I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Soft Core by Britanny Newell Series: Standalone
Published by Farrar Straus and Giroux on 2025 February 04
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 231
Format: E-Arc
Source: Netgalley
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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.
I wish I could fully articulate my feeling about this book because it’s just different from the other contemporary books that I’ve read. For one, that cover alone is enough to make me question myself whether or not I’m making the right choice when I requested this from Netgalley. Soft Core is some sort of a diary written by a half-lucid person slash slice-of-life novel. Months ago, I was able to finish Elodie Harper’s Wolf Den which revolves around the lives of prostitute girls back in the 1800s. It was a journey that I enjoyed a lot and something that made me reflective about a lot of things. Soft Core has the same effect although on a much deeper level because the voice of our protagonist, Ruth, felt so vivid. And her manner of describing her day-to-day life as a stripper/exotic dancer/dominatrix/deranged obsessed ex-girlfriend is so palpable, like she actually exists in real life and she’s just standing infront of you, laying out all her secrets for the world to know.
Another thing that stood out to me about this book is how irreverent it is to the society’s expectations. It’s brimming with freedom and has no traces of condescension with regard morality. Ruth’s not ashamed about her body, her sexuality, her choices, her moral values, and her profession. She’s this female, while imperfect and harboring insecurities of her own, embracing all that she was, all that she is, and all that she will be. Despite being somewhat unhinged due to her missing ex-boyfriend, she remained passionate about her job and remained optimistic about life in general. There’s no eye-rolling pity party or the constant moping about how life is so unfair and terrible. There is just Ruth, fixated on surviving and finding her ex-boyfriend.
Aside from the things that I’ve mentioned in the above paragraphs, I also liked the atmosphere of the story. Modern, steamy, gritty and somewhat sad. The dungeons, the bars, the clubs. And of course, Ruth’s flashbacks showed her as someone who’s really tenacious about everything, not caring that her choices can hurt a lot of people, that it can hurt herself, too. But what is tenacity and having lots of money when you still feel empty? This is I suppose is the sad part because Ruth is already at the top of her game when it comes to her professional career. And yet, there’s a hole in her that cannot be fulfilled and she’s behaving like it’s her ex-bf is the sole person who can fill it up. Am I still making sense? I hope I am. As I have said, I cannot fully articulate my feelings for this book.
The only reason why I didn’t give Soft Core are full 5 star rating because there were conflicts that were not resolved at the end of the book. Like what happened with Emeline after that confrontation? And why did Dino did what he did? And who was Mr. Nobody? Book, you cannot just leave me hanging like that. I have religiously read all the lengthy e-mail convos and then, what? You’re just going to end yourself without letting me in on the secret.
TLDR, if you want something that really feels new and will f-ck with your mind, go do yourself a favor and pick up this book. You can be assured that everything that has happened in this book is truly inspired by reality as the author herself is a real life dominatrix. How cool is that?