“This pathbreaking book delves into the social space of a public, pansexual sadomasochist community to understand SM from the inside out.”

“Newmahr’s decisions to use passages of creative representation to convey ‘felt’ experiences, as well as to use her own body as an instrument of intellectual inquiry to such an extent, bring a sense of depth and presence to the book that is often sorely lacking in such work.”
 — Katherine Frank, author of G-Strings and Sympathy: Strip Club Regulars and Male Desire

“A fascinating, well-written, carefully researched book that illuminates a subculture about which we know very little. . . . Never before have we had research that is so close to the community, that allows us inside this community's behavior, rationalizations, understandings, and lived experiences.”
 — Patricia Adler, co-author of Constructions of Deviance: Social Power, Context, and Interaction

“An important contribution to the fields of crime/deviance and sexuality.”
 — Leon Anderson, author of Deviance: Social Constructions and Blurred Boundaries

“[A] ground-breaking book . . . . captivating and ethnographically dense. ”
 — Ethnos

“Playing on the Edge is a well written, well supported, clear, easily accessed, and comprehendible yet theoretically rich delineation of a (supposedly deviant) community. In simple terms, this is a very good book and a first-class example of what ethnographic research can and should look like. ”
 — Criminal Justice Review

“Staci Newmahr’s exploration of the public SM scene is interesting, thoughtprovoking, and in some cases, challenging. Her involvement in the field and her willingness to share at least the surface details of her experience are extraordinary. Moreover, her commitment to understanding the community of public SM players with rigor, intellectual honesty, and sensitivity is the hallmark of a great ethnography.”
 — Symbolic Interaction

“Playing on the Edge. . . is an exciting sociological contribution to academic explorations of SM, providing an empirically rich window into a rarely seen SM community.”
 — Sexualities