All Hookers Go to Heaven is an electrifying debut novel, as thoughtful as it is harrowing. Magdalena has been raised in a highly puritanical tradition of small-town evangelical Christianity. Determined to reach heaven, she renounces the hormonal explorations of her contemporaries, until a kiss with an irresistible and unpredictable classmate sparks Magdalena's queer awakening at Discipleship Training School. She then abandons her Christian tenets and flings herself into the world of sex work.
As Magdalena chases professional opportunities across continents, the most rewarding aspect of Angel B.H.'s All Hookers Go to Heaven is the motley crew she accumulates along the way. They are loud, queer, and deeply caring toward one another, creating a heartening portrait of found family: "Only one thing was certain: I had angels all around me."
Still, Magdalena has no place to call home. She encounters violent clients and police officers, and is haunted by the ghost of her evangelical upbringing, so she turns repeatedly to booze and constantly represses her feelings. As her masochism and avoidance reach increasingly dire heights, readers will hold their breath and will her into survival.
All Hookers Go to Heaven is a distinctly innovative addition to the canon of sex-work fiction and represents a breadth of experiences and personalities. The narrative treats them with unrelenting tenderness and fascinating development. Each character is painstakingly crafted in a way that sex workers in fiction rarely seem to be. Written in meditative and candid prose, All Hookers Go to Heaven is a gutsy, erotic, and staunchly anticapitalist novel. --Jess M., bookseller