I grabbed this one off the shelf knowing nothing about it.

Opium addicted, prostitute Dol follows the silver boom miners looking to make money and have a fabulous time. Nearly permanently gonged out on missy, she wanders aimlessly from party to party and her next dose. She stumbles upon a violent pimp and his huge stash of missy, steals it, and then must figure out how to get rid of it before the original owners kill her and everyone she knows.

While all of this is happening, her band of flash-girl friends is falling apart. Some are killing themselves, some are trying to get out of the business. On top of everything, Dol’s mom flits in and out of her life.

I almost abandoned this book several times. I didn’t care about Dol. Her character was static to the point of being infuriating. Her friend Ness is done with the life and wants to be a respectable business owner. She desperately tries to get Dol to come with her, but Dol keeps leading her on and using Ness’ own hopes to fund her missy addiction. The other flash-girls had no personalities other than what was laid out in the original descriptions.

Dol’s mom was interesting in her desperation. She’s been in the game too long but knows no other life. It was incredibly depressing watching her fall apart while maintaining a false ideal of being glamorous and better than anyone else. Even sadder was Dol’s ongoing attempts to win her mother’s respect and love, or at the least get some any type of attention from her.

I did like the end of the book. Dol has a great moment of introspection and it changes everything. I thought it would come sooner and even though I wasn’t too attached to the book, it was incredibly satisfying when it happened.