Lovers XXX by Allie Rowbottom review, a wild journey through the 80s LA porn scene
Article excerpt
Allie Rowbottom's debut novel Lovers XXX braids two timelines: a young woman's entry into 1980s Los Angeles pornography and her friend's decades-long search for answers about what became of her. The book weaves together the adult industry's seamy underside with a mystery that unfolds across three decades, delivering twists that keep readers guessing. Rowbottom explores themes of agency, exploitation, and friendship against the backdrop of an industry often overlooked in literary fiction. The novel stands out as an addictive, formally inventive work that refuses easy moral judgments while centering female perspectives in a narrative space historically dominated by male fantasy.
A young woman begins a career in the adult industry while, 30 years later, her friend tries to find out what happened to her, in an addictive, twist-filled story
Just as there is a lack of pornography made by women, there is a lack of books about making pornography written by women. Recent nonfiction titles such as Polly Barton’s Porn: An Oral History and Fiona Vera-Gray’s Women on Porn have sought to address the silence and moral confusion, while Rufi Thorpe’s novel Margo’s Got Money Troubles imagined a student mum paying her way with OnlyFans.
Now Allie Rowbottom, author of a memoir, Jell-O Girls, and a novel, Aesthetica, braves the dicey terrain in her sleazy, cinematic second novel. Published into a contemporary landscape where algorithms promote increasingly extreme content, Lovers XXX takes us to the so-called golden age of the Los Angeles porn industry, through the eyes of two teenage runaways who trade troubled homes for big-city dreams.
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