Whip Smart, Melissa Febos
Whip Smart, Melissa Febos
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Whip Smart
The True Story of a Secret Life

Author: Melissa Febos

Narrator: Melissa Febos

Unabridged: 8 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/07/2021

Synopsis

A dark, wild, powerful memoir about a young woman's transformation from college student to professional dominatrix.

While a college student at The New School, Melissa Febos spent four years working as a dominatrix in a midtown dungeon. In poetic, nuanced prose she charts in Whip Smart how unchecked risk-taking eventually gave way to a course of self-destruction. But as she recounts crossing over the very boundaries that she set for her own safety, she never plays the victim. In fact, the glory of this memoir is Melissa's ability to illuminate the strange and powerful truths that she learned as she found her way out of a hell of her own making. Rest assured; the reader will emerge from the journey more or less unscathed.

Contains mature themes.

About Melissa Febos

Melissa Febos is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Whip Smart and the essay collections Abandon Me, which was a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist, and Girlhood. The inaugural winner of the Jeanne Cordova Nonfiction Award from LAMBDA Literary, her work has appeared in publications including the Paris Review, the Sun, the Kenyon Review, Tin House, Granta, the Believer, the New York Times, McSweeney's, the New York Times Book Review, Lenny Letter, Elle, and Vogue. She curated the Mixer Reading and Music Series in Manhattan for ten years and served on the Board of Directors for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts for five. The recipient of an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, she is an associate professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jen on December 16, 2010

I have to appreciate any woman who tells a story like this without saying, "Look, look what happened to me," but rather "I got seduced by a world that is less glamorous than it seems." OK, so much for literary analysis, but hey, I'm not in the business of that. I'm in the business of reading memoir......more

Goodreads review by R.G. on April 05, 2010

In a recent "Studio 360" interview, Mary Karr, responding to a remark about the influence her memoir "The Liar's Club" has had on the publishing world, said that there are a lot of bad memoirs out there that she just wasn't responsible for. I'm afraid "Whip Smart" might just be another of those memoi......more

Goodreads review by Raina on October 08, 2010

Finally got around to reading this - I bought a copy when Febos came to the Olympia library. And of course, the insight into the world of the dungeons and deeds of the professional dominatrix is fascinating. But what I was really impressed me was the honest way Febos exposed herself, deconstructed t......more

Goodreads review by Jarrett on February 01, 2024

Sex work has always intrigued me. Merging sex and the body with commerce is tricky and requires a mental and spiritual fortitude that the vast majority of people simply don't have. What I love about Whip Smart is Melissa Febos's candor and her ability to twin the double helix of her reflections on h......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on March 12, 2016

I heard about this memoir on NPR and from the interview, it sounded quirky and a bit more fun-spirited. The actual book was a complete downer. The author's drug addiction didn't interest me and her experiences in "the dungeon" were disgusting (and I'm NOT a prude by any means)and twisted. I guess I......more

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