In Soft Core, Ruthie goes by several names. She is "Baby" in the club where she strips, "Miss Sunday" in the Dream House dungeon. As she remarks herself, she's almost never called Ruth. The image of a ghost pops up repeatedly, as though Ruthie is merely haunting her world. "I was an affable ghost, too shy to speak up when someone cut me in line..." Passing from bar to bar, she is "both a ghost and an archangel".

It's not clear how her missing ex, Dino, refers to Ruthie as he's, well, missing through most of this story. Indeed the story seems occasioned by his disappearance since, as a slice of Ruthie's life, the book begins when he vanishes. While she waits for Dino to reappear, or not, Ruthie goes about her day - and nightly - business, recalls her earlier life and muses on the city around her.

Through it all, she is, though, gradually coming apart. To call Dino her ex understates what the two meant to each other, I think. "To me, [Dino] was San Francisco embodied, misty, bookish and debased". Also "I didn't need anything other than what [Dino] gave to me; he was my nightlife, my superstore, all the books in the world" and 'I'd felt like this during my wild years too, until Dino had managed to calm me".

Ruthie's meeting with Dino ended a restless period of her life, both in terms of employment and relationships ("My body was a friendly ghost, causing trouble just because. I dealt with it as one must deal with a poltergeist; I didn't take its hijinks personally and tried to ignore what it did after dark. That's when I went out, got horny and stupid", "After the line cook, I went on a spree. I began my weekends on Thursday and slept with a different man every night... suddenly I had a hobby... Mazzy [Ruthie's friend] put it succinctly: You've found something that you're good at. She would know, she was a prodigious slut... she would go on to blow the father of the family she babysat for." Even though they've split (for some hard to understand value of "split" she still lives in his house and the book paints a touching picture of the complex relationship between them.

Food is a central preoccupation in the book. Dino, a drug dealer, had been a professional cook and cooked for Ruthie. "...vast Dominican feasts; we played chess while we digested". When the pair first met they "sat on the deck and ordered like tourists in love". Dino's ominous absence is marked by Ruthie's reversion to scrappy, irregular meals. She is conscious of the change. "At twenty-five I knew enough to know that my silly little body was far from enough. This was not self-deprecation, just brute fact. Thus I had to always be prepared for [Dino], my pantry well stocked, deli meats and sliced cheeses and sour pickles on hand.

In Dino's place, Ruthie forms friendships with work colleagues from the club Ophelia and Emeline. Both friendships are problematic, Ophelia in an-again, off again relationship with her boyfriend, Emeline the only daughter of wealthy parents and seemingly obsessed with Ruthie.

Told in episodes that hop back and forward, less a continuous narrative then a testimony, a recollection guided not by time than but by theme, Soft Core (the name comes from a perfume that Ruthie's find of) is beautifully written, with prose that flows. As well as ghosts, death, and specifically suicide, are preoccupations - Ruthie's mother went off the rails after Ruthie's father died: he may have killed himself - and Ruthie is also I think marked by that death ("There was a very small yet ferocious girl inside me that was prone to throwing drinks in men's faces"). Ruthie has an unfinished thesis on "surveillance, ghosts and reality TV".

Dino's disappearance shakes Ruthie. She begins to think she sees him everywhere. She even approaches some of the men she thinks might be him. Realistically, Dino's profession is one that might lead to his vanishing, either in dispute with other figures in his world or his flight from danger. Perhaps looking too closely into this isn't just unwise for her wellbeing ("At this point in my decline...") but also for her safety? Nevertheless Ruthie persists, even getting into relationships with some of them. Likewise she gets closer than she ought to one of her customers at the dungeon, a collector of dolls' houses with whom she has long text conversations about suicide.

Ruthie's life as a dancer, meeting the desires of the (mostly male) customers ("Men would do anything to feel less alone; why couldn't they be like women, humming through the pain, too shy to ask for mercy?" is a significant theme in the book. She's blunt about the work "Danger was an elemental part of our job, even if we never got hurt", her place in it "The most marketable thing about me was that I was new and white" and its impact on her "Since I started dancing I had forgotten how to look nice without also looking slutty."

But she also notes positive changes, invisible to the men watching - dancing makes her physically stronger "a change in my body that the men couldn't discern" and she notes that in the club "all women were my sisters" (although also "All men present were my daddies" which with her father dead also recalls the themes of death and ghosts). This ghost states that "I was only visible when I took off my clothes in a dark room at night".

Soft Core is a melancholy read, at times, for all its evocative language. Ruthie's time after Dino's disappearance, her season alone, is beset by thoughts of darkness, by dangers more intuited than plainly seen. One evening the San Franciscan fog "followed me home like a man". Ruthie had "the marks of men all over me". She's lost in some way, or Dino's absence has revealed a loss that had already existed "I missed who I was when [Dino] and I had got together, that twenty-five year old fool. She'd never given a lap dance. She's never had a mai tai. She believed in her thesis on cameras and ghosts." It's hard to feel that, if he reappeared, she'd be safer - happier, perhaps, better fed, for sure, but safer? I suppose the fact that I was concerned for her shows that Newell has made this weird ghost sympathetic and certainly Ruthie's story is immersive but it's hard to see a good resolution coming here!

I'd certainly recommend Soft Core, though its themes will not be to everyone's taste.

I was really excited about this book, from the title to the cover and the overall premise I was really looking forward to seeing where this was going. An exotic dancer, a missing person and emotional turmoil and life in your twenties, there was so much potential. Unfortunately, this wasn't what I wanted/needed it to be, I found the narration very slow paced, and it took a while for me to try and immerse myself into the story, the characters although well developed were not easy to connect with and I wish I had been able to fully enjoy what this book tried to offer.

It's taken me a little while to mull over my thoughts on this book. I ended up reading it twice! I'm always intrigued by unhinged woman at the forefront of a story, so this book was always going to be a hit with me. It's messy (purposely so) and unapologetically honest. If you're one for vibes rather than plot (like me) this is an absolute must!!

I know it's already late to share a review for the book here but just in case someone on the marketing or the author sees this.
This is a FANTASTIC read! I need more!

I was so excited to read this one. The cover is stunning, the premise had me hooked - exotic dancer, missing ex, emotional chaos? That’s usually exactly my kind of bag.

But sadly - this just didn’t work for me.

It felt flat from the start. The pacing was off, the characters were underdeveloped and the story never really went anywhere. I kept waiting for that emotional punch or twist to bring it all together, but it never came. Instead, I just found myself bored, which is such a shame because the concept had real potential.

Honestly, it felt like a missed opportunity. Beautiful packaging, but not much substance beneath.

This book didn’t feel like it was meant for someone like me. Maybe it’ll resonate more with disaffected twenty-somethings still trying to figure life out—who knows. I’ll also say the jacket copy feels a bit misleading.

Ruth is living with her ex, Dino, a ketamine dealer, in a crumbling old Victorian house in San Francisco (how they afford it is never explained—granted, it’s San Francisco, so suspension of disbelief is part of the deal). She starts dancing at a strip club under the name Baby, and then one day, Dino disappears.

After that, Ruth begins seeing him everywhere—or thinks she does. She ends up working at a BDSM club and befriends someone there. And that’s… kind of the whole story.

The book clearly wants to mean something, but I couldn’t quite figure out what. It’s not bad, but it kind of drifts, never really landing anywhere.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

I really struggled to get into this book unfortunately. I found it confusing and the plot hard to follow, I continued to the end but it just didn't have me hooked. A shame, as I was excited to read this.

An unhinged, wickedly funny exploration of one woman and her missing boyfriend. Impossible to put down, clever and shocking. This is a must read.

This is Soft Core, feminine, suggestive, a slice of sex worker life for the vibes girlies who want to explore the emotional side of the transactional pay-the-bills job. Soft Core reminded me of a Sodastream, a flat baseline with occasional bursts of fizz from a high pressure cylinder , the work is pedestrian, repetitive, and I loved Baby’s blunt chat and matter of factness. It reminded me of the movie Anora without all the shouty scenes.

Ruth dances in the club as Baby and is lost in life, she lives with her ex-boyfriend Dino, a drug dealer, who has gone missing. Soft Core is not a plot driven book about finding Dino it instead focuses on loneliness and what Baby learns about vulnerability as a basis for intimacy in relationships with interesting conversations about gender and gaze. Soft Core has a super lush languid feel and is one for the lit-fic girls, especially with that ending.

Thank you to the 4theEstate publishers, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this in exchange for my honest thoughts. I know I will be thinking about this one for a long time after reading.

*Softcore* by Brittany Newell follows the story of a young woman working as an exotic dancer when her ex boyfriend goes missing. However, despite an intriguing premise and stunning book cover the novel falls flat with underdeveloped characters and an inconsistent narrative. The pacing feels off, and the emotional depth that could have elevated the story is missing. Overall, it's a missed opportunity, earning just 2 stars.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

Soft Core by Brittany Newell is a brutally honest and darkly captivating story of a young woman’s search for herself amid the chaos of the sexual underground. Ruth stuck in a life she didn’t anticipate, finds herself living in a Victorian house with her ex-boyfriend Dino, a ketamine dealer with peculiar habits. As Ruth navigates the drudgery of her life, she begins working at a strip club, adopting the persona of Baby Blue—a seductive figure caught between the superficiality of the crypto bro world, outcasts, and a past she can’t escape.

Her descent into this nocturnal underworld of fast money, seductive allure, and sleepless nights takes a sharper turn when Dino vanishes. This loss sends Ruth on a quest across the misty hills of San Francisco, through dive bars, bus depots, and even a BDSM dungeon, as she unravels the complexities of love, longing, and identity. Along the way, she meets a series of bizarre and unforgettable characters, each of them as fractured and lost as she is, and each adds a layer to her unravelling journey.

Newell’s narrative is raw, unapologetic, and at times hallucinogenic. The story pulls no punches, painting Ruth’s world in vivid, chaotic strokes, making for a fiercely compelling, sometimes unsettling, reading experience. What stands out in Soft Core is the brash, unfiltered honesty of Ruth’s journey. Through her eyes, we witness the raw underbelly of the human condition: power, fantasy, love, and loss all intermingle in a desperate search for meaning.

The book is absorbing in its messiness—the kind that grips you, making you feel every twist and turn of Ruth’s desperate and unpredictable life. Her unrestrained voice connects with the reader on a profound level, and the emotional impact of the story lingers long after the final page. Soft Core is a wild, darkly funny, and poignant tale about trying to find yourself when the world around you feels like it’s falling apart.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Soft Core

Very much a book where the vibes are the plot. You get ultimately a melancholic and hazy merging of days, whilst Baby/Ruth is unraveling.

It was quite nice to see the authenticity and even mundanity of sex work.

Overall I did enjoy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher
4/5 ⭐️

What a book! Beautifully written and whimsical, it's everything I wanted and more. It's a little less mystery than I expected from the synopsis, but I still loved it. It balanced the crass themes with its' elegant prosa perfectly.

Soft Core by Britany Newell is an atmospheric, dreamy coming-of-age novel that unfolds like a hazy lullaby—slow, melancholic, and immersive. The writing is poignant yet restrained, perfectly capturing Ruth’s grief and loneliness. While it lacked a strong hook, its quiet, gritty exploration of desire and sex work felt raw and real. I wanted more plot around Dino!!!! A bedtime story for the introspective.

a solid 2.5 for me - because of the "plot" - lovely character writing!

Thank you NetGalley & ‎Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC!

A solid 3.5 stars. I wavered a lot on my feelings about this book. The first half I really struggled through. It rankled me the way it seemed to be doing too much in the sense that attempted shock value was the only lasting impression I was getting. It felt like a story you'd seen (basically Anora on paper) and heard a million times before ("lonely sex worker wrestling with deep rooted issues, trying to discover herself") with the only things to stand out being bits so crass or debasing that it left you unsettled. It wasn't working for me because it didn't feel artful. Additionally, the writing felt amateur and the story drawn out. However...about 60% of the way through its like something clicked for Newell in her writing process. The second half had some really beautiful and profound prose. It started to feel like there was real substance being covered and I started to really get a feeling for Baby's character and the deep seated emotions she was experiencing. It really held my attention till the last page and even now I find myself wondering and considering, thinking back on some of the various sections of story. While overall the story ping ponged around a bit much and I think the writing could use some refining/practice, my lasting impression is that the guts of this story are really worth examining.

A verbose, unique slice-of-life novel which reminded me of Fight Club (for its visceral unwillingness to shy away from the gross) and Money (for the sometimes unlikable characters, and break-neck pace of interior narration), but which remained stubbornly and gloriously feminine.

Ruth, or Baby if you're naughty (and she is), is a character entirely of her own: a bed-rotting, girl-dinnering, drug-abusing, stripper with at once a solid and entirely malleable sense of self. Stuck in a life that is full, and going nowhere, where she is both loved and unloved, suffocated and lonely, desired and repulsive, Ruth increasingly loses control, whilst perhaps gaining more power than ever before.

A bizarre read, which will stay with me for a long time. I am not totally confident on my star rating here, but I recognise an entirely unique, bold, and confident writing style when I see it, so if for nothing else than Newell's exceptional grasp of language and voice, 4 stars.

For fans of sugar baby and new animal! I really loved it

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review

4.5 stars!

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC!

I enjoyed this trippy, dreamy little novel a LOT! I don’t think I fully grasped the ending (were we supposed to?) but I enjoyed the ride there so much that it barely matters.

Ruth, or Baby, is a stripper and dominatrix living with her (amicable) ex boyfriend and their dogs in San Francisco. Newell works/worked as a dominatrix, so her depiction of the sex work industry is imbued with such a staggering authenticity. It felt like reading someone’s diary, almost voyeuristic. I absolutely loved Ruth, her vulnerability. The way Newell described her relationships with Dino (who mysteriously goes missing later in the book), the pups, Ophelia, was just so alive. You feel like you know them. And her nights at the club and shifts in the dungeon were just fantastique, glitter practically falls out of the pages. It’s gritty and tender, hard and soft, I just loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to this early. Review has been posted on Waterstones and Amazon.

🪩 Soft Care / Brittany Newell 💋

Wow, that was a wild ride! I’ve seen some reviews of this book that describe it as “vibes over plot”, and whilst I think that’s true - the vibes are strong due to the lush and vivid writing - there is still plot. It just doesn’t come together in a neat bow at the end.

The reader essentially witnesses the slow unravelling of Baby, a sex worker whose drug dealing, cross dressing ex boyfriend suddenly disappears, leaving her alone in their home.

As Baby searches for him (metaphorically rather than physically) she descends further into San Francisco’s underground of dive bars, strip clubs and BDSM dungeons. As she sees Dino (the ex) in different men, she starts to reevaluate their relationship and her life over the past five years, leading up to her 28th birthday.

The book explores themes of loneliness, desire, love and childhood trauma. It sounds heavy, but moves through in a dreamlike state with Baby such a self-proclaimed “easy going” person that she doesn’t dwell on the bad things that have happened to her - mainly because she thinks she’s too average to be desirable if she shows her true sadness.

The book is tender, brutal and unsettling. There’s blankets and dogs and hand dipped candles… but there’s also aching loneliness, a suicidal client named “Nobody”, restless dawns and lost friendships.

I really enjoyed this book and found the fantasy element could be extended to so many parts of it.

It’s dark and light and luscious. I surprised myself as I usually like a conclusion, but with this book everything that came before was worth the open ending, which also worked in the context of the story and our unreliable / spiralling narrator.