Description
2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Finalist in Memoir (Other)
“LaVey’s prose has an unfettered honesty as she proudly displays the joys, scars, triumphs, disappointments, and hard-won lessons of her lifestyle. The tone of the narrative is educational and never judgmental or arrogant, allowing readers to understand the author on several different levels . . . Fans of the Fifty Shades series will undoubtedly find much to savor in this ribald, risqué, and captivating remembrance.”
—Kirkus Review
“Skip Sunday School and read this book instead! Join Bella LaVey on her unflinching journey through the underworld of sex, where the mingling of pleasure and pain reopen the childhood wound of love withheld and eventually lead to healing. Defined by compassion, humor, and violence, Fetish Girl proves that the spiritual path can be one of adventure, startling discovery, and large men in pink tutus. A moving and courageous book, full of outcasts and deviants–the kind of folks Jesus called friends.”
—Donna M. Johnson, author of Holy Ghost Girl: A Memoir
“Rich and evocative, Fetish Girl is an unflinching look at learning to live life on one’s own terms while making peace with the past. Bella LaVey compellingly renders the hard choices a single mother makes to support her child and define herself. At its center, this book celebrates healing, connection, and the power we have to shift our narratives.”
—Charlotte Gullick, author of By Way of Water
“Experience an unforgettable sense of discovery about your own erotic potential as you connect with Fetish Girl. Deep pain that Lavey turns from the inside out gives her permission to be ‘sexy, fearless, and wild both in life and art—my life became my art.’ You’re right there with her. Smell the ocean, the smoky clubs, the leather. Feel the raw energy that drives a force she embraces since childhood: ‘Live free or die’.”
—Susan Kaye, Ph.D. Sexologist
“The storms LaVey weathers in Fetish Girl are bright, violent, and mostly internal: from breast milk to BDSM, sex work, drug addiction and single motherhood, she ultimately lap dances her way into a life she can truly prize.”
—Antonia Crane, author of Spent
“Bella is no nonsense, a hustler, and a savvy business woman. She jumps into everything she tries with an enviable amount of enthusiasm, whether it be working as a stripper or dominatrix, female wrestling, raising her kid, or starting a relationship. She makes mistake after mistake, but she owns it. Although her heart is always in the right place (her son), she is often distracted by sex, violence, relationships, drugs, relationships and relationships. There were lots of relationship problems that she wasn’t able to anticipate . . . Bella’s story resonates with truth, and that is invaluable in this day and age.”
—NetGalley, 4 out of 5
