Library Journal - Audio
09/01/2022
Clarke's (Thin Girls) second novel follows Kate, a dauntless young woman from New Zealand who leaves her troubles behind to make a name for herself at Nevada's premiere brothel, "The Hop." The narrative unfolds through first-person accounts and interview fragments, which Clarke expertly weaves together. Kate is the primary speaker, and narrator Taryn Ryan relays her character's story in an expressive, sensitive style with an excellent New Zealand accent. Important figures in Kate's life, such as childhood friends, fellow "Bunnies," and clients add dimension and plot revelations in smaller segments. Listeners first meet captivating and unapologetic Kate through her recollections of childhood, witnessing her evolution as she redefines family, friendship, and personal power. Throughout the audiobook, supporting narrators Olivia Mackenzie-Smith, Adam Verner, Laura Petersen, and Carolina Hoyos add a cinematic quality to the novel. Some characters embrace a tell-all, gossipy style; some are charged with emotion; others' accounts are defensive or dry. Each enhances the interview format and seamlessly transports listeners through different scenes and timelines. VERDICT The diverse cast of characters combined with thought-provoking content make for a successful and heartfelt audiobook that is well worth purchasing.—Halie Theoharides
Publishers Weekly
★ 06/06/2022
Clarke (Thin Girls) tracks a poor New Zealander as she rises to stardom and becomes a symbol of the sex industry in this ambitious and addictive feminist tale. Growing up, Lady Lane (née Kate Burns) has to abide by one simple rule: whenever a “manfriend” of her mother, Merrill shows up at their house, she is to disappear. Still, Kate never judges Merrill because Kate, too, “underst the power of desire,” leading her to cofound the Sugar Club with her friend, in which they give paid kissing lessons to their classmates. This attempt at making money to help Merrill with expenses evolves and eventually prepares Kate for her gig as a stripper at a club and then for becoming a “bunny” at The Hop, a Moonlite BunnyRanch–inspired legal brothel in Nevada. Here, Kate (as Lady Lane) finds love, sisterhood, and fame as she starts to speak up about the decriminalization of sex work (“then maybe it would be made legal in the world, and then maybe there wouldn’t be so many girls working the streets and getting attacked and raped and murdered”). With a complicated mother-daughter relationship, unconditional friendships, disappointments, and a bold stance on the sex industry, Clarke’s novel consistently stirs the head and the heart. This is a great achievement. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House. (June)
From the Publisher
THE HOP is a fresh ode to sisterhood and sexual agency that crackles with verve and wit. I couldn't put it down.” — Gabriela Garcia, author of the New York Times Bestseller Of Women and Salt
"A gorgeously rendered and deeply engrossing snapshot of contemporary sex work." — Booklist
"Clarke refuses to turn this story into a morality play…[and her] newly rich and famous [protagonist] doesn’t turn away from sex work. Instead, she uses her new freedom to imagine what sex work might look like if its practitioners were truly empowered and autonomous. Like Clarke’s debut, this is technically adventurous, politically relevant, and emotionally engaging." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[An] ambitious and addictive feminist tale… With a complicated mother-daughter relationship, unconditional friendships, disappointments, and a bold stance on the sex industry, Clarke’s novel consistently stirs the head and the heart. This is a great achievement.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A formally inventive and politically subversive novel" — The New Yorker
Gabriela Garcia
THE HOP is a fresh ode to sisterhood and sexual agency that crackles with verve and wit. I couldn't put it down.”
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-05-25
The author of Thin Girls (2020) turns from disordered eating to sex work in her second novel.
The novel opens with a Vogue features editor gushing about Lady Lane—about her hair, her skin, the way she moves—and complaining about the fact that Lady refuses to share any information at all about her past. She ends with the line: “There’s talk of a multimillion-dollar book deal on the table for Lady Lane’s biography, but no one can get her to agree to tell the whole story.” In the next line, Lady herself takes over the narration. Her first words are, “I’ll start from the beginning.” The tension between one sentence and the next is amusing, but it also hints at what’s to come. This is the “whole story.” It’s the story Lady chooses to tell about herself. But it’s also the stories that other people tell about her—and the fact that these stories are valuable currency is an inevitable product of her celebrity. Lady describes an impoverished childhood in New Zealand, the death of her loving but unreliable mother, and her decision to move to the United States to work as a Bunny in a legal brothel in Nevada. She recounts childhood crushes and how she began charging money for kisses as a girl. And she offers a look inside the sex industry. But there are other voices here, too, co-workers, friends, and other people who know her. Their stories add texture to Lady’s account, and they often contradict her memory of events or her sense of herself. The plot turns on her realization that, although she made the choice to work at The Hop, the brothel’s owner regards her as a commodity, essentially interchangeable with the woman she replaces. The choice to work for him is a one-time exchange; making this choice means giving him license to choose how he uses her. Liberating herself—and her fellow Bunnies—will require a full-scale revolution. Although the narrative ends with some of the trappings of a conventional happily-ever-after, they are hard-won, and Clarke refuses to turn this story into a morality play. Newly rich and famous, Lady doesn’t turn away from sex work. Instead, she uses her new freedom to imagine what sex work might look like if its practitioners were truly empowered and autonomous.
Like Clarke’s debut, this is technically adventurous, politically relevant, and emotionally engaging.
