What do you think?
Rate this book
Body Shell Girl
think of my body as a shell that I could vacate, not as metaphor, or symbol but as a real possibility
Body Shell Girl is a memoir in verse about the first two years of a decade that Rose Hunter spent in the sex industry in Canada. When Rose walked into a massage parlour in Toronto in 1997, she was looking for a temporary fix to pay rent and avoid having to go back to her home country of Australia. Awkward, shy, and looking for a place to belong, she found herself in a strange world she understood little about, other than here she could make more than rent. She planned to use her earnings to buy herself an education that would secure the career of her dreams. Naively believing she could do only what was required of her, without trauma or side effects and leave the industry on her own terms, she was shattered by what unfolded. This is her story. It is also a searing portrayal of this dehumanising industry in all its destructive power.
Body Shell Girl is a memoir in verse about the first two years of a decade that Rose Hunter spent in the sex industry in Canada. When Rose walked into a massage parlour in Toronto in 1997, she was looking for a temporary fix to pay rent and avoid having to go back to her home country of Australia. Awkward, shy, and looking for a place to belong, she found herself in a strange world she understood little about, other than here she could make more than rent. She planned to use her earnings to buy herself an education that would secure the career of her dreams. Naively believing she could do only what was required of her, without trauma or side effects and leave the industry on her own terms, she was shattered by what unfolded. This is her story. It is also a searing portrayal of this dehumanising industry in all its destructive power.
- GenresFeminism
160 pages, Paperback
Published May 17, 2022
1 person is currently reading
36 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 26, 2022
An incredible account of survival. I imagine Rose’s story will help many people in many ways. Rose is brave and generous to share her first two years in the sex industry with readers. Look forward to a possible future book she refers to in the Epilogue about her time in Puerto Vallarta.
August 31, 2024
Body Shell Girl by Rose Hunter is hands down my most surprising read of 2024. I went into this collection with a slight trepidation because the topics of this book centre around the sex industry and addiction.
To say this book was stunningly captivating, would be an understatement. It is a personal story for Hunter, one of the first couple of years of her entering the sex industry in Canada, it is a lived experience of trauma, dehumanisation, misogyny and self realisation.
Her story is unlike anything I have ever read, it is hard not to lose yourself in this world of men, booze, drugs and everything that comes with it, hard not to feel the trauma of giving and having your body taken from you (trust me it is possible) and even harder to see a way out of the world Hunter found herself but you will her to all the same.
The poetry is captivating, visceral, literal and brilliant. The book was in its final pages before I realised I had been sitting and reading for hours but I couldn't put it down.
On a poetry level, I recommend it. On an educational level, I recommend it and I recommend it on a level of understanding another corner of sometimes cruel world in the words of someone who has survived and thrived through it. Just read it. That's all.
To say this book was stunningly captivating, would be an understatement. It is a personal story for Hunter, one of the first couple of years of her entering the sex industry in Canada, it is a lived experience of trauma, dehumanisation, misogyny and self realisation.
Her story is unlike anything I have ever read, it is hard not to lose yourself in this world of men, booze, drugs and everything that comes with it, hard not to feel the trauma of giving and having your body taken from you (trust me it is possible) and even harder to see a way out of the world Hunter found herself but you will her to all the same.
The poetry is captivating, visceral, literal and brilliant. The book was in its final pages before I realised I had been sitting and reading for hours but I couldn't put it down.
On a poetry level, I recommend it. On an educational level, I recommend it and I recommend it on a level of understanding another corner of sometimes cruel world in the words of someone who has survived and thrived through it. Just read it. That's all.
Read
October 3, 2022Didn’t do my due diligence and ended up taking home a book with a giant endorsement from the head of some kind of Nordic Model advocacy group on the cover, which bizarrely turned out to be the least offensive element of this book. A shame, as the elevator pitch of this – a memoir in poetry of the author’s time as a sex worker in Canada in the 90s – is at first glance very ‘my shit’. I’d intended on reading it with a critical eye but after doing some further looking in to the purportedly ‘feminist’ press who printed this, I won’t be. Their titles read like a filled-out bingo card of hateful, reactionary faux feminism – violent and feverish transphobia, ridiculously over the top anti-porn stuff, anti-sex worker garbage galore. What a strange and awful niche, honestly it’d be embarrassing if it wasn’t so damaging to so many people. Thankfully I got this cheap and used, I’ve moved it on and donated what I paid for it (roughly the cost of a sandwich) to a charity for LGBTQIA+ youth, and that is the end for me of this sickening saga.
December 22, 2023
Courage is too small of a word for this author
I am grateful for the brave women who write authentic stories. There are only a few, and Rose is one of them. They take on this endeavor at a high risk of being treated poorly, publicly. Once the words are published, there is no going back. There is no control of where or how the stories will be mentioned in the author's future. Courage is too small of a word to describe what Rose has done here. My gut
hurts for the pain she has suffered. My heart wants to protect her. The least I can do is congratulate her on her sobriety and her success as an author. So well done, Rose! Keep writing!
I am grateful for the brave women who write authentic stories. There are only a few, and Rose is one of them. They take on this endeavor at a high risk of being treated poorly, publicly. Once the words are published, there is no going back. There is no control of where or how the stories will be mentioned in the author's future. Courage is too small of a word to describe what Rose has done here. My gut
hurts for the pain she has suffered. My heart wants to protect her. The least I can do is congratulate her on her sobriety and her success as an author. So well done, Rose! Keep writing!
dnf
March 22, 2025I really couldn't stand the writing style, which is told in what's described as "poetic verse". It was so stilted, it made reading it so obnoxious that I had to give up about twenty pages in. I don't think real life stories such as this, where someone shares their not so amazing experience with sex work, have a whole lot of opportunity to be told, and so it's kind of annoying how pretentious and off-putting this one is.
July 13, 2022
3.5 stars
September 26, 2024
bro this book so good. loved it and one of my faves ever <3 genuine and real. before
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews