"I’ve been reading a lot this summer, and I’ve run across some gems. The Hop is definitely at the top of my list. I absolutely adored Thin Girls, Diana Clarke’s debut, and if it’s possible, The Hop surpassed that adoration.

About the book: “From the author of Thin Girls, a page-turning feminist novel that tells the story of how a poor girl coming of age in rural New Zealand grows to be a sex icon, the face of a movement, and a mother, all at the same time.�

I know it’s over 500 pages, but some pages are only one paragraph, and the story moves super fast, so it never feels long. In fact, I would have read 500 more pages with these characters. Also, the main character is an exotic dancer turned sex worker, and The Hop quite literally bares it all. Diana Clarke does not skim across the top, and that depth adds to the story. Even though it was fiction, I wanted to google Kate Burns because I just knew she was real. It turns out she and the other characters in the book were based on hundreds of interviews with sex workers completed by Diana Clarke as research for the book. The structure of the story feels nakedly personal, which adds to that authenticity, as the reader hears directly from Kate, as well as those around her.

The story begins with Kate living with her in rural New Zealand, barely making ends meet. Their relationship is unusual but always full of love with a strong bond. Eventually, Kate lands in Nevada on the doorstep of a legal brothel called The Hop. She becomes Lady Lane. With her new role comes scandal and fame she never seeks.

I gained insight I didn’t from Lady Lane and her fellow Bunnies, and for that I am grateful. Diana Clarke has this way of immersing you in a story and challenging your thinking.

Unforgettable characters I cherished, an edgy, bold, empowering, compulsively readable, memorable story. I LOVED IT. Definitely one of my books of summer, if not my top book.

I received a gifted copy.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: and instagram: "

"humongous review to come


there it is:
when i first read cleopatra&frankenstein, i saw that there were some... problematic moments, but i still enjoyed it. on the reread, i noticed the worst parts much more - the cringe writing, bizarre characterization, weird obsession with specific countries/ethicities... and after reading blue sisters, i am crestfallen to report that all these worst parts of c&p are pretty much 100% of blue sisters.
overall, there was much to digest. the concept seemed intruigning, especially to me as the oldest of three sisters and four siblings in total, but i think it is absolutely treated in the most obvious ways possible. wow, the oldest sister being a control freak overachiever? never done before! (if i want a story like this, i just read my own journal) youngest sister being the wild child? crazy. of course, middle sister being an accomplished boxer is hm, not an existing trope, but it truly means just one thing: she is strong. coco mellors, you queen of nuance. like, some metaphors here are just too advanced for my silly brain - for example, they're called the blue sisters because they're... sad. insane twist. and then there's of course the dead sister, whose smile lit up a room and all children loved her. her condition - endometriosis - is a very worthwhile topic, but i found her surface-level characterization made it all fall flat. i have no sense of her as a person whatsoever, and i think it wouldve been more interesting if literally any other sister died instead.
the cringe writing which already reared its head in c&f here takes full force. ah yes, the lament of the city being the police sirens. "drugs, terrible things" is a direct quote. i mean, hard to disagree. "wolfish grin" was mentioned to often i was half-heartedly expecting green orbs and harry styles to make an appearance too. it just all smells of fanfiction too strong, and not in a good way.
the characterization of all the sisters falls incredibly flat, and their mother is even more cartoonish. weirdly enough, they all don't feel like a family - coco mellors is hitting me over the head with the sentences about how much they love each other, but she never shows it. i also don't see any similarities or influence over each other between them. like, me and my siblings are very different people, but i've been told it's very obvious we're related - we have the same sense of humour, similar interests, we talk the same way. nothing of the sort happens in blue sisters. they feel more like grief acquitances than sisters.
moreover, mellors doesnt say anything interesting about sisterhood. she actually just lures you in with this premise and then gives a book ostensibly about addicition, but even there, she doesn't have anything fresh or interesting to say - like, addiction bad. AA good. we get it. she also doesn't show any other coping mechanisms beside AA, which is... curious. to say the least.
the only good part for me was the ending, which gave at least a bit of katharsis, but an probably undeserved one. i mightve been just projecting my own feelings there.
thats more or less my main takes, HOWEVER, this would not be a helena review if i didn't mention the plotline that bothered me the most - and it truly read like a plotline genetically bred to infuriate me, as it combined a problematic depicition of slavic people (much like myself) and a romanticization of a teacher-student relationship. light spoilers ahead.
so, one of the sisters, bonnie, is a boxer, and her trainer is russian. and listen - i am as anti-russian as any other polish bitch around here. HOWEVER it is fucking insane that miss coco mellors wrote this characters that cannot speak basic english despite living what, 25+ years in the us. "you want fight?" "is difficult this life"??? hello?? does she think primitive little eastern europeans are unable to learn a language in this time, while of course one of her perfect little blond americqn protagonists picks up japanese in three years like it's nothing? what infuriated me even more was this weird-ass moment when pavel (the russian trainer) says they dont have cheesecake in russia? aha??? cheesecake is literally one of the most popular, if not the most popular, dessert in eastern europe, and some even claim it was invented in poland??? coco. google is free. please use it sometimes. i know from your depiction of poland in c&f that you're allergic to it and you use your woman intuition only to guide your portrayal of eastern europe, but im begging you. just one time, google if the primitive slavs you like fetishizing so much have cheesecake. or, should i say it like pavel? me stupid slavic woman have cheesecake?
and then when pavel, who was 30 upon meeting bonnie, and bonnie, who was 15 upon meeting pavel, get together, it's seen as a great romantic moment. girls, i thought we moved past that in the discourse. like, what the actual fuck. as a slavic victim of grooming, i felt double hate-crimed by the entire pavel storyline.
on the topic of weird cultural fixations, which sadly continue from c&f, there's of course a phonetic depiction of jamaican accent in peachy's scenes, but that i leave to discuss to someone more qualified.
all in all, coco mellors once again proves - sometimes the most oppressed person of earth can be a beautiful rich (oh, im sorry, they're allegedly poor. they OWN only two properties in new york.....) able-bodied woman in the us......"