This book hooked me from the start. I felt like I was there in the club with Ruthie, a fly on the wall watching she and Dino. When Ruthie yearned, I yearned. When she grieved, I grieved. The characters were well thought out, interesting, and relatable. Brittany’s writing is thoughtful and beautiful. This is definitely one of my new favorite books.

You're telling me a queer dominatrix wrote a tender portrait of sex work that's published by FSG? Fuck yes.

Soft Core absolutely lived up to my expectations. Our protagonist - Ruth by birth, but Baby by profession - lives with her ex-boyfriend. When he suddenly disappears without warning, Baby moves from stripping to working at a BDSM dungeon. The story feels a bit slice-of-life in the way we meet many characters around Baby who are absolutely fascinating, but we do not get resolutions on most plot points. Vibes > plot.

The way Newall captures the disgusting elements of sex and femininity was refreshingly honest. An example of a passage I appreciated which also generally reflects the tone and writing:
As we ate I was reacquainted with that glorious postcoital hunger. It was one of those things I'd loved most about sleeping around: the private bliss of settling into my bed, still leaking a stranger's juices, and eating the snacks I'd accrued on the long journey home. Gummy worms, Oreos, seltzer, saltines. Out with my date earlier in the night I would purposefully eat very little, so as to (A) compound my drunkenness, (b) minimize the bloat, and (C) save myself for this ritual. As I feasted in bed, I would think of an expression I'd heard my mom use: She's a bottomless pit. It felt true. Post-pounding, I was at home in my role as a hole. I felt both queenly and gross, indulging what felt like an innate need to be filled. 

This book reminded me a bit of Lauren Oyler's Fake Accounts, in the way our protagonist feels a bit aimless after her ex-boyfriend drops out of the picture, and very much of Alexandra Kleeman's You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine in the perpetual (un)becoming, uncertainty of what is truly going on, and the strange female friend. This book is best suited for those who are interested in stories about non-normative human relationships, an intellectual exploration of kink and desire (not smut!), and who don't mind lingering questions when they finish a novel.

I can appreciate the tone of this novel but sometimes the dialogue just made me cringe. I get it lol

The book and the plot summary given do not match at all. We are supposed to follow Ruth / Baby in a madcap search for her missing ex-boyfriend (Dino) while this search takes her into the sexual underground..

But all we follow is Ruth as a sex worker. Nothing happens. At all. The only interesting thing was her conversations with Nobody - which only is about 5% of the book.

I cannot say that I recommend this book at all..

Thank you very much to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Net Galley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC! I was really excited to read this book because the summary was super intriguing. Unfortunately, it fell short for me.

This novel is character driven, which I typically enjoy, but I could not stand Ruth. She came across as yet another “grimy girl” with nothing particularly unique about her. It was a struggle to get through her depressing narration.

I saw another reviewer note that it’s cool vibes but nothing happens. And I couldn’t agree more. It really felt like nothing happened which was really tough to get behind for me. At times I couldn’t distinguish between past and present.

I did enjoy the descriptions of the perverse/kinks/etc that Newell crafts. I found Ruth’s relationship with Nobody and Simon to be the most interesting parts of the book.

I’m left with the question of what’s the point? What’s Newell trying to say? I can’t answer that, and I think that’s why I’m disappointed.

This was a fun read about a stripper whose live in boyfriend ends up disappearing, and her eventual quest to try and find him, and the more interesting parts of hte sex work world she dives into while she's at it (dungeon work, etc). It's fascinating also because it serves as a kind of retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, almost. It's also written by a professional dominatrix, so you can tell she knows her stuff. Definitely worth your time when this comes out in February.

Ruth is living with her drug dealer ex-boyfriend Dino and dancing at a strip club as Baby Blue. One day Dino disappears without a trace. Ruth is bereft, she didn’t realise quite how intertwined their lives were, how much she had come to rely on him. She sees him everywhere but he never seems to come home.

The synopsis is a touch misleading, she does not go looking for Dino. His vanishing looms large over everything. Ruth starts working at a BDSM dungeon and receives emails from someone named Nobody. She makes friends with Ophelia, a dominatrix from her new job and is slightly unnerved by a new girl at the club, Emeline.

I found this a little slow to start, the first third was… I don’t want to say a slog but it did take me a while to get through. It picks up! And is very compelling. I do wish there had been a little more resolution towards the end though. Some loose ends didn’t feel like they should not have been left loose? But I am nosy. Tell me everything!

Quick synopsis: A 27 year old woman who works as a stripper and lives in a Victorian with her ex bf starts spiraling when she wakes up one day and her ex boyfriend has gone missing.

Review: I had higher hopes for this book. This is definitely a sad girl falling off the rails; no plot just vibes type of story. Which don’t get me wrong I’m usually totally into that but I didn’t feel very captivated by this character or story. I honestly can’t even tell you what happens because it feels like a fever dream, you’re dealing with an unreliable narrator and are never sure what’s real and what’s not; and there’s never any answers- the story just ends. And the fever dream isn’t anything crazy it’s all very plausible things that could be happening but it doesn’t make sense? I think I was waiting for an aha moment and that was probably my problem. Definitely a story that handles loneliness and the need for companionship- whether from a friend, a lover, or a parent. There’s a longing from our main character who above all else just wants/needs someone to love her. This one is for the sad girls who just want to cared for.

I'm glad I read this right after my trip to SF - it made it so much easier to picture the various locations described throughout the book. I loved all the descriptions throughout the book, of people, places, food, etc. I feel like the book doesn't really have a strong plot, and it is more just centered on our MC drifting around. While I like the MC, I felt like I didn't get to know her as well as I would have liked. I felt like she kept me at arms length the entire book, but I did feel like I got to know the other characters pretty well. Loneliness was definitely a central theme of this novel, and the author did a wonderful job of capturing that feeling. Despite the lack of plot and distance from the MC, I still greatly enjoyed this one.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the ARC.

Brittany Newell’s *Soft Core* is a daring and edgy exploration of youth, identity, and the search for meaning in a chaotic world. The writing is raw and unfiltered, capturing the restless energy of its characters and setting.

However, the novel's experimental style and fragmented narrative can feel disjointed, making it challenging to fully connect with the story. While its boldness is admirable, the lack of cohesion and emotional grounding left parts of the book feeling distant.

*Soft Core* is a provocative read with flashes of brilliance, but it may not resonate with everyone. Worth a try for those who enjoy boundary-pushing fiction.

For the most part I really enjoyed this book - I liked the writing style and I liked that it was written from the point of view of the main female character. I did however struggle with the last third of the book and found that I was left wondering what was going on, mainly around the return of Dino. I would have preferred a more definitive explanation as to where he had been and why was he acting like he didn't know who Ruth was. Perhaps it required the reader to read between the lines a little more and interpret it their own way? Either way, it was a pleasure to read and I would recommend it.

The vibes of this book were exactly what I enjoy- very weird. I didn’t LOVE it but also didn’t hate it. Would definitely recommend to lovers of out-there low plot books.

If the cover of this one doesn’t pull you in immediately, the blurb most definitely will. The author is a dominatrix in real life so you know the experiences of the main character are going to be well written with no reservations.

I really enjoyed the mystery at the start of this book, you could feel the sisterhood of the ladies at the strip club, the loneliness from the men and I loved that there was no shame or judgement portrayed in this book by what Baby does for a job. Whilst working at the strip club Baby’s ex-boyfriend Dino goes missing, she thinks she sees him everywhere and genuinely this is where I lost my head lol. I’m not quite sure if Baby was unhinged? Was someone actually fucking with her? What in the world was Dino doing? I have so many unanswered questions (some I don’t want to spoil so haven’t listed them) and I’m not sure if I absolutely love that because it creates a protagonist who is completely unreliable and I’m just sat here like what the f? Or I’m hugely stressed out and still need answers 😂

One thing I will say is I found this book hard to put down. If you’re one for definitive answers, you’re not going to get this, but the story feels very fresh and it scream chaotic so I’m super grateful to have read it!

A young woman has recently begun a career as Baby Blue, an exotic dancer. Her boyfriend, Dino, (a man with exquisitely described gender expression), has become more of a roommate than a lover after Baby began to withdraw. When Baby wakes up one day to find Dino gone, she slowly begins to lose a grip on reality, seeing Dino in every man in the city.

Baby’s misadventures lead her into the kinkier side of sex work, eventually taking on the title of Miss Sunday in a San Franciscan Victorian dungeon.

Soft Core allows readers to explore the soft underbelly of the men of San Francisco, exposing their most troublesome desires and gentle needs for a woman’s touch. While these encounters provide a sense of a scandal and intrigue for the reader, the story’s main focus is Baby’s unraveling, landing it firmly in the unhinged women or women acting badly trope.

I enjoyed reading this one, though at times, it felt like the story was getting away from me. It lacked clear transitions, and time jumps often happened from paragraph to paragraph, which made the story hard to follow, but also contributed to the overall hazy nature of Baby’s decline. It was a bit of a slow burn at first, but the chaos does pick up as you go. Ultimately, I was left a little unsatisfied with the ending, but I won’t get into specifics to save the spoiler.

Thank you to NetGalley and FSG Books for the digital arc.

"Soft Core" by Brittany Newell is an unusual and enchanting novel. It reads almost like a memoir, a first-person account of a young woman's time working as a stripper and later a dominatrix in San Francisco. Being a stripper is almost accidental; however, it puts her into a world of people who, for different reasons, seek understanding and acceptance. There is a melancholic sensation of loneliness in this novel that feels poetic. San Francisco has its own magic in this book, and one can almost smell the salty air of the city.

Ruth, who goes by the name "Baby" in the club and "Miss Sunday" as a dominatrix, lives in a drafty Victorian apartment with her colorful ex-boyfriend Dino, a ketamine dealer and a crossdresser, relaxing after work with their dogs, watching a movie, and eating some comfort food or occasionally a feast that Dino prepares. He is a thoughtful roommate/friend, yet he disappears without explanation one day. Ruth knows he doesn't want her to inform the police if something like that happens, but she misses him much more than expected and seems to see him everywhere. She befriends Ophelia, another woman from the club, and is fascinated, if not a bit wary, of Emeline, a beautiful dancer who seems to follow Ruth's style, almost to the point of stalking. And there are men: a mysterious "nobody" fascinated by death who emails her; Charlie, a kind of a father figure; and Simon, a regular at the club with specific, kinky requests.  Once more, sadness and loneliness permeate these men, and Ruth, a young woman with her life just beginning to take shape, seems, by comparison, very reasonable and level-headed.

It's an atmospheric book that feels shrouded in a San Francisco mist. Characters are defined, yet they possess a poetic quality. It's like watching a dance through a steamed window: it looks alluring, yet we feel detached from most people's reality. "Soft Core" is a great book!

I imagine a pretty sensational reception for this one,given the amount of sex and range of performances and preferences it includes. Not that the sex here is happy or pretty. But a dominatrix for an author is a rare event and an opportunity.
Anyway, the book itself is of course striking. Yes, there’s the x-rated content, but also the persuasive mood and often dazzling writing. Did I enjoy it? Not really. It’s too relentlessness grim and obsessive, also a bit too long and indulgent. But it’s an impressive achievement, committed and full of dark energy.

I really loved this one! It was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025 so I was thrilled at the opportunity to read this sooner.

Soft Core is an incredibly a well rounded book with fleshed out characters, brilliant writing, a fantastic plot and was one of the most readable books I’ve read in a while.

I’ve held back from giving it a five just because there were some storylines/parts of the plot that were left unanswered. I binged it in two sittings.

Overall a great read though and one I’ll definitely be recommended.

Big thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the eARC.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. This book seemed very interesting, but I just couldn’t get into the storyline. I found the story to be progressing too slow for my taste and wasn’t really interested in the characters. I’m sure there will be many people who love this book, but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.

in ‘soft core," brittany newell’s latest novel, we follow ruth, otherwise known “baby,” who navigates life as a dancer while losing herself between two worlds. when her ex-boyfriend, dino—a ketamine dealer and her roommate—goes missing, baby grapples with the pain, haunted by his memory.

as she takes on a side job in a bdsm dungeon, hosts a new friend named ophelia, and corresponds with a suicide fetishist known as “nobody,” the story unfolds with humor, heartbreak, and moments that make you root for ruth, even in her most unconventional choices.

at its heart, this novel explores a woman's struggle with her past, present, and future as she shapes her identity in a challenging urban landscape. i thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait for everyone else to experience it too.

This was okay. I don’t think it was as provocative as the cover/description leads the reader to believe. A lot of it you’ll have to suspend disbelief for and the story is very messy.