Thank you to the author Rufi Thorpe, publishers William Morrow Books, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLE . All views are mine.

It seemed improbable that men really wanted sex this badly, and yet they did, there was an entire economy based on how badly they wanted it, and for a moment Margo understood the sexual desire she felt was mild in comparison. She would never pay fifteen dollars to look at a guy naked. You could buy two, possibly three sandwiches for fifteen dollars. p71

Well, I thought I would love this one. But I really didn't. I am a huge fan of fiction books with feminist characters, storylines, or themes, and this is one of those. Sort of. But the feminism you'll find in this book is a new breed of it‐‐‐ sort of an issue feminism. OnlyFans only feminism.

The characters mimic feminism, but they make statements squarely against various kinds of birth control, mainly abortion. The storyline really struggles with feminism also, because while this story discusses sex work and portends to elevate the voices of swers, it both denigrate swers (of a certain kind; only the smart, wealth-building kind of swers get respect here) and simultaneously misrepresents them, all of them.

I can't link to it for some reason on my phone, but check the excellent 3 star review written by the swer on Goodreads. They discuss at length the many ways the main character does not in fact behave like a swer and the dangerous messaging this character could send to readers who might use this book as a business blueprint. The author does, after all, go on a great deal about the how-to of being a cam worker.

Thorpe also writes a copious amount of material about the details of the character's legal troubles and how she will address them. Unfortunately, the author only provides details about the boring stuff. Well, boring if you're not using this book as a how-to manual. Her rare metaphor is interesting, so I bet her figurative writing would actually be good, but she describes exactly nothing. I would say it needs an extra 50 pages in literary description, except I can't imagine this book being any longer than it already is.

Apple TV has optioned this one for a streaming series. First time this has happened before a book was published. Considering the lack of description in this book, I imagine the series will have to be an improvement on the text.

That was how it was being a grown-up. We were all moving through the world like that, like those river dolphins that look pink only because they’re so covered in scars. p190

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. She kept thinking, as she nursed him, I am so fucked, I am so fucked, I am so fucked. Because all around her she could feel the echoey space of no one caring about her or worrying about her or helping her. She might as well have been nursing this baby on an abandoned space station. p12 I'm tired of all the hero-mom narratives dominating the literary landscape right now, but I am here for the mom disaster narratives! *edit nope, just another hero mom narrative, swer edition.

2. I like intergenerational trauma story lines like this: “Look at how long and thick his fingers are.” The love-drunk look on Jinx’s face made the back of Margo’s throat hurt. Had her father looked at her like that when she was a baby? p64

3. This book goes into great detail about the family court system and how terrible it is. Well great, I guess, if you're not the one losing your kid, but still just horrifying material. I think this is a very important subject and I'm glad Thorpe decided to cover it in her cold, calculated style.

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. I'm in the first pages of tge book and I'm already put off by the sections of completely unnecessary and horribly executed second person POV. In this case, it's just slipshod stand-in for first-person POV, and should be written in first person instead. *edit In general, changing POV feels clumsy and confusing throughout the text.

2. Dang girl, just give your poor dad some space lol! He is really fine without you!

3. "Violently" is used repetitiously and often incorrectly.

4. She spends 50 pages moralizing why abortion is selfish or at least irresponsible, then spends the rest of the book justifying (or not bothering) the main character's use of her OnlyFans account to make a living as a sex worker. These are both important women's issues, neither of which are more pious or deserving than the other. Thorpe is sending some convuluted, and some downright bad messages to the young women who will read this book. I find the narrative didactic and obtuse. Is this what passes for white feminism in 2024?

5. This book contains very little descriptive writing. It's mostly dialogue and summary of action.

6. There are pages and pages of shroom-tripping characters laying out a business plan, step by step. It's such a dry scene and it's not good fiction. It reads like a how-to book. I bet some readers will actually follow it.

Rating: 🤱🤱 / 5 hero moms
Recommend? No
Finished: Aug 27 '24
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
👶🏻 new mom stories
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 family stories, family drama
💉 addiction recovery stories
💇‍♀️ women's coming of age
💄 feminism

I loved, loved, loved this one! I couldn't help but to root for Margo. I didn't realize how heartwarming this novel would be. I felt it was fairly fast paced and there was a good mix of character development and plot development. I couldn't put this one down!

Margo's Got Money Troubles is a wild ride in the best way. Thorpe has created a cast of characters you feel like you should be booing but you can't help but root for them from start to finish. Not to mention, this book is laugh out loud hilarious while also so deep and agonizing. Truly a capture of a realistic human experience.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

"Margo's Got Money Troubles" by Rufi Thorpe follows 19-year-old Margo, who is grappling with unexpected motherhood after an affair with a married professor. Struggling to make ends meet, she turns to OnlyFans to support her newborn, navigating the complexities of financial stress, societal judgment, and her own self-worth.

Thorpe’s sharp, honest writing paints a vivid picture of Margo’s challenges, blending dark humor with raw emotion. This novel is a gritty, unfiltered look at a young woman’s fight to survive and provide for her child in a world that hasn’t been easy on her.

I loved this book! It was an absolute highlight of my summer reading. I loved the characters, the perspective shift from 1st to 3rd person, and the nuances of a literary novel about OnlyFans, wrestling, and motherhood. Can't recommend enough!

This book was absolutely AMAZING! The characters were relatable albeit living some pretty unrelatable circumstances for most. They were extremely lovable and sincere. I admired Margo's relationships with others- she was so honest, open, and vulnerable with all those around her.

Margo, Margo, Margo. Girl, what are we going to do with you?

Not even old enough to drink, pregnant by her college professor, forced to drop out of school, and barely making ends meet with her waitressing job, Margo's life is falling down around her ears.

Going into this, I thought it was going to be a light and fluffy book about overcoming obstacles and persevering, but it was so much more than that. I wouldn't say I had an opinion on camgirls or people who had Only Fans before I read this. I mean, I knew they existed, but I didn't think too much about them. "You do you" has always been my motto. This forced me to look at it from an "inside" perspective, to see what the motivation and rationalization behind the choices some (not all) sex workers make and how they deal with the fallout. I was already empathetic to people who choose to take that route, and even more so for those who feel they have no choice. But this book added a layer of depth to my empathy that wasn't there before. At times laugh-out-loud funny and then heartbreaking in the next beat, this was a good one folks!

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Firstly I will state that even just the premise of this book is nothing short of incredible - the originality of this is second to none and it really made its mark.

Margot is a 19 year old college student that has a brief affair with her married college professor. She ends up pregnant and what follows is a hilarious yet heart-warming depiction of the realities of young motherhood. Right away she's forced into dropping out of college, and due to the woes of finding affordable childcare she is fired from her job as a waitress. She then is forced to scramble and try to figure out her life with a newborn. Through twists and turns, her estranged father - a former WWE wrestler, returns to her life and offers her something she wasn't getting from her mom - he offers her help with the baby, and also provides never-ending support, he cleans, he cooks, and he supports her with an unwavering and beautiful level of trust as she turns to OnlyFans and TikTok as a way to make money in order to support herself and her child.

I absolutely loved Margot and found myself rooting for her throughout! It's honest, sweet, and hopeful all at once and I truly recommend this book.

Margo's Got Money Troubles is a story about a single young woman who must find a way to make money while caring for her newborn son. She does not have a support group of people in her life, but as she figures out what works for her, she grows her support group. Rufi Thorpe reminds us that there is not only one way to live our lives. Our families can grow from what we need and nurture once we realize our personal judgments often prevent us from living the full lives we are meant to live.

When Margot gets pregnant by her professor, she must find a way to make a living as a single mom.
This! book! I adored every second of it, one of the quirkiest and most entertaining things I’ve read in a really long time. Her wrestler dad, the only fans, the CPS lady, I laughed until I cried at some parts.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for this ARC!

3.5 stars overall.
This was in tough for me to rate because of my naivete on what I was getting into. This character has way more than money troubles, and the way she chooses to deal with them is very questionable. However, because she chooses to take responsibility for her actions and take things on herself makes me respect her and grow to love her. If reading about boobs, porn, drug use, etc. makes you uncomfortable, you probably want to skip this one. If those things don't bother you and you enjoy a book about dealing with life changes, give it a try.

This book just about did me in, but in a good way. If all the bad things in life happen to one person in the span of a few years it’s Margo. Somehow she manages to keep it together, with the off and on, good and bad advice from her retired pro-wrestling dad, Jinx. She just wants to be a good person and doubts her self often for being as terrible as her mother.

Margo doesn’t give up no matter what the circumstances are, no matter how tough it gets. She has more life experience by the time she is 22 than most people do in their whole lives. She keeps taking hit after hit but always gets back up again. We watch her grow and learn from being a 19 year old, “stupid naive idiot” into this street smart, headstrong, amazing single mother, daughter, and business owner, whom faces every crisis head on. She loves her baby boy Bohdi so much, that she is forced to grow up very fast.

The book is written in first, third, and directly to the reader, which is confusing at first until you understand how the writing style aligns with the overarching theme.

The writing is also quite funny, the antidotes, the evil robot vacuum, the whole idea of Kenny and Shyanne, and every single spot on metaphor. I could only imagine the very unique characters like Suzie as a sparkly tree elf, Mark as an angry bridge troll, Jinx as The Undertaker, Rose as an actual animated manga character, and Margo running around with Bohdi strapped to her with one breast constantly hanging out. I fell in love with all of them, except Mark of course.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rufi Thorpe, and William Morrow for an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

I honestly don't know what to say about Margo's Got Money Troubles. The book was fantastic and weird and... I just can't describe the brilliance of this book! Equal parts literary work and social commentary, Rufi Thorpe takes on the stigma of single mothers, OnlyFans content creators, and so much more. Absolutely brilliantly done in both 3rd and 1st person perspectives.

"Margo's Got Money Troubles" by Rufi Thorpe is a fast moving read about a young mother, her dysfunctional family, friends, and unexpected resourcefulness in earning a living. Definitely eye opening. Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

Margo's Got Money Troubles was an excellent and FUN read. I loved the dilemma and Margot was a lovable character. I'd read more from Thorpe any day

Margo’s Got Money Troubles, by Rufi Thorpe, is a bold, inventive, and very funny novel about a young woman cut adrift in a difficult, expensive world. My thanks go to NetGalley and William Morrow for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

Margo is the daughter of a Hooters waitress and a former pro wrestler, an absentee father with a family of his own; her mother had been his woman on the side. Consequently, Margo has always understood that she would have to hit the ground running when she grew up, and so she’s enrolled in a junior college. When the brief affair with her English professor leaves her pregnant, she has nobody reliable to advise her. The women she confides in urge her to terminate the pregnancy, and of course, the professor does, too; yet Margo likes the idea of becoming a mother, and it’s her fetus. Nobody can make her do anything. She decides to keep it.

Her mother is about to marry a man with money and conservative values, and she sees Margo as a loose cannon that just might upset the whole ship, so she tells her to terminate or be cut off.

Wow, Mom. Really?

Margo’s roommates hadn’t agreed to share an apartment with a baby. They need to sleep! They have to get up early!

I’m rolling my eyes. Part of me is thinking that Margo is about as dumb as they come; part of me is wondering why no author in this entire world is writing—or, more likely, why no major publishing house is publishing—novels in which a young woman chooses to have an abortion and take back her body and her life. But I’m overthinking, because soon, Margo—who after all, is just young, naïve, and rudderless—admits her error. She loves her little boy, but she had no idea he would be so expensive, or that motherhood would be so difficult. She tells her father, who re-enters her life as her mother steps away,

“’I shouldn’t have had him,’ as though some rip cord had been pulled inside her. ‘I know that, okay? Everyone told me it would ruin my life and it did. They were right, and I was stupid, and I didn’t get it. Okay? But now I’m here.’ And her father, who strangely enough becomes the most reliable adult in her life, says, ‘Yes. Now we’re here.’”

Later, Margo will comment that nothing can make a person pro-choice like having a baby.

Margo has been waiting tables, but she can’t find child care, and when she brings the baby to work, she’s fired. And the truth is, she doesn’t like leaving her baby. Then one day, while looking at her naked self in a full length mirror, she observes that she has huge boobs for the first time in her life. Men would pay to see this. She opens an account on OnlyFans.

And so this controversial choice becomes the crux of the story. Some friends reject her, and her mother has really had it with her now. But there are a lot of meaty conversations that are thought provoking, and so, even though this old lady schoolteacher reviewer is mighty uncomfortable reading about an online sex worker’s film process, there are related questions that cannot be ignored. For example, Jinx—her father—advises her against it, saying that she shouldn’t get mixed up with these kinds of girls, and she asks him, “What are ‘those kinds of girls’?” And it’s true. A man can send his dick pix out into the world any number of times and places, and whereas many will consider these gross, or obscene, which they are, how many people will condemn the guy’s entire character, his moral fiber, for having done it? So the double standard is screaming to be recognized.

Margo goes through a lot of grief, defending custody of her son when the skeevy professor resurfaces, as well as having to deal with housing crises and other problems. But the central issue lurking in the shadows is that of a young mother choosing sex work as a career.

I have to tell you quite frankly that I was way out of my comfort zone through much of this book. I am probably not part of its target audience, despite the fact that I was approached to cover it. Partway in, I considered not finishing it, but the quality of the writing is so strong that I kept going, and I’m glad I did.

The story is told from a third person omnipotent perspective, but it shifts in a surprising and funny way, and that’s all I will say about that, lest I ruin it. I wonder from time to time if we have an unreliable narrator, but this is more than that. This unusual point of view a brave choice, and I think she carries it off well.

There are a lot of worthwhile discussions that can spring from this novel; it’s fertile territory, if you’ll pardon the expression, for book clubs. It’s also being adapted for Apple TV. I recommend this book for any feminist that likes to laugh, and isn’t afraid to think outside the box.

Rufi Thorpe is an author whose voice and style are just the right combination of quirky, weird, and endearing. While her style is singular, the best comparison I can make is a cross between Kevin Wilson and Annie Hartnett (Unlikely Animals and Rabbit Cake). But, she is truly uniquely herself. Her touch with that combination is what makes this random sounding premise work so well. Margo is the daughter of a former Hooters waitress and a pro wrestler who has been largely absent from her life. While attending junior college, she has an affair with her professor and winds up pregnant. Margo now has to figure out how to support herself and her baby, so she begins to experiment with OnlyFans. There is SO MUCH in this book (loneliness, motherhood, untraditional family dynamics, money, and art), but it works because Thorpe relentlessly leads with her characters and these characters are easy to root for. A 5 star read from one of my auto-buy authors!

A lot has been said about this story, so I’m going to focus on one thing I really loved and one thing I was surprised by.

What I loved: I’m obsessed with how Margo switches between first and third person, and how a class she took in college called “unnatural voices: taking narration to the edge” is the explainer for this switch. I’ve thought so much about *why* Rufi Thorpe did this - is it used in moments when Margo needs to distance herself from events and it’s easier to explain in third vs. first? Or is it a reference to the unreliable relationship we all have with how we tell our stories, how there’s always a slight dissonance between what happens and how it’s perceived externally, something that for Margo is very caught up in how she expresses herself in different spaces online. Regardless of the why, this aspect of the book really made me think, which made the reading experience that much more fun.

Something that caught me by surprise was the deep dive into social media strategy. Obviously the social strategy I do at work is very different from what Margo handles in this book, but the mindset of someone learning how to manipulate the platforms for the first time was fascinating. Social media in books is often cringey to me or makes me feel burnt out since I spend all day thinking about it, but this was very well done.

This seems to be one of the hot books of the day and I get why. I enjoyed it. It’s silly and well written, with a creative structure and endearing main character. I’d read a sequel and will watch the adaptation.

Margo is a mess, but we love her! I was obsessed with this audio. It’s narrated by Elle Fanning who is set to play Margo in the TV series. This was such a unique coming-of-age story full of laugh-out-loud moments and so much emotion too! This one will end up on favorites for the year!