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Starred review from June 1, 2015
Leaving her Dublin home and dysfunctional family at 14, Moran became homeless before she turned to prostitution to survive. Her stirring memoir chronicles her seven-year journey on the streets and in the brothels and examines the costs to society and her soul. The author's experience convinced her of several things. First, she realized that prostitution is a collective experience among the women caught in this tragic lifestyle, and second, the job is never glamorous. On the second page, Moran clearly states the goal of her book: "exposing prostitution for what it really is...the illumination that comes from shining a light in dark places." Writing down her story took the author 10 years. The first section of the memoir details Moran's dismal childhood, complete with social exclusion, economic hardships, parental mental illness, and lack of social advantages. These conditions helped to create the foundation for her entry into prostitution. In the second section, the author skillfully debunks the myths perpetrated by society and the media about prostitution-e.g., the high-class hooker or the control prostitutes supposedly wield or pleasure they experience. The final section recounts Moran's struggle to escape the lifestyle and re-enter larger society. The author's writing style is restrained yet piercingly clear and forceful. In each section, she dissects the harmful effects of prostitution to herself and the women and girls she came to know. Though the physical abuse she encountered was significant and terrifying, the severe emotional turmoil has been even more difficult to bear. Today, the author still struggles with overcoming the denial of "the reality of her own experience." If at times somewhat repetitive, this minor quibble takes nothing away from the author's discussion of a subject that needs more attention. Moran's thoughtful, highly readable, and provocative treatise shines a necessary light on a dark and underdiscussed topic.

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August 1, 2015

With eloquence and grace, Moran writes about the hardships of being a homeless teenager driven to prostitution. The writing is anything but gratuitous, offering readers not a sordid, voyeur's glimpse into a titillating, glamourized lifestyle but an authentic social commentary on the adverse effects of the poverty, dysfunction, and mental illness that led her to a life of homelessness and sex work. Moran tackles her past with sincere feeling and frank objectivity, at once lamenting her unhappy childhood and descent into the underworld while providing rational criticism of the world at large for the role circumstance played in her life. This is no self-indulgent memoir, nor is it a plea for pity. It is a heart-wrenching account of desperation and naivete that is told with a level of dignity and introspection rarely found in memoirs of this type. This thoroughly enjoyable--albeit emotionally intense--book is sure to become a must-read for social scientists and those with a passion for human interest. VERDICT A succinct and evocative memoir of the realities of homelessness and prostitution that approaches the far-reaching causes and consequences of society and life.--Kathleen Dupre, Edmond, OK

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2015
Moran confronts her previous profession in this powerful memoir and case against prostitution. Born to parents who were in and out of mental health institutions, Moran argues that women who choose prostitution are driven by desperation, poverty, and social alienation. Chapter by chapter, she addresses the myths associated with prostitution, powerfully undermining each with anecdotes from her own experience, writing, for example, that the myth of the happy hooker is unfathomable to most women in prostitution. She believes prostitution is nothing other than sanctioned abuse. Moran ends by decrying the legalization of prostitution and warns of its consequences for relationships between men and women prostitution clearly promotes the depersonalization of sex, which can never be good news for womenany women. Much of this straightforward memoir about a trade historically obscured by stigma and misinformation will be bracingly educational for most readers. But Moran's writing is thoughtful, brave, and lovely, as well. Thanks to her instantly engaging voice, this account will be accessible to anyone prepared to stomach the tough story of the commodification of a life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)