dino missing, kidnapped in a drug deal gone wrong, left, dead? The exact answer is not important to the story as much as Baby's reaction and decisions to this sudden up and leaving.
The grief of loss haunts the narrative as Baby navigates her day to day while also looking everywhere for Dino. Her search is not pointed, she finds him in the eyes of a man on the street, a client begging for his glass to be pissed in for him to drink, a lonely man whose sexual endgame is suicide. This is just another in a line of loss, her father who committed suicide without a reason left in his note, a mother who gave up on truly living and lives in her depression a husk of a woman, and Charles a man who in a bid to feel younger paid her for her time and body but also viewed her like his real daughter, Charlotte.
A highlight of the novel for me is that there is no descent into a grimy underbelly world of drugs and sex. Baby's stripping, bdsm work, and the drug deals are all mundane as if this novel could have been about a retail worker at Macy's. There is no stigma or negativity, BUT the novel needs this line of profession to push for baser needs and wants. The hidden things that we only ask for in the prayer of pain and pleasure. How our traumas influence our kinks even if we can't put logic behind it.
This will not be a book for everyone. If My Year of Rest and Relaxation and it's ilk are of your liking you will enjoy this. If you don't like unreliable narrators, ambiguity and loose ends, and dreamy stream of conscious flow of ideas/plot, I'd recommend something else.
What you will find is a soft sometimes dreamlike sometimes painfully raw day by day of the main character Ruth who has recently started dancing under the stage name Baby Blue after breaking up with her lover Dino. Life is repetitive day in and out until one day Baby comes home to find Dino isn't home and after days of waiting find he's disappeared into thin air. Is Dino missing, kidnapped in a drug deal gone wrong, left, dead? The exact answer is not important to the story as much as Baby's reaction and decisions to this sudden up and leaving.
The grief of loss haunts the narrative as Baby navigates her day to day while also looking everywhere for Dino. Her search is not pointed, she finds him in the eyes of a man on the street, a client begging for his glass to be pissed in for him to drink, a lonely man whose sexual endgame is suicide. This is just another in a line of loss, her father who committed suicide without a reason left in his note, a mother who gave up on truly living and lives in her depression a husk of a woman, and Charles a man who in a bid to feel younger paid her for her time and body but also viewed her like his real daughter, Charlotte.
A highlight of the novel for me is that there is no descent into a grimy underbelly world of drugs and sex. Baby's stripping, bdsm work, and the drug deals are all mundane as if this novel could have been about a retail worker at Macy's. There is no stigma or negativity, BUT the novel needs this line of profession to push for baser needs and wants. The hidden things that we only ask for in the prayer of pain and pleasure. How our traumas influence our kinks even if we can't put logic behind it.
This will not be a book for everyone. If My Year of Rest and Relaxation and it's ilk are of your liking you will enjoy this. If you don't like unreliable narrators, ambiguity and loose ends, and dreamy stream of conscious flow of ideas/plot, I'd recommend something else.
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“My life at that point, twenty-seven, semi-single, was hazy and bland. It felt loose, like favorite panties with elastic stretched out. It was somehow both chaotic and boring, full of glitter and TV. I was either in a rush or staring at the ceiling, thinking of boys I used to kiss. Did they still remember me?”
Soft Core is part San Francisco noir and part tender portrait of a sex worker trying to piece her life together. Ruth / Baby is a fantastic character; at 27, she’s living with her ex-boyfriend Dino—a toughened K dealer who likes to cross-dress at home—and his three dogs… until he mysteriously disappears one day. Baby is incredibly empathetic and intelligent and utilizes her ability to read people as a dancer at a strip club and later as a dominatrix. There, she can disappear into someone else’s fantasy—often before they know what they wanted.
It's queer undertones and exploration into SF’s subcultures reminded me of Michelle Tea’s earlier books, while it’s frank ownership of a broad-spectrum sexuality felt (sort of) like Mary Gaitskill’s story collections. Through her eyes, everything from the quotidian to the extreme seem to contain commentaries about Baby’s worldview… but Brittany Newell never forces these observations, and the novel, despite its darker bits, maintains a frothy lightness that is, above all, fun to read!
This is one of those books that’s hard to pin down. It’s not your typical coming-of-age story—it’s grittier, more chaotic, and laced with a kind of existential dread that feels way too real. If you’re into books that explore the dark, unfiltered side of being young and lost, this one hits. The writing is beautifully unhinged. It’s poetic without trying too hard, and it pulls you deep into the narrator’s psyche, whether you want to be there or not. It also takes a brutally honest look at mental health. It doesn’t romanticize self-destruction, but it also doesn’t shy away from it. The main character’s struggles with self-worth, relationships, and identity feel raw and achingly relatable. It’s not about “fixing” things—it’s about existing in the mess. It honestly felt a little too raw and real to my own life at times. Overall, I enjoyed this book more than I thought I was going to. It’s messy, painful, and weirdly hypnotic.