This book is the story of a journey - from a loving family home to the streets of St. Kilda. From a shy, bookish life to the ambivalent glamour of an inner-city brothel. Kate Holden describes with breathtaking lyricism and poignancy her travels in an unknown world.

Kate completed a degree at university and from a shy, bookish background with a loving family she started to use heroin recreationally. She tells us that no-one forced her to start using but she wanted to....just once , to know.

She describes the early days with a beautiful boyfriend who then disappears from her life and goes into rehab. Alone she drifts, using heroin, holds down a job, visits her family but then she begins to steal from both. Soon she has no option but to hit the streets. This world is a very dangerous one and she then moves to the safety of inner city brothels of varying price and class. The bulk of the book recounts these experiences. This is a very confronting read and she holds nothing back.
In her own admission she finds her experiences 'empowering' building self esteem from her desirability. I found this engrossing about a world I knew nothing about and insightful into the darker underbelly of urban Australian life. I really liked the intimate writing style and the only reservation I have is the relative ease at which she was able to leave this period of her life especially that of her dependence on drugs. It just seemed a bit too easy and unbelievable.

Leaving somewhere whilst doing some shopping.