Overview

‘Highly seductive … and fun as hell!’ TONY TULATHIMUTTE ‘A noirish thriller, a sex-work satire, a romance’ OBSERVER ‘Drew me in like a whirlpool’ NICOLA DINAN ‘For the generation whose life is an endless stream of dead-end Hinge dates’ SUNDAY TIMES STYLE A hottest book of 2025 in Sunday Times Style, Dazed, AnOther and Stylist. Baby spends her days with her sweet, cross-dressing, drug-dealing ex-boyfriend, Dino, and every night dancing at Paradise Lost, a strip club where she transforms into whatever, or whoever, her clients want her to be. When Dino disappears suddenly, Baby plunges headfirst into San Francisco’s shady erotic underground of dive bars and sex dungeons to find him. In this mirror world, she encounters a surreal cast of characters: Simon, a recluse who pays her for increasingly bizarre favours; a suicide fetishist named Nobody; and Emeline, Paradise’s balletic new hire who seems to want to steal Baby’s whole identity, starting with her underwear. With her grip on reality loosening, and the clock ticking, will Baby manage to find the only man she’s ever loved? Or might her past catch up with her first? ‘Vivid … Exhilarating … Soft Core is pacey and rich, full of verve, drama and detail’ NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW ‘A hugely enjoyable exploration of all the strange things people desire’ THE TIMES ‘Incredible … the best book I’ve read this year – romantic, dangerous and sexy. It made me cry’ STYLIST ‘A profound look at sex work and lives unusually lived’ DAZED

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9780008670399

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise for Soft Core: '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 ‘Drew me in like a whirlpool – a wild spin into loneliness and desire’ Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies ‘I was consumed by Soft Core. Baby feels familiar yet perfectly strange, like a kid sister and a seasoned old soul mixed into one voice of undeniable allure. Newell portrays a San Francisco of dark beauty with an endless revolving door of characters sketched out with great wit, tenderness and generosity. Funny, sexy and surprising, I loved it’ Pip Finkemeyer, author of Sad Girl Novel Praise for Oola: 'Newell nails the lure, intoxication, and fallout of obsessive love' Elle 'Stunning … compelling … the experience of reading Oola is one which will leave the reader pondering questions about love, desire, and possession long after the last page has been turned' NYLON 'Electrifying' Harper’s Bazaar 'Oola is so good' New York Observer 'A dreamy and provocative exploration of sex, privilege, and self-discovery' Kirkus 'Her searching high beams on privilege’s victims and beneficiaries, the fluidity of gender, the lonely writer’s life, and love’s desire to possess reflect Newell’s obvious talent for observation and care with words' Booklist 'A gloriously labyrinthine love story, packing major verve and form … The prose is satisfyingly rich and thick, and often left me thunderstruck. It strikes that perfect literary balance between articulacy and mystery … Poetic, inspiring, just wow. Brittany Newell is truly one to watch! … In short: I adored it' Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals

Praise for Soft Core: ‘Drew me in like a whirlpool – a wild spin into loneliness and desire’ Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies '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 ‘I was consumed by Soft Core … Newell portrays a San Francisco of dark beauty with an endless revolving door of characters sketched out with great wit, tenderness and generosity. Funny, sexy and surprising, I loved it’ Pip Finkemeyer, author of Sad Girl Novel '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 'Incredible … It’s the best book I’ve read this year – romantic, dangerous and sexy. It made me cry and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up' Katie Buckley, author of Hero in Stylist '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 'A profound look at sex work and lives unusually lived, and how they can be just as banal as the “normal ones”’ Dazed 'Brittany Newell is truly one to watch!' Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals

Praise for Soft Core: '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 ‘Drew me in like a whirlpool – a wild spin into loneliness and desire’ Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies Praise for Oola: 'Newell nails the lure, intoxication, and fallout of obsessive love' Elle 'Stunning … compelling … the experience of reading Oola is one which will leave the reader pondering questions about love, desire, and possession long after the last page has been turned' NYLON 'Electrifying' Harper’s Bazaar 'Oola is so good' New York Observer 'A dreamy and provocative exploration of sex, privilege, and self-discovery' Kirkus 'Her searching high beams on privilege’s victims and beneficiaries, the fluidity of gender, the lonely writer’s life, and love’s desire to possess reflect Newell’s obvious talent for observation and care with words' Booklist 'A gloriously labyrinthine love story, packing major verve and form … The prose is satisfyingly rich and thick, and often left me thunderstruck. It strikes that perfect literary balance between articulacy and mystery. I can’t tell you how many sentences I re-read. It’s the kind of book you want to linger in and never leave; the kind of book that DOES things to you … Poetic, inspiring, just wow. Brittany Newell is truly one to watch! … In short: I adored it' Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals

Praise for Oola: 'Newell nails the lure, intoxication, and fallout of obsessive love (and its subsequent madness) that somehow seems a mandatory requirement of growing up' Elle 'Stunning … compelling … the experience of reading Oola is one which will leave the reader pondering questions about love, desire, and possession long after the last page has been turned' NYLON 'Electrifying' Harper’s Bazaar '[Oola] takes a major twist, from love story to something decidedly more interesting and experimental' Refinery29 'Original, astute … Newell’s insight, intelligence, and prose are all clearly prodigious … subtle and outrageous, wonderfully readable yet philosophically challenging' Electric Literature 'Oola is so good' New York Observer '[Oola is a] twisted debut, testing the boundaries between love, obsession, and identity … Newell’s rangy, circuitous tale is a kind of queer Nadja for millennials with a self-satirizing—and satisfying—bite. A dreamy and provocative exploration of sex, privilege, and self-discovery' Kirkus 'Her searching high beams on privilege’s victims and beneficiaries, the fluidity of gender, the lonely writer’s life, and love’s desire to possess reflect Newell’s obvious talent for observation and care with words' Booklist 'A gloriously labyrinthine love story, packing major verve and form … The prose is satisfyingly rich and thick, and often left me thunderstruck. It strikes that perfect literary balance between articulacy and mystery. I can’t tell you how many sentences I re-read. It’s the kind of book you want to linger in and never leave; the kind of book that DOES things to you … Poetic, inspiring, just wow. Brittany Newell is truly one to watch! … In short: I adored it' Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Animals

Praise for Soft Core: ‘A hugely enjoyable exploration of all the strange things people desire … Newell’s writing is sensory and evocative’ The Times ‘Uncanny, almost ghostly … For a story about desire and longing, it is surprisingly spooky, full of stalkers, creeps and doubles’ Observer ‘Vivid … Exhilarating … Soft Core is pacey and rich, full of verve, drama and detail’ New York Times Book Review ‘A profound look at sex work and lives unusually lived, and how they can be just as banal as the “normal ones”’ Dazed ‘As a writer, Newell may be one of the finest contemporary purveyors of “vibes” and in Soft Core, this sensory poeticism transports us to the depths of San Francisco’s erotic underground … a prodigal talent’ AnOther Magazine ‘Incredible … the best book I’ve read this year – romantic, dangerous and sexy. It made me cry’ Katie Buckley, author of Hero in Stylist ‘A wild ride through San Francisco’s dark underbelly, full of sex workers and drug dealers … brilliant on power, perception and identity. Great fun’ Daily Mail ‘Newell’s gifts for sensory details … and for tracing the wavy contours of human connection make her work feel like that of a glitter-bomb David Lynch … a trippy excursion down the rabbit hole into a particular substratum of culture’ The Atlantic ‘Drew me in like a whirlpool – a wild spin into loneliness and desire’ Nicola Dinan, author of Disappoint Me ‘Soft Core is not just a book but a fully realised and highly seductive way of life – louche, fleshy and freestyle … Deeply impressive and fun as hell!’ Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection ‘I was consumed by Soft Core … Newell portrays a San Francisco of dark beauty with an endless revolving door of characters sketched out with great wit … Funny, sexy and surprising, I loved it’ Pip Finkemeyer, author of Sad Girl Novel ‘A beautiful fever dream, a slippery, captivating pleasure, a love story stuffed inside a wadded nylon stocking' Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth

Author Information

Brittany Newell's debut novel Oola was published when she was 21 years old. Her work has been published in Granta, N+1, The New York Times; the first chapter of Soft Core was published as a short story called 'Baby' in N_1. In 2021, she was awarded a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission that enabled her to write Soft Core.

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