“Lunch’s work is defiant, thrilling and unflinching. Her latest release, So Real It Hurts, is just so: an anthology of new and established writings that include everything from violent feminist revenge fantasies to diatribes on pollution and politics (and yes, Trump) in the Anthropocene epoch. . . [Her] sense of humour is dark, delightful and revelatory.”

– Charlotte Richardson Andrews, The Guardian

“Lunch holds nothing back, providing rebellious, raunchy personal stories, scorching perspectives on the notion of mandatory motherhood, a purging glimpse at the nightmare of insomnia, and other themes. Amid these punchy personal revelations, the author layers honed essays with a broader scope. . . [It] seethes with the kind of urgency that reflects Lunch at her strongest. Lunch fans will enjoy her unleashed musings and the healthy rage that abound in these fierce essays.”

– Kirkus Reviews

“Calling the writing of Lydia Lunch 'transgressive fiction' falls way short of effectively categorizing the brutal, raw, obscene and honest words she bleeds. She has created her own genre of nonfiction and at present is its sole inhabitant.”

– Michael Imperioli, actor and author of The Perfume Burned His Eyes

“Lunch most definitely still works her dark magic via humour, horror and healing. . . It’s a full-on predatory psychic attack.”

– Colleen Nika, Dazed

“A feminist-anarchist manifesto that documents and critiques the modern age with a caustic, deliciously poisonous humor. . . The essays have a wide range, encompassing everything from interviews with Hubert Selby Jr., author of Requiem for a Dream, to reflections on her solo travels and Greco-Roman bacchanalias, and a transcription of her protest piece “I Have a Nightmare.” In every essay, Lunch’s unique voice and militant perspective shine through—we live in a dire age, and she turns her lens on America and the world with a pen as raucous and painfully aware as its holder.”

– E. R. Pulgar, i-D (Vice), 22 July 2019

“Lydia Lunch’s utterly sane visionary madness goes right to the rotten core.”

– Mark Cunningham, musician and No Waver of the bands Mars and Blood Quartet

“Her prose is incantatory––a point is made, made again, sharpened, and stabbed. She delivers dark sermons of death, perversity, and need with relish. . . So Real It Hurts makes it obvious that Lunch has always been more than a heckler. She is a journalist at heart, a documentarian of the darkest impulses, unafraid to catalogue ugliness, to be ugly, and to mock.”

– Nate Lippens, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

“So Real It Hurts proves that more than 40 years into her career, [Lydia Lunch]'s lost none of her blistering anger and astringent eloquence. . . This slim collection of potent essays, profane rants and astute cultural critiques sometimes reads like the writings of a hypnotic Beat poet. . . they are confrontational, confessional, electrifying and unforgettable.”

– Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant, Shelf Awareness

“The collection is personal, it’s political, it’s self-indulgent, it’s empathic, it’s wise, its funny. It’s totally Lydia.”

– Margaret Welsh, The Pittsburgh Current

“Lydia Lunch is a leg­end unlike any oth­er. The per­for­mance artist, writer and musi­cian is a fire­work unto her­self. . . she has an uncan­ny abil­i­ty to fuse words togeth­er like bul­lets. She doesn’t hold back. She’s the author of over ten books and she’s now releas­ing So Real It Hurts, a col­lec­tion of essays pub­lished with Sev­en Sto­ries Press, which includes 20 essays from diaris­tic rants to polit­i­cal scribes, with an intro­duc­tion writ­ten by Antho­ny Bourdain.”

– Nadja Sayej, The Face

“Her latest book pulls zero punches while giving the reader an inside look at the workings of this incredible and unique mind. . . hilarious and painstakingly honest.”

– Phoenix New Times