Slutever by Karley Sciortino

I had read Karley Sciortino's blog for some time before I realized that she was publishing a book that closely correlated with the release of her Vice show, Slutever. The moment however that the book came across my radar via her fabulous Instagram, it was on my list for my most excited for books of the year as you may have seen here.

"Slut" is a great word. It just sounds perfect-so sharp and clear and beautiful. It's one of those satisfying four letter words, like cunt and fuck. Slut also happens to be an anagram for lust, which is one of those divine coincidences that makes you wonder if God actually exists.

We're lucky that slut is such a great word, because it's safe to say that almost every woman will be called a slut at least once in her lifetime. Despite a slowly shifting sexual double standard, it's still taboo to be a woman who's openly sexual-let alone one who sleeps around. Now Vogue columnist Karley Sciortino is on a mission to reclaim the word "slut" to represent a person who seeks out visceral experiences through sex, and who isn't ashamed about it. Sluts are special. Sluts are radical. And sluts are skilled at time management, because they can handle multiple partners on rotation, plus their jobs and their blogs and their beauty routines. Not everyone is qualified for this coveted position.

SLUTEVER is a call-to-arms, a confessional memoir, a slut manifesto, as told by a sex-radical hedonist in a pink PVC mini dress. It's a thoughtful, first-person account of a modern woman, navigating sex, love, casual hookups, open relationships, bisexuality, BDSM, breakups, sex work, sex parties, and the power of sexual agency, as told from the front lines. 

It took me quite a time however, to finally chat about the book on the blog. I would like to say it is because I had too much to say to sit down and actually write this post, and to be honest, that actually is part of the reason why. It is also because I think I have a slight Carrie Bradshaw complex. This pretty much means that writing about how open and great Karley is, only makes me wish I was the sex writer in this story. That way, I could also put in cool, yet most likely embarrassing stories, about the crazy life I can only at this point in my life imagine.

Let me tell you however, Karley is no Carrie Bradshaw-- even if she does also write for Vogue for her column, Breathless. For one reason, Karley is a lot more kinker and does a lot less pining over one Mr. Big. She brings for the fun and the educational when it comes to all things sex, possible love, and becoming the slut of your dreams.

A word that, take it from Karley, gets a whole lot more slack than it should in this modern day and age where woman are able to take their own sexual beings into their own hands.

Karley seems to have converted even me on the word after reading this book and browsing the Vice series to use the world slut more in a non-horrible way while also pushing this book or information into the rest of my friends or random acquaintances hands who need to know about the big wide world of sexuality many are still sorely lacking in starting to understand.

Through her memoir I laughed at all the hilarious stories she has managed to accumulate in her life from the people she meets with the awkward situations her journey into slut empowerment, including leaving college in London to become a squatter with a tree and hopeful hooker, to seeing what sadomasochist in training had to offer once she made it to NYC.

“My greatest fear in life is being basic. (Or, perhaps more accurately, regressing back into basicness.) I have a literal recurring nightmare where I wake up one day with a husband, two kids, and a house in the suburbs and can't remember how I got there, as if it's my desitny. To avoid this becoming a reality, my strategy thus far has been to continually destroy my relationships at the first sign they're headed in that direction. So far, I have a 100 percent success rate with romantic sabotage.” 

Each chapter or section of the book felt stronger than the last making this very informative and fun book a breeze (as well as super fun to carry around from class to class with such a beautiful pinup-esque cover).

This is a book for all those who have interest in sex, kink, living life by the seat of your pants, and so much more. This book, in case you couldn't tell by now, is not for those of the faint of heart of the people who cringe at the mention of a threesome. If you do and pick up this book, prepare to cringe a lot, or maybe laugh a lot and feel as if your mind is being broadened to the big wide world you may have never known existed out of good erotica novels.

About the Author

Karley Sciortino is a writer, host, and producer, based in New York. She founded this lovely website! She also writes Vogue.com’s sex and relationships column, Breathless. Karley is the author of the upcoming book Slutever: Dispatches from an Autonomous Woman in a Post Shame World (Grand Central Publishing, Feb 2018), and executive producer and host of Slutever, a documentary series on Viceland. She is also a regular contributor to Purple.

288 pages

Published February 6th, 2018 - Grand Central Publishing