Loose Girl

A Memoir of Promiscuity

By: Kerry Cohen PsyD LPC

Narrated by: Anna Caputo

This captivating and deeply emotional memoir pulls back the curtain on the complex relationship women have between their bodies, love, and the way the two work together.

Kerry Cohen is 11 years old when she recognizes the power of her body in the leer of a grown man. Her parents are recently divorced, and it doesn't take long before their lassitude and Kerry's desire to stand out - to be memorable in some way - combine to lead her down a path she knows she shouldn't take. Kerry wanted attention. She wanted love. But not really understanding what love was, not really knowing how to get it, she reached for sex instead.

Loose Girl is Kerry Cohen's captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction - not just to sex, but to male attention - Loose Girl is also the story of a young girl who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning. It didn't matter who he was. It was their movement that mattered, their being together. And for a while, that was enough.

From the early rush of exploration to the day she learned to quiet the desperation and allow herself to love and be loved, Kerry's story is never less than riveting. In rich and immediate detail, Loose Girl recreates what it feels like to be in that desperate moment, when a girl tries to control a boy by handing over her body, when the touch of that boy seems to offer proof of something, but ultimately delivers little more than emptiness.

Kerry Cohen's journey from that hopeless place to her current confident and fulfilled existence is a cautionary tale and a revelation for girls young and old. The unforgettable memoir of one young woman who desperately wanted to matter, Loose Girl will speak to countless others with its compassion, understanding, and love.

©2008 Kerry Cohen, PsyD, LPC (P)2021 Hachette Books

Critic reviews

"Cohen's brutal honesty about her relentless request for companionship is refreshingly relatable." (Entertainment Weekly)

"Cohen recounts her harrowing litany of hookups through clear, poignant, spare-no-details prose." (Marie Claire)

second time rating an audiobook

I probably have purchased 200 plus audiobooks , however.,this will be my second time rating one I now truly feel that a good writer is an artist and when someone can write a picture that others can see and feel i want to let them know that I liked it great job !!! I'm now a fan!!! also fantastic narration

Well-written and moving

I thought this book was very well-written and quite engaging. However, the self-examination and gradual change I was hoping for didn’t happen. The very brief self-discovery in the last minutes of the Audible version left me feeling unconvinced that any meaningful change occurred. Perhaps it was cathartic for the author to write the book, I hope she eventually got the help she needed to change a relationship pattern that wasn’t working for her - one that persisted throughout her early adulthood and likely beyond.

Relatable

Wow! I heard my own story in hers. I found the words to that I haven’t been able to come up with to describe and unpack my experiences.

Terrible

The book is one long story of pointless sexual encounters, by a narcissist. The writing is bland, the story is a total bore. Save your time, choose a different book.

Slut Shaming

This book gives words to the heartbreaking struggles that young girls feel about sexuality. Raw confusion with intense curiosity. But then it slut shames as the young woman gets older, goes to college, and explores relationships. The amount of sex she has is not abnormal or anything to be ashamed of...

DIsappointing!

I wanted so badly to like this book. Being written by a psychologist, and the topic was a girl who connected sex to love, I hoped the book would explain how she learned to separate the two. But it didn't. When the book ended I was shocked it was finished. Where were the lessons about how to develop a deep love for another devoid of the need for sex? There weren't any. It truly was just a memoir of the sexual escapades of a loose girl. It could have been so much more. Very disappointing.

Depressing and repetitive

The lack of deeper introspection and behavioral change leave a lot of depth to be desired in this memoir.