Kamensky’s ambitious project... is a challenging one; she is at pains to avoid ascribing pat reasons for Royalle’s choices, while still providing ample context. At times the shifting focus can be disorienting.

A frank and unexpectedly lively biography. The book’s virtues include its melding of history with diaristic intimacy and clever, often incandescent prose..

Assiduously researched, elegantly written..

Kamensky’s deft portrait of Royalle undercuts... the tale of feminism’s decline.

This in-depth biography makes a good argument that Vadala is an unsung history maker..

Following Vadala’s lead, Kamensky’s biography refuses the binary between a pleasure-driven feminism and a victim-driven one to show how sex work and its cultures can be both liberating and oppressive..

A captivating biography of a major figure of the sexual revolution..