During the pandemic, many people found their way to only fans way to make some money when going to work wasn’t always possible. For Margo, she’s always known that her parents and her family were going to be unable to help her in anyway financially, and that she was going to have to do it on her own. But when she becomes a different character to make her only fans success, the narrative her life takes a different turn, but wow on the surface. This may seem fluffy and fun, and in a lot of ways it is, it’s also really about the idea of success and how generational support and wealth helps people succeed, and that those who don’t have that often face judgment and a battle to survive. This was definitely book that made me laugh, cry, and rage at the system

LOVED THIS ONE!!! 5 STARS!!! This book was everything. A cross between two of my favorite genres: coming of age and moody weird fucked up woman protagonist. Elle Fanning narrated the audiobook and it was 10/10. I loved Margo’s windy journey, the full circle ending, the way she navigates her imperfect parents, and how she comes into herself as Margo/mother/daughter/adult/friend. This book had everything and you should read it if you like similarly funky books!!

Have you ever read a book that from the get go, both author (and through them their characters) challenged you as the reader to step up your game?

Well, for me "Margo's Got Money Troubles" by Rufi Thorpe did exactly that. The author's frequency in shifting between third and first person narration began the challenge for me to stay focused and to "keep up, girl!"

Add to that Margo's "all-or-nothing" quest to determine what it meant to live a "good" life and how best to be a "good" person?! My oh, my oh, MY! Without giving any specifics, let me just say that much of this quest for clarity and self understanding occurred as Margo (and a cast of similarly questing secondary characters) made some extremely questionable life decisions! You know, the kind of life decisions also known as life ruining events!

And yet...this novel left me feeling optimistic and hopeful. Watching characters that over the course of the novel you have watched grow into better versions of themselves will do that to a reader!

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced galley copy! This novel was published on June 11, 2024.

#Margo'sGotMoneyTroubles
#RufiThorpe
#NetGalley

I was truly not prepared for the full plot of this book. Margo is a 20 year old new mother who lost her job after having a baby from an affair with her English Professor and she’s struggling to figure out how to make ends meet and figure out how to balance parenting. She turns to OnlyFans and finds unexpected but reasonable success. Rufi Thorpe created such a REAL cast of characters and depicted the judgements we cast on people and their situations. This story was so enjoyable and you’ll be glued till the end.

I really liked Margo's character and I am proud of how she handled all the adversity that happened to her. I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up this book but I ended up loving it! A great coming of age story with lots of character development!

Margo is a naive college student who gets pregnant by her professor and is determined to keep and raise her baby alone. Margo is very aware of her situation, finds a creative way to make money to support her baby and herself. Along the way she develops a relationship with her dad, gets to know her roommate and falls for a stranger.
The premise was looking to be depressing but the writer knows what she is doing, the writing came across uplifting and hopeful. There was a moment with Margo that everything built up and she had to lock herself in the bathroom to cry, she had her moment and then went to find another way to move forward. I liked Margo’s resilience and learning from her mistakes.

I started this book this morning and have already finished it, that's how invested I was in Margo's story. This is one of those novels where you're rooting for the protagonist the whole way through and it had me hooked from the very first paragraph.

19 year old Margo finds herself pregnant, alone, and short on cash. In her quest to find meaning in her life, Margo kept her baby (a product of a brief affair with her former English professor) and is now faced with making her way in the world while trying to balance motherhood and her own coming of age.

After Bodhi's arrival and in quick succession her roommates move out, her ex pro-wrestler father shows up after a stint in rehab and moves in, and her former Hooters waitress mother has accepted a youth pastor's proposal. And still Margo is short on cash. What's a young woman with no cash to do? 0nlyF@ns (obviously).

👶🏼 💻 💰 🍄 👶🏼 💻 💰 🍄

This is a witty & heartwarming (sometimes bittersweet and sharp) look into a young woman trying to make her way in the world as a powerful and independent individual with a career that, while successful & relatively safe, causes upheaval that may not be worth the consequences.

I loved the cadence of this book and the narrative style and character development. I deffinitely had a connection with some aspects of Margo's life and found her failures and successes drawing me into the book and rooting for her.

This might be the most emotionally satisfying book I’ve read…ever??? Aaaaah why can’t Rufi Thorpe publish a new book every six months, at least? I am willing to wait when they’re this good, though. But I do think the title and jacket art do this one dirty. It’s not nearly as lightweight as it’s being marketed, and I wouldn’t have picked it up if I weren’t familiar with the author already, which would have been a terrible loss.

Margo is 19 and languishing at community college when she is swept into an affair with a married professor. She ends up pregnant and decides to have the baby. What follows in Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a story and characters that are frustrating, quirky, and endearing.

Let’s jump right into the frustrating. My pragmatic nature trampled my romantic side decades ago so a 19-year-old girl who’s decided college is not for her, but that a baby will give her something to do is quickly going to trigger my judge-y side. The trope of unplanned pregnancies in this day and age is one of my least favorite, but Margo goes ahead despite everyone she knows telling her it will ruin her life. With no more support than a small check from the professor’s mother to keep her quiet she brings her new son Bodhi home to the apartment she shares with three roommates and begins life as a single working mother.

This is just the entry point into a world of eccentric characters and plot points that would be frustrating if author Rufi Thorpe’s didn’t write them so well. In short order two of the roommates have moved out and Margo’s absentee father, a former WWE wrestler has moved in. Faced with the fact that no work is feasible without childcare she decides to stay home and starts an OnlyFans account—a pay-per-view streaming service for adults.

The trials and tribulations continue through the novel, but in the way of ordinary people and life. Mistakes are made, tempers lost, things go wrong, but throughout it all Thorpe keeps Margo real. She neither turns her into a saint or a whore; there’s no sugarcoating being a single mother with a high school education nor is there some magical bailout that solves all of her problems. Instead, Thorpe settles into the world of quirky and unexpected with ease and humor. The kind of humor that saves trauma from turning into tragedy. Yes, Margo’s got money troubles and she’ll continue to have them, but from them she builds a life rich in everything that matters.

Margo is a 20 year old single mother, the result of having an affair with her English professor. How will she survive tackling motherhood and being able to afford to make a living? She has decided to drop out of college, so she'll have to get creative!

A unique and fun story that will keep you entertained the entire time! It's the perfect summer read that you will find yourself binge reading in a day or two. Margo's life gets sad sometimes, but at other times it's laugh out loud funny. We dive into everything from a surprise pregnancy to women's rights to family drama.

I'm definitely interested in reading the author's backlist and look forward to reading new releases by Rufi Thorpe in the future!

I loved Rufi Thorpe’s The Knockout Queen, so I was very excited to read this, and it did not disappoint.

I was a bit worried by the premise because a 19-year-old who drops out of college to have a baby did not sound like an appealing protagonist to me, but in the end I absolutely adored Margo as well as most of the rest of the cast.

It’s a sweet story that will really get you fired up at times, mostly over the unfairness of just how much punishment can be levied upon you as a woman simply for making choices others don’t agree with, no matter how hard you try (and also in Margo’s case) the fact that you’re actually doing a great job on your own.

Margo’s world is a sunny one despite the many obstacles she faces, and I loved that this had a happy ending, but one that the characters had to work toward as they grew and evolved throughout the novel.

The humor, if you’re familiar with Thorpe’s previous work, is often subtle but sharp and whip-smart, and the cleverness of the plot and narrative progress of this was just exceptionally well done. Thorpe is an auto-buy for me from now on, and I can’t wait to see what she doesn’t next.

You wouldn't think a book featuring OnlyFans and professional wrestling as major plot points would be so moving and insightful -- but Margo's Got Money Troubles is all of that and more.

The eponymous Margo gets pregnant at nineteen after a brief affair with her English professor at the junior college she attends. Now, at twenty, Margo is unemployed,a college drop-out, and the single mother of an infant -- which is naturally the perfect time for her estranged father Jinx, a former professional wrestler, to show up on her doorstep needing a place to stay. Needing money fast, Margo decides to start an OnlyFans account as an experiment -- and with Jinx's help, she crafts a persona and perspective that the internet can't get enough of. But Margo's success has unintended consequences, and her fame comes at a price she's not sure she can pay.

On one hand, Margo's Got Money Troubles is a wildly funny, satirical romp through the bizarre world of online sex work. On the other, it's a breathtakingly tender and wise coming-of-age story that perfectly captures the essence of new motherhood, the naïveté of early adulthood, and the complexities of family relationships. There's also lots of brilliantly-integrated social commentary about sex work in the digital age and society's tendency to judge women for how they earn a living and the choices they make about their own bodies. The characters are messy and quirky and endearing, and having the narrative toggle between first and third person was a brilliant choice by Rufi Thorpe, allowing Margo to reflect on this time in her life from an older, wiser place.

In short, there is nothing about Margo's Got Money Troubles I didn't love. It's offbeat and charming and surprisingly perceptive, and I know it's going to be one of my top reads of the year. Thank you to William Morrow for the early reading opportunity.

Margo finds herself pregnant after a brief affair with her married junior college writing professor. In Margo's Got Money Troubles we dive into Margo's life as she raises her infant as a young single woman without much of a safety net.

There's a lot of compassion from narrator first person Margo for her younger self as she conveys the story. The book dances back and forth between third person and first, and often breaks the fourth wall.

It's creative, the characters unique, there are scenes that are laugh out loud funny. It's also incredibly sad. Margo has a lot of courage but finds doors closed to her and opportunities pass her by. Her support network isn't great and she turns to social media, making paid video content (OnlyFans) to pay the rent. It's bleak.

I get what the author may have been trying to do: using humor to sweeten a pretty dark situation. What Margo deals with (criticism, insecurity, judgment, social barriers, a broken system, misogyny, etc.) is no joke. This book felt longer than its 300 pages. Good luck Margo.

Other reviewers have expressed a deeper appreciation for the book after reading the author's note / acknowledgments. For what it's worth, those pages were not included in my advance copy.

My thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC.

Quirky and fun with the perfect amount of irreverence for the traditional path to parenthood (or really adulthood in general).

I wouldn't suggest reading this novel if the description has you clutching your pearls, but I really loved Margo and most of the other imperfect characters in her life. The author continually broke the fourth wall and often shifted from one style of narration to another, but I enjoyed it.

I actually finished this book about 2 weeks ago and have been debating ever since how I felt about the story. I think it's a good story, but I didn't enjoy it. It reminded me of My Dark Vanessa where the writing was great, character development great, emotional connection to the reader great, but I wasn't happy while reading the story. A lot of terrible things happen to Margo and she makes a horrible situation better. As a new mom myself I could sympathize with Margo and understand why she did some things, but I never really felt connected to her. A lot of reviews say that the book is funny, and I didn't really see a lot of humor in the book. Its a good, unique read, and I'm sure will have a huge cult following, it just wasn't a book that made me happy to keep grabbing to read.

I wanted to love this book, but I can't. This was not what I expected when I requested the book via NetGalley for review, as it seemed like a satirical look at a young, single mom struggling to raise her child. It isn't that at all.

I do think that this book gives you a good look at how hard it is to juggle being young, earning a living, and raising a child while dealing with difficult family situations. I felt bad for Margo as she lacked support, love, and understanding from her parents. I rooted for her as she struggled through our small glimpse at her life, but I feel as though the continual struggle bus we were witnessing didn't allow her to shine with the accomplishments she did have in this narrative.

I enjoyed reading it, but by 75% in, I felt like we were making no new progress in the plot and was dragging myself through the end.

I rated this book a 3 - 3.5/5 stars. It's written well, and there is a good idea/theme behind the narrative but I didn't connect to the characters and felt online presence (IYKYK) overshadowed other things that could've been used to strengthen the plot. If you're looking for something different to read, you might enjoy this. I'm not sure if I could recommend it to a friend as a "must-read", but if they asked me what I thought, without spoiling it, I'd tell them all of the above.

Just open this book knowing that it's not a funny, chick-lit, type of book.

I think this is 4.25 overall - I really enjoyed this! Margo was so fun and such a great protagonist, I loved how she saw and related to the world. Everyone seemed so concerned about her but no one would HELP her and I loved how she took control of her life. Switching between first and third person was really unique and interesting too. I feel like it ended a little abruptly and I could have read way more

This book was a perfect blend of cringe and genuine genius. I don’t know why but I connected with it. It’s t was interesting in the character development which I never get into.

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe is about a young woman's attempts to figure things out.

"Margo drops out of college after an affair with her Lit professor leaves her pregnant. At 20, she wants to be a good mom, take care of her new baby and pay her bills. After losing her job and a couple of roommates, she decides to give Only Fans a try. But not everyone is happy with that decision."

Margo is a character that shows immaturity and naivete (an affair with a married professor with no birth control) But then she shows incredible determination to make a life for her son - no matter the consequences with family. Jinx was interesting, except for his excuses of "That's just how I am."
This book looks at the right to make your own decisions about what to do for income. Several working professionals have faced job loss after being discovered with an Only Fans page.
I wonder sometimes how books with a heavy social media plot line will age. What will this look like when someone reads it in ten years?

There are lots of hilarious moments.