An entertaining book about the adult film industry. Travis is a producer and is vying for Best Film of the Year. It was a fun read, and the adult actresses all seem like hilarious divas. The backstabbing producers and tax evasion was also funny to me. For a book about adult films, it's not that lewd. I found it interesting and a good read. ( )

This short novel by Stuart Canterbury is a fictional story of the happenings in the porn and X-rated movie business. The story provides a behind the scenes look at this billion dollar industry.

While the story was interesting, the writing was amateurish. The characters were one-dimensional, with none of them feeling real, not even the protagonist, Travis Lazar, nor the supporting character of Tiffany West. I never felt any empathy for any of the characters. None of them were interesting enough for me to care about them. The book was difficult to finish as I just did not want to pick it up to continue reading it. But I did finally make it to the end. Thankfully, it is a short book.

The story involves a number of suspenseful elements, including company mergers, an FBI raid, diva drama (lots of diva drama), company takeovers, a suicide, and a couple of lawsuits between rivals. If this setting is of interest to you, perhaps you may enjoy it more than I did, but for me it fell very flat.

I received an advance copy of the book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I received this book as an early reviewer. I have no problems with the adult film industry. I find sex workers to be cruelly underpaid and under appreciated for the jobs they do, and really thought this book was going to be interesting based on the author’s personal connection to the scene. It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t interesting. I read it about 30% of the way through and lost interest. It’s just not well written. The story could be interesting but the plot doesn’t seem plausible, and the characters aren’t unique. I mostly just feel bad for the performers, if this was any bit true. I would suggest a rewrite, or maybe an editor to find ways to make this story…. More coherent to follow, or find a more compelling way to tell it. It’s just not a great read. ( )

Book title and author: Shocking Pink a novel by Stuart Canterbury ISBN (ebook) 978-1-955062-56-5. April 13, 2023

Why I picked this book up: I was selected for an Early Reviewers giveaway from LibraryThing's March 2023 batch.

Thoughts: I won: Shocking Pink by Stuart Canterbury Format: Ebook. This was a new book to me. I thought it was a thriller book. This book gave me a visceral response. I was repulsed at parts, felt icky, put off, and wanted to close the book but I persevered to finish. I want to rate it low but knowing this this review might make the sales go down I wanted to refrain from writing a low review but I will give my opinion. Overall, this felt seedy to me. Yes, I understand people are free to make their own decisions but this book felt like no love making shared union between husband and wife to bring them closer together. It seemed to have a lot of pain, a lot of business, underhandedness and It felt cold and unrewarding to me. Thank you for selecting me.

Why I finished this read: I almost put it down but because the author asked for a real review I finished it.

Stars rating: I’m rating 1 out of 5 stars ( )

Disclosure: Got an advance copy of the book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. Nobody has gotten a copy of this review before it went live.

This is a book for those 18+ (21+ in some areas) about the porn industry. If that doesn't appeal to you then don't read this review or book.

Trigger warnings for the book (does contain spoiler): pornography, sex, violence, suicide, hint of racism, courthouse, trial, driving / car decency, funeral, pyrotechnics

Stuart Canterbury is the perfect person to write this book, not only does he do a great job of covering the industry within this book, he was an writer, director and producer on many movies so he knows what happens.

The book covers not just what happens in front of (or behind) the camera, but also what happens outside of "action" and "cut". You see that everyone is a person, who has their own things going on.

"For a group who made a living out of make-believe, it was all too real now; even on such a flawless day in the flux of life, nobody could ignore what ending came to all."

"The story behind the movie was always more interesting than the story on the screen. "

The book seems to take place over the course of a year, but there aren't any exact date, which makes it a bit harder to read when periods of time seem to be skipped.

The author does include many details which helps with the book, and some places the author doesn't include any detail. For example, the author mentions that someone says thank you. The author didn't have to include that, but they did.

The industry and relationships may look good on the outside, but you don't really know what is happening. And there are many things that happen that you wouldn't see every day.

"Only does scenes with other girls. This always happens when the girls get involved in off-camera relationships with men. Very hard on the male to see her going off to work in the morning to swallow an anaconda.”
Travis did not want to get into such serpentine details. “Understood. You have to respect the girl’s feelings. Especially given the proportions.”"

"If any neutral witness had seen what he had written, the random list on the paper would have been baffling: Pegging. Uniforms. Secretary. Brazilian. Grandma."

The author does include multiple stories within the book, and I wish they had finished one story before moving onto the next one as it was confusing at some times (and to ensure the reader doesn't forget anything).

There were times the book seemed to be in third-person, and other times it was in first-person. But it was all done in a way that allowed to reader to understand what was going on.

The author includes a major quote from someone near the end of the book, that could have been used to end the book in a really powerful way, but the author chose to end the book in a different way.

"Sometimes, you think you really know someone well. And maybe you think the worst of them. But they can surprise you. It turns out that there can be good in everyone. But as far as I am concerned he should win an award, you know, as a human being." ( )