This book is more of an endless trainwreck than anything. The author's poor choices never seem to conclude; rather than any intelligent insight on all this, it's as if the author relied solely on the shock factor of drug use, sex work and deviant behavior to keep a reader enthralled (indeed, despite all this, I couldn't stop turning pages either - what kind of tragic mistake will the author find herself a part of next, and what kind of awfulness will she drag her child through?. The ending didn't leave me feeling all that confident).

I don't say this lightly, either - I'm intimately familiar with pretty much every world she sets foot in here from fetishland to island hippie bliss. I'm not shocked by anything she's done in her life, but I still couldn't get over how she dragged a child through so many terrible decisions.

I don't generally leave negative reviews - I'm working through a bit of that "if you don't have anything nice to say" kind of thing, because writing a book is really hard work. If only this didn't seem like the final result of a NaNoWriMo endeavor...There were moments of brilliance here, but overall I didn't think this book was ready for publishing, at all. A good editor could have done something with it, but this is not what happened.

I went into this book with an open mind.
This was such a tough read.....I found it very hard to follow, I didn’t like the writing style, it did not keep my focus at all.
Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book. It just wasn’t for me at all.

Inspirational, emotional and absorbing, this tale of a dominatrix and mother struggling to be authentic while raising a child is a great read. Honest and though-provoking, it also lifts the lid on a community that not everyone knows about and often has misconceptions concerning! A rich and compassionate memoir.

Not worth your time. The author talks in circles without context. The text is a random stream of consciousness that follows no rules regarding timing and pacing. Nope.

I could not get into this book. Seemed very drawn out without a good storyline. Tried to read it last month. Didn't keep my interest. Tried again this month. Still nothing.

Autobiographies of people and lives that are completely different to one's own is an opportunity to view life from a completely different lens.

However, selfish choices based on a  hedonistic lifestyle soon devolves into a black whirlpool of inevitable consequences.

The author may be frank about her evaluation of her life choices, with her true north being her son, Wolfy, but her decisions hardly ever match her intentions.

Definitely not for the faint of heart. I have read some of the same things before in other books then others not so much. As fair as memoirs go this one was way more than I expected. Caution to anyone not open minded about anthing sexually.

I gave this one 3 out of 5 stars.

I received this ebook for a honest review from Netgalley.

This book is crazy wild! As a mother I have to admit that I found myself wanting to reach into the pages and pluck her son up at times and protect him. She’s badass, don’t get me wrong, but with a baby in tow on some of her wild “adventures” was a bit too extreme for me. I think the message the book is trying to convey is good and I do understand her predicament, but I can’t say I was fully on board with her choices. I think there could be better choices, just as empowering she could have made to better serve her son. She’s a bit selfish in my opinion and I can’t condone her actions through most of this book. I’m sorry. It just wasn’t for me and I like to think I’m not judgmental when it comes to other mothers, but she told her story and it’s hard not to think she just should have made safer choices to protect her child through his life, despite her wants.

This isn’t something I typically read, but I got it as an ARC, so I went for it.

“Fetish Girl,” by Bella LaVey, is a memoir covering about 10 years of a woman’s life as she transitions from a young hippy single mom to erotic wrestler dominatrix. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but it was well written and the storytelling was good. I don’t know what to call the main character, so I’m going to go with Bella (since that’s the author’s name – she goes through several name changes in the story).

It opens with Bella evacuating from her home during a violent hurricane with her infant son and baby daddy (whom she refers to as “The Cumtributor.”) She’s busy fleeing for their lives while The Cumtributor follows along while air drumming. This pretty much sets the tone of the rest of the story. Bella tells us about her (sometimes absurd) past experiences in a humorous, sometimes sarcastic, and candid way.

Bella is no nonsense, a hustler, and a savvy business woman. She jumps into everything she tries with an enviable amount of enthusiasm, whether it be working as a stripper or dominatrix, female wrestling, raising her kid, or starting a relationship. She makes mistake after mistake, but she owns it. Although her heart is always in the right place (her son), she is often distracted by sex, violence, relationships, drugs, relationships and relationships. There were lots of relationship problems that she wasn’t able to anticipate (but were clearly foreseeable train wrecks).

I have to admit…this book gave me bad anxiety. My life goal is to be as boring and drama free as possible, which is the exact opposite of this story. Bella seemed flit from one thrill to the next, often skating too close (or over) the edge. The fact that she does this as a mother especially stressed me out. It’s one thing to read about a single young woman’s crazy drug infused sexcapades, but to know that there’s a little kid waiting in the wings makes me super stressed because it’s not fictional (I personally read to de-stress, and that’s why 99% of the books I read are about fictional characters screwing up their lives. I don’t have to worry about it happening in real life. This is also why the stories I read HAVE to have a happy ending. I can’t deal with fictional sad. Real life sad is bad enough! What can I say? Reading is my therapy.).

A lot of what happens in Bella’s life made me unhappy and uncomfortable. And I think it made Bella uncomfortable too, at times, which is what ultimately drives her to change her life at the end of the story. She realizes that no matter how good she thinks she is at keeping her sex/work/drug life separate from child rearing, her son knows all and sees all. And above all, at the heart of this story, she is a single mom trying to do her best to raise her kid right. We can all relate with that.

Bella’s story resonates with truth, and that is invaluable in this day and age. Four stars because it was a good story, just not something I was able to read while kicking back and relaxing.