Thank you to NetGalley and 4th Estate and William Collins for the ARC!

4 stars!

I only started this yesterday and I devoured this. 🤌🤌🤌 the writing of various things just....yesss. I loved how people were written. The description of people's bellies, the atmosphere, the details added to bring you into the world of Baby/Ruth

Loved this although I was expecting a more bigger reaction to Dino but I guess this also is a deep look into peoples loneliness and how they deal with it, and how they let people treat them. I loved reading about Ruth and how she was and how she spoke about people. It was fascinating to be in this world and to also witness a character go through so many side quests and motions but also it didn't seem like too much happened, and yet I was locked in.

The ending, just....the whole imagery in my head, and the way it's written, stunning. So happy to have read this and also find the work of Brittany Newell.

Soft Core follows Baby (real name Ruth) who is a dancer at a strip club and lives with her ex-boyfriend Dino. Dino is a cross-dressing drug dealer who disappears so Baby goes into San Francisco’s erotic underground to find him. Baby searches for Dino at the strip club and at a new dominatrix gig. Baby encounters many different clients such as Nobody who has a suicide fetish and Simon who wants Baby to do ‘favours’ for him. Baby starts to find cryptic notes and worries her search for the only many she’s ever loved is attracting the wrong kind of attention.

This novel was just an experience. I had a great time with it and I’m giving it 5 stars. The whole book was a hallucinatory experience and I was never quite sure what was real. It was really well written and I loved how this author wrote about sex. This author wrote about different kinks and she did it very well. I loved following Baby and I really enjoyed the reading experience of this. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested because it’s such a complete experience. This is such a unique story and I loved it. The writing/aimless style of the story reminded me of Melissa Broder’s work. This reminded me of the sad girl literary fiction as Baby is just figuring life out. I had a great time with this and would 100% recommend it. I will definitely be picking up a copy of this book once it releases.