Chris Belcher’s Pretty Baby is a fierce, no-holds-barred memoir about identity, power, and finding your place in the world. From small-town roots to life as a dominatrix, Belcher’s sharp, witty storytelling dives into queerness, feminism, and everything in between. Bold, raw, and refreshingly honest, this is a memoir that hits hard and stays with you.

Such a great book. Chris Belcher explores her thoughts on sexuality by looking back through her experiences, from an early age. This book manages to express her thoughts and feelings without being overwhelmed with emotion, questioning some of her choices but affirming who she is.

This read was dull. I had hopes for it reading the blurb, but it just wasn't anything. Wouldn't recommend.

A perfectly fine read but overall a bit... meh. I feel the publisher did this book a disservice, setting it up with a title and synopsis that suggested the writer was some beauty queen turned dominatrix, which sounds like the premise of a 90s/00s film. I also don't recall any moments that were "searingly funny", as the synopsis suggests. [Plus, the way the story unfolds makes you think that the writer was expelled from academia for being a sex worker when nothing like this happens. (hide spoiler)] I suppose reality is rarely as compelling as fiction, but the writer sounds like they're probably an awesome person either way. Nice to hear from a lesbian writer who spent a long time dominating men for money.

The book didn’t seem entirely sure what it was. I was expecting pure memoir, the author sharing their lived experience, but instead it seems to veer into political and societal commentary.

A pretty graphic memoir covering growing up, coming out and funding your PhD with a dominatrix side-hustle.

I must admit that what drew me in to wanting to read this was the opportunity to get an insight into the Dominatrix industry, but the parts of this book that I found most interesting to read were in the first half of the book which covers Chris growing up and coming to terms with her sexuality. Perhaps this is because I found myself relating to a lot of the thoughts and feelings she described.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. The writing style is super engaging which can sometimes be an issue in memoirs and I found myself not wanting to put it down.

I think perhaps the thing that let it down for me is that there was no real wrap up at the end. I'd got quite invested by the conclusion of the book and would really have liked to have read about exiting the industry, how this happened and the impact it had on Chris' life and work. So it felt a little unfinished to me which is why I am giving it 3 stars.

As you would expect, this book is pretty graphic and does handle some triggering topics. If you are not comfortable with the idea of reading some quite extreme descriptions of all kinds of sexual acts then do steer clear of this.