Trades of the Flesh [Paperback]

Faye L. Booth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2009

Preston, 1888: as the century draws to a close, the prostitute murders in London have made young Lydia Ketch's 'trade' a political issue. Lydia, the tough but optimistic daughter of a former workhouse inmate, has spent a year working in the 'introduction house' of Kathleen Tanner, a job that has given her an income few others could match. When Lydia meets Henry Shadwell, a young surgeon with a passionate interest in biology, the two develop an instant - and non-professional - bond. And Henry soon enlists Lydia's help in his underground sidelines; first as a model for pornographic photography; then as an assistant in procuring corpses for medical experimentation. With the dangers of her own line of work becoming clearer by the day, and her newfound delight in her own sexuality burgeoning, Lydia becomes disillusioned with her life as a prostitute. And it soon become clear that her trade - and Henry's - are even more dangerous than either had imagined. "Trades of the Flesh" is a gripping novel about the body and its desires, from a precocious voice in historical fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lydia Ketch turns to the oldest profession in the world to keep her sister Annabel and herself out of a Victorian England workhouse after their mother's death. As a prostitute, Lydia encounters sadomasochism, disease, counterfeiting, pornography, and body snatching. When one of her clients, Henry Shadwell, a young surgeon, anatomy teacher, and photographer, asks her to pose as a pornographic model, she agrees, and eventually helps him procure corpses for experiments. Their sexual relationship remains strictly business even though Lydia has fallen in love with him and he seems to care for her. Lydia most of all wants out of the trade and wants to rescue her sister and friends from poverty. Booth (Cover the Mirrors) hits the mark with a historical that leaves behind the lords and ladies and focuses on a young girl with the odds stacked against her slowly figuring out her desires and plans for her future . (Mar.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

Praise for Trades of the Flesh:

“A decidedly dark peek in the flip side of gentility.”  —Booklist

“Booth isn’t afraid to delve into the dark underbelly of Victorian society…a fascinating read.”
—Historical Novel Society

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 293 pages
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan (October 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230743412
• ISBN-13: 978-0230743410
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,721,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Feel Free To Judge This Book By It's Cover!, March 2, 2010

By 

Barb Mechalke (in the lovely Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trades of the Flesh (Paperback)

I was taking my own advice when I didn't judge this book by it's cover...mistake! The writing is so amateurish that I'm surprised this book ever got published. The awful cover is a good indicator for what you will find inside.

I thought this was going to be a gritty look at the life of a prostitute in Victorian England, with a bit of grave-robbing and pornography thrown in. And, yes, that does sound good to me. In my mind I thought of it as The 'Dress Lodger', 'The Mephisto Club' and 'Fingersmith' rolled into one. That would be good wouldn't it? Well, sadly this was not.

There was no character development, the dialog was unrealistic and awful, the situations the author created for the characters were completely unrealistic, the events that unfolded were often illogical and never had any explanation, and the behavior of the characters was frequently ridiculous.

In order for this story to be believed you would need to accept what the author has conjured up as remotely possible and I just couldn't do it. You'd have to believe that a madam could run a house of prostitution without any muscle for protection. You'd have to believe that leaving a life of prostitution is an easy thing to do and that all it takes is the ability to save a little bit of your money and then get yourself into the newspaper business...simple, especially for a young girl. Then you'd have to believe that a man who has run a successful pornographic photography business would abruptly walk away from it once he got married. Can all of those things happen, well sure, but not in the way this author writes them.

Here is an example of the writing in this book, granted I picked my least favorite example but still it'll give you a good idea about the writing. 'Lydia devoured everything she was offered, and more than once she noticed Henry watching her as she ate. Her sex flickered in recognition of the dark look of desire in his eyes.'

So, if all of that doesn't sound too bad to you, you might have a chance of enjoying this novel...Sadly I wasted my time and my money on this one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Trades of the Flesh, March 4, 2011

By 

Carol "kepela" (Chatsworth, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Trades of the Flesh (Paperback)

(What's this?)

I looked at the cover and read the description, expecting to find the typical young woman becomes a prostitute to feed herself, meets a man, falls in love, marries, lives happily ever after. This book is anything but typical. It's a rough, raw read, with the language and sexual content to make give it an R rating if it was a movie. I absolutely hate to rate it as poorly as three stars, I honestly love the descriptive parts of her book, it's the only reason I rated it so highly. Without her vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds and smells, I would have rated it 1 star.

Much of the story line seems to jerk around, it throws in bits of flashbacks and side tragedies into the scenes that don't seem to flow with the story of heroine meets hero. It would have been preferable if the author had simply discussed what happened at the work house when it was first mentioned, instead of allowing it to blandly hinted at as something "bad", leaving the reader guessing at what happened for most of the book. The hospital and what happens there, again hinted at, but the tale is never told. Hinting at her younger sister's life outside the "house". Hints at her friend's troubles, again described too much to be ignored, but then not enough to really explain all of my questions. This book is all over the map with several story lines happening at once, as if the author had several stories to tell, but could not decide which was the most important so she just dumped them all into this book.

As noted, while the story has a raw feel to it, it is not quite literotica and not quite a romance novel. To be honest, I feel that either this author tried to tone down a book that could be a very good literotic novel or she doesn't quite have what it takes to write the dark, gritty scenes needed for a true wild ride. For instance, she hints at the "Mistress Birch" and uses many curse words, including several "f-bombs", graphic words for sex and sexual body parts, but she doesn't quite follow through. Autopsies and body parts in jars are described in almost more detail than the sex.

It was a book I wanted to love, it was a book that if it was "fleshed" out into either a true literotic novel or prettied up into a less bland, less gritty romance would fly off the shelves. As it is, I think it's destined to become one of those books that sells because people want to like it, but it left me with unanswered questions, and a feeling of "It's over, that's it? What was the big deal?"

She did her research on Victorian life, the descriptions in the book prove that but she would have done better to put her lovely descriptions into two or three main characters, instead of trying to tell everyone's stories poorly. Her editor could have done a better job at editing and directing her efforts into firming up the main story line, and side-lining most of the other stories.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor writing, not romantic, June 23, 2011

By 

SirenPrincess (Indiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trades of the Flesh (Paperback)

(What's this?)

I was very disappointed in this book. I had hoped it would be a dark and realistic story of a historical prostitute that eventually fell in love and left that life. The story is ruined by poor writing. I didn't feel pulled into the book or the characters at all. In addition to that the story just didn't work for me. Too many details were left out. I didn't get the romantic feel I wanted from the book. It was just ... odd, not historical, not dark enough, not romantic, not much of anything. I don't really recommend reading this book.