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Too Pretty to be Good
A half-orphan, the town slut, unlovable by all. The one the boys liked enough to touch, but not enough to claim. Hands clasped in the dark of closets, but not in the hallway at school. Did you know you can get paid for touching boys in closets?
Saddled with a bad reputation, grieving the death of her father, navigating a hostile world of religiosity, hypocrisy, and abuse, Lindsay escapes her ramshackle hometown of Evilland, Virginia, looking for redemption in all the wrong places.
Journey across sweat-soaked stages dotted with wadded dollars and the dreams of a thousand women, to the hallowed halls of the ivory tower where florescent lights and tenured dinosaurs reign, to find out how one woman straddling worlds learns to love herself, despite all odds.
Speaking with realness, rawness, and relatability, Too Pretty To Be Good is a love letter written directly from the heart of a woman to the people she's loved before-including, finally, herself. Anyone looking to find and forgive themselves regardless of their pasts should look no further than this book. Too Pretty To Be Good teaches us that we are whole and worthy in spite of-in fact, because of-who and where we've been before.
Saddled with a bad reputation, grieving the death of her father, navigating a hostile world of religiosity, hypocrisy, and abuse, Lindsay escapes her ramshackle hometown of Evilland, Virginia, looking for redemption in all the wrong places.
Journey across sweat-soaked stages dotted with wadded dollars and the dreams of a thousand women, to the hallowed halls of the ivory tower where florescent lights and tenured dinosaurs reign, to find out how one woman straddling worlds learns to love herself, despite all odds.
Speaking with realness, rawness, and relatability, Too Pretty To Be Good is a love letter written directly from the heart of a woman to the people she's loved before-including, finally, herself. Anyone looking to find and forgive themselves regardless of their pasts should look no further than this book. Too Pretty To Be Good teaches us that we are whole and worthy in spite of-in fact, because of-who and where we've been before.
224 pages, Paperback
Published January 11, 2021
17 people are currently reading
346 people want to read
About the author
Lindsay Byron
1 book15 followersLindsay Byron is a strip club veteran, former English professor, and lifelong writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. Lindsay developed a name for herself on social media as a storyteller under the alias of “Lux ATL.” She hails from Evilland, Virginia, the final capital of the Confederacy, where tobacco once was king, but now Oxycontin takes the throne. After a traumatic youth in this treacherous landscape, Lindsay escaped Evilland by dancing her way across strip club stages throughout the South--collecting three English degrees in the meantime--before finally finding her calling as a preacher for women’s empowerment in the role of Head Priestess of the Stripcoven, a rag-tag community of misfit girls. Lindsay holds a PhD in American Literature from Georgia State University, as well as a doctorate in the school of hard knocks. She is a published scholar on the topic of unruly women; you can find her article “Rewriting Elizabeth'' in the Summer 2014 edition of Southern Cultures quarterly. In her free time, Lindsay enjoys hiking, surfing, dancing, playing music, and snuggling her three-legged dog.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
February 8, 2021
An excellent contribution to the stripper memoir genre – one that doesn't trade on stereotypes or cartoonishness, but does get real about what drew one woman to the biz. Rather than riffing on the "stripping to get through college" narrative, Lindsay challenges and upends it, drawing uncomfortable parallels between the stage with the pole and the stage with a lectern. This is, in fact, not a story about stripping so much as a story about trauma and self-forgiveness, about learning what to do with the pieces of your life that have never seemed to fit and your own personal contradictions. It's a love letter to the self situated in a culture that makes women feel hard to love, and especially women who break the rules. How do you learn self love when your business is selling the aesthetics and idea of love – and when true intimacy and kindness are so often out of reach? That's the really lovely thing this memoir has to offer.
April 16, 2021
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
I grew to love Lindsay Byron. This woman probably fought her editor hard. This book is poetic and it’s difficult to find your footing at first, but once you do she becomes water and you flow and crash with her. You want to shake her if you already know, and then you find out that she knows too. What’s most intoxicating about this story is who she is, what she becomes, and how she keeps growing. After you put down this book, or even during it google her. She is living her life, she creates and consumes. She has found the goddess within her. And you can’t help but think there’s a goddess inside of you too.
I grew to love Lindsay Byron. This woman probably fought her editor hard. This book is poetic and it’s difficult to find your footing at first, but once you do she becomes water and you flow and crash with her. You want to shake her if you already know, and then you find out that she knows too. What’s most intoxicating about this story is who she is, what she becomes, and how she keeps growing. After you put down this book, or even during it google her. She is living her life, she creates and consumes. She has found the goddess within her. And you can’t help but think there’s a goddess inside of you too.
January 16, 2021
An expertly woven tapestry of womanhood
This book is unputdownable. It’s full of stormy and complicated love, reconciliation, destruction, reclamation, power, and the discoveries of self that come through the study of those who came before. Past and present blended seamlessly to show the threads that make the picture whole.
This book is unputdownable. It’s full of stormy and complicated love, reconciliation, destruction, reclamation, power, and the discoveries of self that come through the study of those who came before. Past and present blended seamlessly to show the threads that make the picture whole.
April 13, 2021
The very best memoir I have EVER read. Hands down.
April 22, 2025
i was fucking cryyyyinggg i was straight up just bawling for the last 40 pages, it was so visceral and real and beautiful !!! this is on womanhood, growing up as a woman with a long line of mothers that trail behind you; they ultimately morphed you! there is so much in this book it was sooo fantastic, lindsay byron is a genius
June 12, 2025
4 and 1/2 stars. Don’t let the gritty cover or the fact that this is a memoir about a stripper fool you. It is lyrical, beautifully written, and definitely gritty. Did I mention the stripper has a PHD in English. There are so many layers to this novel. I wish I would’ve read it with my book club so that we could discuss it.
April 13, 2021
The very best memoir I have EVER read. Hands down.
October 25, 2021
Amazing memoir. Love the way the stories flowed into each other in each chapter. Overall just a very real and raw peace of work, well done.
January 12, 2021
I don't remember the last time I started and finished a book in a day. I would have finished it in one sitting if I could have. As a long time follower, I was waiting to read this for a while. The writing is so distinct and poetic, the story captivating, enthralling, dark, raw, honest and beautiful. I could not put it down and it moved and inspired me.
January 25, 2021
The most distinct feature of this novel lies in its honesty: Lux/Lindsay is a woman that has come to terms with her attraction to darkness, vindication, and seduction and that has paid the price for being an unapologetic woman. She hides not the twisted parts of her: she tells her past sins not like she would on a confessional but like she would at a sleepover with close friends.
Lux is a talented writer - her prose going around in circles, ruminating for new meanings - and an unconventional one, too. Her work has a dark, misterious, captivating, feminine quality. Lux has ventured both into dark spaces - the smokey, flashy strip clubs- and also into dark times – deep into her roots, into her genealogy, into the earthly places that originate her story. “You ought not be so goddamned dark”, her mother moans to a teenage Lux.
This novel goes beyond telling the secrets of a former stripper, it is a coming-of-age story. It starts in a grubby strip joint in Virginia and goes all the way to the halls of one of the fanciest colleges in the States. It is marked by Lux’s nostalgia for long-lost loves; first her father, then the love of her younger years.
Some of the parallels that Lux draws, between the rescued animals of her childhood and her own wild nature, did not sit well with me. At times, the narrative jumped too many times between past, present and then back to another point in the past, that I was left with a lingering feeling of nonconsummation, like a client at the club whose lapdance stops just before the climax.
Other than those details, Lux has gifted us with an intoxicating and very authentic critical, feminist voice. I’m sure she will keep on surprising us with her art in years to come.
Lux is a talented writer - her prose going around in circles, ruminating for new meanings - and an unconventional one, too. Her work has a dark, misterious, captivating, feminine quality. Lux has ventured both into dark spaces - the smokey, flashy strip clubs- and also into dark times – deep into her roots, into her genealogy, into the earthly places that originate her story. “You ought not be so goddamned dark”, her mother moans to a teenage Lux.
This novel goes beyond telling the secrets of a former stripper, it is a coming-of-age story. It starts in a grubby strip joint in Virginia and goes all the way to the halls of one of the fanciest colleges in the States. It is marked by Lux’s nostalgia for long-lost loves; first her father, then the love of her younger years.
Some of the parallels that Lux draws, between the rescued animals of her childhood and her own wild nature, did not sit well with me. At times, the narrative jumped too many times between past, present and then back to another point in the past, that I was left with a lingering feeling of nonconsummation, like a client at the club whose lapdance stops just before the climax.
Other than those details, Lux has gifted us with an intoxicating and very authentic critical, feminist voice. I’m sure she will keep on surprising us with her art in years to come.
February 5, 2024
This is the best memoir AND book I’ve read in a long time. Lindsay is an incredible writer. Authentic, raw, vulnerable, compelling in every way; spilling her insides on the outside for all to savour and meditate on. She moves me. Her writing discloses quiet truths most won’t dare contemplate let alone share to the world. I was hooked from the very first page; no, the very first sentence! Many passages and lines in her book made me shiver, pause, reread them slowly so as to anchor them within me.
I’ve started following Lindsay’s social media and Substack - her writing is all just so undeniable. It transfixes me in the best way. In an age where attention is scattered and atomized, I wondered if I could be this obsessed with someone’s writing again.
The is the kind of writing that is a gift to the world. This is the kind of writing that made me fall in love with reading to begin with and that inspires me to write too.
I was sobbing through the last few pages of the book, not because of some abject tragedy (though there is tragedy throughout, no doubt, as there is in all lives if closely examined), but just because of how human, relatable, and moving Lindsay is in her writing. This is one of those books where you slowly turn that last page, reluctant to admit it’s over. You hold it delicately in your hand, like a precious offering, wanting to share it and protect it all at once. I will reread it, of course.
I hope you write another book Lindsay, but in the meantime, I will read anything and everything you write!
December 11, 2025
A stripper-memoir, this powerful retelling of Lindsay's experience is visceral and raw. She does a wonderful job of being honest with her words, both about her childhood and her stripping experience. She doesn't hide the unfiltered truth. I couldn't put the book down.
January 16, 2021
This is the first time I've stayed up all night reading since I was a teen.
It's hard to know where to start, do we start with Lindsay or Lux? I have known both, even if only a brief glimmer, personally and digitally.. I wrote a review a few years ago about her workshop that I think really sums her up:
"There are no adequate words to describe Lux ATL - "the stripper with the PhD". Her online bravado, persona and FUCK YOU feminist attitude is real, and a good chunk of what makes up the whole that is Lux.
BUT!....there is so much more to her than all that.
Over two days I saw the many sides of Lux. A gentle thoughtful scholar; ruminating on what pre-historic man may have believed and cared about. A passionate activist; decrying the state of her country's health care system and police brutality problem. A playful sexy siren; seducing every one of my students with her "fuck me" eyes. Someone who struggles with the day to day realities of life; missing her family, processing the experiences she has lived through. She is a complex and whole human being. An open book, free with her emotions in all their glory and sadness. There isn't anyone in the world like Lux, "Only you possess what only you possess"."
In many ways we've lived very different lives and yet, so much of what she wrote resonated to my very core. The hurt, the hurting of others, that constant pull to the edge of societally unacceptable behaviour, that need for thrill. That unquenchable need for validation and love. Underneath it all just wanting acceptance and legitimacy.
If you want a neat story about a neat well behaved person you won't get it. As someone who knows both Lindsay and Lux... You get Lindsay in this book. Vulnerable, raw, real. No persona.
It's hard to know where to start, do we start with Lindsay or Lux? I have known both, even if only a brief glimmer, personally and digitally.. I wrote a review a few years ago about her workshop that I think really sums her up:
"There are no adequate words to describe Lux ATL - "the stripper with the PhD". Her online bravado, persona and FUCK YOU feminist attitude is real, and a good chunk of what makes up the whole that is Lux.
BUT!....there is so much more to her than all that.
Over two days I saw the many sides of Lux. A gentle thoughtful scholar; ruminating on what pre-historic man may have believed and cared about. A passionate activist; decrying the state of her country's health care system and police brutality problem. A playful sexy siren; seducing every one of my students with her "fuck me" eyes. Someone who struggles with the day to day realities of life; missing her family, processing the experiences she has lived through. She is a complex and whole human being. An open book, free with her emotions in all their glory and sadness. There isn't anyone in the world like Lux, "Only you possess what only you possess"."
In many ways we've lived very different lives and yet, so much of what she wrote resonated to my very core. The hurt, the hurting of others, that constant pull to the edge of societally unacceptable behaviour, that need for thrill. That unquenchable need for validation and love. Underneath it all just wanting acceptance and legitimacy.
If you want a neat story about a neat well behaved person you won't get it. As someone who knows both Lindsay and Lux... You get Lindsay in this book. Vulnerable, raw, real. No persona.
February 12, 2021
While Lux ATL, Lindsay, or Dr. Byron’s story may present a unique perspective in that I can’t name another doctor by day stripper by night scenario, I think this raw, gritty, haunting, and enlightening memoir holds many situations any person can identify with- Issues of social class, being poor, being a woman, love, marriage, motherhood, and even insight into the nightlife of luscious ladies. Dr. Byron speaks her truth unlike most are willing to admit. While some may view her attitudes and ideals as self-serving or even narcissistic, she never strays from owning those attributes. In fact, it’s what drives her. And although many see loving one’s self at this level as a sin, in her story, it’s what drives her. It’s passionate, and it’s pure fire, and whether people want to recognize this or not, it’s a powerful therapeutic tool that we can all learn to harness a little more. A fellow performer once told her “this will ruin you for men,” and this was such a vibrant theme in this story. Was that true for Lux? In these days and times, there are so many things “ruining” women for men that have nothing to do with dark rooms and disco lights. So, I am not so sure that it is ruining us for men, or them ruining themselves for us. In any event, this was a great book, I couldn’t put it down, and I can’t wait to see what’s next in store for Lux ATL.
January 12, 2021
Stay Up To Read This
I meant to preorder this book, and expected it to arrive via electron to my kindle some time later this month. Instead it appeared right after I bought it and I started reading; I couldn’t stop. I read through dinner, through late night work emails, after my husband and dog had gone to bed.
This story is uncomfortable to read not just because it is beautifully written and brutally honest about Lindsay’s life, but because it resurrects memories of my own. She bares her soul and, in doing so, reminds the reader that the darkness highlights the beauty of our deeply imperfect lives. Gritty, sweet, and nuanced - I look forward to whatever she writes next.
I meant to preorder this book, and expected it to arrive via electron to my kindle some time later this month. Instead it appeared right after I bought it and I started reading; I couldn’t stop. I read through dinner, through late night work emails, after my husband and dog had gone to bed.
This story is uncomfortable to read not just because it is beautifully written and brutally honest about Lindsay’s life, but because it resurrects memories of my own. She bares her soul and, in doing so, reminds the reader that the darkness highlights the beauty of our deeply imperfect lives. Gritty, sweet, and nuanced - I look forward to whatever she writes next.
September 18, 2024
This is a really well-written fictionalized memoir that directly confronts many of society's emotional problems around sex and sexuality.
If you've ever wondered why we in the US grow up thinking that sex is bad, especially outside of "marriage", even though we see sexiness as a virtue and use sex to sell everything, this book gives an excellent personal account that is very illustrative.
Because the author is very intelligent and eloquent, and seems to be a woman who has confronted so many taboo and interesting situations in her own life, the life perspective presented by Byron is compelling to me, in large part because her life experiences are so different from my own.
If you've ever wondered why we in the US grow up thinking that sex is bad, especially outside of "marriage", even though we see sexiness as a virtue and use sex to sell everything, this book gives an excellent personal account that is very illustrative.
Because the author is very intelligent and eloquent, and seems to be a woman who has confronted so many taboo and interesting situations in her own life, the life perspective presented by Byron is compelling to me, in large part because her life experiences are so different from my own.
January 18, 2021
I feel seen
I don't know how exactly to sum up my love for this book. We grew up differently, but the same in so many ways. This raw, honest, excruciatingly beautiful story touches me in the deepest, most secret parts of my heart, the shadows I didn't know were still there. This book helps me love my shadows a little more. This book makes my inner 13 year old feel not-alone. I really can't say enough about how deeply Dr. Byron's story touched me. Buy it, and read it; her story will change you in a really good way.
I don't know how exactly to sum up my love for this book. We grew up differently, but the same in so many ways. This raw, honest, excruciatingly beautiful story touches me in the deepest, most secret parts of my heart, the shadows I didn't know were still there. This book helps me love my shadows a little more. This book makes my inner 13 year old feel not-alone. I really can't say enough about how deeply Dr. Byron's story touched me. Buy it, and read it; her story will change you in a really good way.
March 9, 2021
Full Disclosure: I know Lindsay in real life and consider her a friend.
That being said, this was an amazing memoir! Her writing kept me intrigued and I was invested in what would happen next with her life because most of these things happened before we had ever met. If creative nonfiction is your jam, I highly recommend this memoir that is a cross between a coming of age tale and a deep reflection on what it means to grow up in a body that is viewed for its beauty first and brains second. I really hope that she continues writing in the future.
That being said, this was an amazing memoir! Her writing kept me intrigued and I was invested in what would happen next with her life because most of these things happened before we had ever met. If creative nonfiction is your jam, I highly recommend this memoir that is a cross between a coming of age tale and a deep reflection on what it means to grow up in a body that is viewed for its beauty first and brains second. I really hope that she continues writing in the future.
March 14, 2021
Lux crafted what I truly believe to be a southern gothic memoir reminiscent of Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner in style and scope. It’s a coming of age tale that sees one woman in all women, the way Mother is within the Lady of the Lake and the Madonna and as Lux is Lindsay and so she is Dr. Byron.
As a man reading this book, I got a stark insight into the complexity of the game women play with us, for us, and at times, against us, so in that way, the tale is my own too, and can yield me a better man. It’s short, sweet, and a must read.
As a man reading this book, I got a stark insight into the complexity of the game women play with us, for us, and at times, against us, so in that way, the tale is my own too, and can yield me a better man. It’s short, sweet, and a must read.
July 17, 2022
I met Lindsay during grad school at GSU and followed her transformation. Reading her personal account has taught me about courage, bravery and honesty. I have also really enjoyed her writing style, its rhythm, poetry, its Southern drawl. What makes Lindsay, and this memoir special, is that it won’t leave you indifferent, but will posit in your mind an essential question, who am I really? Do I have the courage, self- love and discipline to open the Pandora Box that lies in the bottom of my being? We all have our demons, our shadows... Lindsay 's account presents a dialogue between them
December 8, 2024
As a fan of indie authors, this was so unique in all the best ways. Dr. Lindsay Byron writes and captures the essence of duality in her life of academia and exotic dancing in a way that captures the essence of a space in between. The elements of humor, empathy, trauma, and the taboo are combined in a way that was thrilling to read. I’ve never read anything like this, and I loved the evolution, honesty, and grit that was captured so stunningly. If you’re tired of the same ol’ vanilla tales in your TBR list I highly recommend! This was refreshing and the pages oozed authenticity.
January 12, 2021
A powerful read
Raw and beautiful, Too Pretty to Be Good, will speak to your heart, your trauma, to the little girl in you who learned confusing lessons about what love is and how to keep it. Part memoir, part catharsis, all heart- I read this book completely in one day. It's honest, it's open, and it doesn't try to tie up all the knots into pretty bows. Lindsey explores the pain and glory of living, surviving and remembering who you are.
Raw and beautiful, Too Pretty to Be Good, will speak to your heart, your trauma, to the little girl in you who learned confusing lessons about what love is and how to keep it. Part memoir, part catharsis, all heart- I read this book completely in one day. It's honest, it's open, and it doesn't try to tie up all the knots into pretty bows. Lindsey explores the pain and glory of living, surviving and remembering who you are.
April 22, 2022
A must read
There's just way to much to say about this book and not one word of it negative. In so many ways I felt as if I was reading a copy of my soul, my struggles and my pain. This story gave me hope and a desire to be more then I've ever allowed myself to be, and to feel when I've tried to stay numb for so long. I saw a reflection of my broken self in this book and am sure many other women can as well. I hope there is more to come from this author.
There's just way to much to say about this book and not one word of it negative. In so many ways I felt as if I was reading a copy of my soul, my struggles and my pain. This story gave me hope and a desire to be more then I've ever allowed myself to be, and to feel when I've tried to stay numb for so long. I saw a reflection of my broken self in this book and am sure many other women can as well. I hope there is more to come from this author.
June 4, 2022
I have never had a book that I've devoured as hungrily as this one. This work of nonfiction is filled to the brim with so many heartwarming and heart-wrenching moments, a truly beautiful display of the duality of man and the human experience. Her writing style is compelling and captivating, and from the time I started reading, I didn't put the book down until I had finished. Even then, I craved more. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
January 12, 2021
Incredible read
I have waited on this to be published for years. And, having finished it, I returned to the first page to start anew. It's compelling, rich, vivid, and honest. It's more than that for those of us that have walked a similar path. It's being seen and being accepted as we are.
I have waited on this to be published for years. And, having finished it, I returned to the first page to start anew. It's compelling, rich, vivid, and honest. It's more than that for those of us that have walked a similar path. It's being seen and being accepted as we are.
June 5, 2021
I absolutely loved this book. Every line is poetry. Lux/Lindsey comes across as extremely self aware. She is brilliant, she is sensual, and she’s honest. I’m not sure what I expected from this book, but I appreciate the glimpse into her life, and her heart. I highly recommend for anyone needing a little beauty and a little heartache in their day.
November 12, 2021
This memoir is incredibly well executed. Dr Byron leads a fascinating life and she didn’t just fluff the good moments. This story is full of life and everything that comes with it (tragedy, triumph, sex, scandal, self-empowerment, love). I highly recommend this quick read! This woman is a true powerhouse!
January 23, 2021
So intense and raw and honest. Not everything in life is black and white. Finished this in a day and ended it with tears streaming down my face. So relatable I’m so many ways. Dying to read more from her.
February 9, 2021
The world needed this book. I am so grateful for the community she has created and the intense work it took for these stories to be told. I can't recommend it enough. You definitely won't be disappointed.
June 27, 2021
This colorful life story is such a pleasure!
Growing up in the South, I can almost feel myself living the upbringing Dr. Byron experienced. The imagery she uses really makes me feel like I am a character and a piece of her life. --Melanie
Growing up in the South, I can almost feel myself living the upbringing Dr. Byron experienced. The imagery she uses really makes me feel like I am a character and a piece of her life. --Melanie
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews