Name: Ellie Vanderlip's review of Soft Core by Brittany Newell
Item: Soft Core
Rating: 5
Author: Ellie Vanderlip

Brittany Newell

Ruth is lost. She’s living in a drafty Victorian with her ex-boyfriend Dino, a ketamine dealer with a lingerie habit, overdosing on television and regretting her master’s degree. When she starts dancing at a strip club, she becomes Baby Blue, seductress of crypto bros, outcasts, and old lovers alike. Plunged into this swirling underworld of beautiful women, fast cash, ungodly hours, and strangers’ secrets, Baby’s grip on reality begins to loosen. She is sure she can handle it—until one autumn morning when Dino disappears without a trace.

Thus begins a nocturnal quest for the one she still loves—through the misty hills of San Francisco; in dive bars and bus depots; at the BDSM dungeon where she takes a part-time gig. Along the way, she meets Simon, a recluse who pays her for increasingly bizarre favors; a philosophizing suicide fetishist named Nobody; and Emeline, the beautiful and balletic new hire who reminds Baby of someone . . .

A brutally funny, propulsive story of power, fantasy, love, and loss, Brittany Newell’s Soft Core is an ode to the heartbroken and unhinged, to those whose appetites lead them astray. It is a hallucinogenic romp about a girl coming undone, whose longing for friendship, romance, and revenge will take her over the edge and back again.

Soft Core

Ellie Vanderlip

Soft Core left me feeling dazed in the best way. I couldn’t stop reading even when I didn’t know exactly what I was chasing. It was moody, dreamlike and strangely emotional 

Ruth, the main character completely pulled me in. She’s complicated, guarded, lonely, sometimes self-destructive but she’s also deeply human. I found myself rooting for her even when she was unraveling. Her need to be loved not just desired but truly seen felt so raw. I didn’t expect to relate to someone working in a dungeon, navigating power games and clients like a man who wants to drink her pee or be forgotten completely… but there was this quiet ache in her that really got to me. The longing for love inside a life full of performance and ghosts.

The writing is hypnotic. It floats between reality and fantasy. There were moments where I wasn’t even sure what was actually happening and I loved that. It reminded me of feeling lost in a memory or a dream you’re not ready to wake up from. 

The ending doesn’t tie everything up neatly but that ambiguity perfectly matches the novel’s emotional depth. 

If you want a story that’s more about feeling than answers, this one’s for you.

Essence

Soft Core left me feeling dazed in the best way. I couldn’t stop reading even when I didn’t know exactly what I was chasing. It was moody, dreamlike and strangely emotional 

Ruth, the main character completely pulled me in. She’s complicated, guarded, lonely, sometimes self-destructive but she’s also deeply human. I found myself rooting for her even when she was unraveling. Her need to be loved not just desired but truly seen felt so raw. I didn’t expect to relate to someone working in a dungeon, navigating power games and clients like a man who wants to drink her pee or be forgotten completely… but there was this quiet ache in her that really got to me. The longing for love inside a life full of performance and ghosts.

The writing is hypnotic. It floats between reality and fantasy. There were moments where I wasn’t even sure what was actually happening and I loved that. It reminded me of feeling lost in a memory or a dream you’re not ready to wake up from. 

The ending doesn’t tie everything up neatly but that ambiguity perfectly matches the novel’s emotional depth. 

If you want a story that’s more about feeling than answers, this one’s for you.

Ellie Vanderlip &
Soft Core by Brittany Newell

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Ellie Vanderlip &Soft Core by Brittany Newell

Reviews

Join the club

Ellie Vanderlip &
Soft Core by Brittany Newell