"“So many contemporary novels feel almost uninhabited, as though they are taking place in the space of pure consciousness; narrators seem to be wandering down empty hallways staring at their phones. This novel — despite being narrated in first person by a woman who is often quite alone, alone at the point of near-breakdown, alone in moments of ecstasy — is not like that at all. Through Ruth’s eyes we see San Francisco in three dimensions . . . The last pages offer a different and more satisfying kind of crescendo — open-ended, strange, joyfully loose."
—Sophie Haigney, The New York Times Book Review

“A knockout . . . Newell writes about sex work and drugs and what people—some people—used to call the demimonde without moralizing or reducing her characters to grim allegories. This book is, among other things, funny and sometimes very sweet, and Newell gives shape to Ruth’s chaotic life with gorgeously precise prose . . . Real and raw and exquisitely well crafted.”
—Kirkus Reviews [starred]

"A crackerjack novel of a sex worker who comes undone after her ex-boyfriend’s disappearance . . . The wild ride is bolstered by striking prose and memorable imagery. It’s a stellar entry in the literature of unhinged women, up there with Mona Awad’s Bunny."
—Publishers Weekly [starred]

"Haunting and vivid, an excellent surprise"
—Charlotte Shane, The Millions

"Soft Core is a beautiful fever dream, a slippery, captivating pleasure, a love story stuffed inside a wadded nylon stocking. It’s a novel that wants to get close to you. It wants to bite your neck; it’s the actual promise of a hickey. I can’t remember the last book I read that was even half as tender. I ate it up."
—Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth and Mostly Dead Things

“Soft Core is not just a book but a fully realized and highly seductive way of life—louche, fleshy, and freestyle. Brittany Newell, a hoarder of details and perfumer of moods, has written an existential dual-mystery that's as carefully structured as it is emotionally urgent, like a ransom note in sonnet form. Deeply impressive and fun as hell!”
—Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection

“Brittany Newell’s prose is too elegant to be called raw, but the oomph, the heart, makes everything feel so real. I love this world and this narrator, the risks she takes, the story she tells, simple yet so seductive and just teeming with aliveness.”
—Michelle Tea, author of Black Wave

“Soft Core drew me in like a whirlpool—a wild spin into loneliness and desire.”
—Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies