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rustedtrains's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
harrydaylight's review
2.0
I wish I liked this more because the premise for the anthology as a whole is so cool, but none of the poems really gripped me. Missed emotion for me.
maya_irl's review
2.0
"the sun drenched my flesh and i was golden again,
broken open again,
and i drank it all in"
broken open again,
and i drank it all in"
softgalaxy's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This was a powerful read. It took a lot out of me to read. I really connected to the poems surprisingly, more than I thought I would. It is not just a commentary on the lives of sex workers, the anthology discusses society and patriarchy’s view of bodies and sexuality. There is an absolute double standard when it comes to sex, society’s view of sex and sexuality is very black and white. And I think this anthology talks about this very well.
I applaud the writers who contributed to the anthology because that wouldn’t have been easy to do. It was intriguing to see the correlation of experiences of different sex workers. It is sad that sex workers are scorned so much, even by so-called feminists.
I applaud the writers who contributed to the anthology because that wouldn’t have been easy to do. It was intriguing to see the correlation of experiences of different sex workers. It is sad that sex workers are scorned so much, even by so-called feminists.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual violence
Other content warnings: strong language and nuditylucsbooks's review
5.0
Trigger warnings: sexual harassment, homophobia, transphobia, sex work...
More than the theme of this book, I ended up requesting it because I was already familiar with Clementine’s work. Clementine does not contribute with any poems of her own but her introduction completely sets the mood and pace for the rest of the book.
Every poem, photo, drawing demand respect rather than asking for it. The title itself has the perfect balance between political and eye-catching and the first thing you get to read is Clementine’s introduction, setting the rules and the tone for the rest of the poets as well as what the reader should look for in each poem.
This book promises honesty from the start and sometimes that can be uncomfortable or even unpleasant to read. Sex work has traditionally been looked down by “polite” society even though practically everyone is a consumer in various degrees. The reality that a lot of the people working in the industry belong to minorities and disenfranchised groups while most of the clients are white cis men that make the rules is felt throughout every page with different results. While sometimes that leads to a feeling of power over the “johns”, a lot of the times sex workers, not being protected by law or recognized as meaningfully employed are an easy target for violence and discrimination in addition to the abuse they already face thanks to their race, gender, sexual orientation and so many more..
I was looking forward to learning and see the world through a different perspective but I was wholly unprepared for how much I loved this collection. Of course, books with different contributors are always a gamble, because you will not connect with every one of them but there were only a couple of poems that I found more difficult to understand. And let me tell you, I don’t think I ever enjoyed an anthology more than this.
At the very end, there is a small blurb for every one of the poets which I found genius because not only it helped disband some of the preconceived ideas we might have about the authors, it also provided some of the poems with context and allowed me to look for more of their works.
All in all, this is a very short book with a pretty heavy theme and pretty heavy poems but I find that works like this are more and more necessary in a society that is obsessed with sex but embarrassed by sexuality.
Thank you to Edelweiss+ and Thorntree for this ARC.
More than the theme of this book, I ended up requesting it because I was already familiar with Clementine’s work. Clementine does not contribute with any poems of her own but her introduction completely sets the mood and pace for the rest of the book.
Every poem, photo, drawing demand respect rather than asking for it. The title itself has the perfect balance between political and eye-catching and the first thing you get to read is Clementine’s introduction, setting the rules and the tone for the rest of the poets as well as what the reader should look for in each poem.
This book promises honesty from the start and sometimes that can be uncomfortable or even unpleasant to read. Sex work has traditionally been looked down by “polite” society even though practically everyone is a consumer in various degrees. The reality that a lot of the people working in the industry belong to minorities and disenfranchised groups while most of the clients are white cis men that make the rules is felt throughout every page with different results. While sometimes that leads to a feeling of power over the “johns”, a lot of the times sex workers, not being protected by law or recognized as meaningfully employed are an easy target for violence and discrimination in addition to the abuse they already face thanks to their race, gender, sexual orientation and so many more..
I was looking forward to learning and see the world through a different perspective but I was wholly unprepared for how much I loved this collection. Of course, books with different contributors are always a gamble, because you will not connect with every one of them but there were only a couple of poems that I found more difficult to understand. And let me tell you, I don’t think I ever enjoyed an anthology more than this.
At the very end, there is a small blurb for every one of the poets which I found genius because not only it helped disband some of the preconceived ideas we might have about the authors, it also provided some of the poems with context and allowed me to look for more of their works.
All in all, this is a very short book with a pretty heavy theme and pretty heavy poems but I find that works like this are more and more necessary in a society that is obsessed with sex but embarrassed by sexuality.
Thank you to Edelweiss+ and Thorntree for this ARC.
katiejowebs's review
4.0
I loved the different voices throughout this anthology and deeply connected with some of these authors. Much love ❤ It's so so important to hear these stories from the individuals who have been through them. Thank you for sharing your story, your life, and your words.
kristins911's review against another edition
5.0
This book was simply amazing. It was emotional, uplifting, unnerving, and inspiring.
yourlocalthembo's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content warnings: sex, sexual abuse, anti-sex worker comments, graphic sexual language and scenes, sexual trauma, nude images and illustrations of feminine-presenting bodies, strong language
This was a powerful read. It took a lot out of me to read. I really connected to the poems surprisingly, more than I thought I would. It is not just a commentary on the lives of sex workers, the anthology discusses society and patriarchy’s view of bodies and sexuality. There is an absolute double standard when it comes to sex, society’s view of sex and sexuality is very black and white. And I think this anthology talks about this very well.
I applaud the writers who contributed to the anthology because that wouldn’t have been easy to do. It was intriguing to see the correlation of experiences of different sex workers. It is sad that sex workers are scorned so much, even by so-called feminists.
This was a powerful read. It took a lot out of me to read. I really connected to the poems surprisingly, more than I thought I would. It is not just a commentary on the lives of sex workers, the anthology discusses society and patriarchy’s view of bodies and sexuality. There is an absolute double standard when it comes to sex, society’s view of sex and sexuality is very black and white. And I think this anthology talks about this very well.
I applaud the writers who contributed to the anthology because that wouldn’t have been easy to do. It was intriguing to see the correlation of experiences of different sex workers. It is sad that sex workers are scorned so much, even by so-called feminists.
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