Margo’s got money troubles. At twenty, alone with a baby, what Margo lacks in options she makes up for in ingenuity, and soon she has a plan: she'll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, producing content and writing storylines unlike anything else out there.

What an interesting story. It tackles some hard hitting questions about OnlyFans and the general populations belief and bias towards it.

The story, while not game changing writing, is honest and raw and very prevalent to today, in breaking down barriers to appreciating or even just accepting the trade that is that sex work industry.

Wow, this started off as a really unassuming almost comedic story but it ended up having some real hard-hitting commentary on family, love, adulthood, womanhood, and simply just growing up. You can tell it was written with a lot of heart.

Our MC went from being a young naive girl to a confident business owner and mum, and I loved reading her grow as the book progressed. I really enjoyed all our peripheral characters as well - especially Jinx and Ward, and it really felt like Margo had a team to support and love her in the end. I'd really recommend this for anyone looking for a light coming-of-age story, with a bit of soft commentary on what it means to "grow up" in today's social media climate.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette for the arc, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is the fourth novel by Rufi Thorpe that I read.

Nineteen year old, Margo, has a brief affair with her English professor and then she discovers she's pregnant. The destitute young woman decides she should have that baby, after all, there are plenty of safety nets in the US - sarcasm.
It turns out it's almost impossible to find someone to look after your baby, when you work as a waitress and the hours are not sociable. So now, Margo has a baby but no job or money. The too on the nose title says it all. Her mum is no granny, she doesn't want to help.
But who comes back into the picture? Her father.

Margo stumbles upon a way of making money and she doesn't even have to leave her apartment - an OnlyFans account. Supply and demand, good old fashion capitalism.

But nothing is that easy, Margo has to overcome some major hurdles while she grows her OnlyFans account.

This was an easy novel to read. While I didn't find it blisteringly funny, I appreciated Thorpe dealing with the subject of sex work. I'm convinced many readers will look at it with less judgemental eyes.

A heartwarming, slice-of-life novel that follows young mum Margo and her son as she navigates life as a single mother trying to keep her family financially afloat. We get to meet Margo’s interesting family and friends, including her ex-pro wrestler dad Jinx, her cosplaying roommate Sylvie and her Onlyfans content partners. It was kind of depressing to read about how everyone close to Margo told her she was “ruining her life” by deciding to keep her baby - her own mother and best friend were turning against her and were unwilling to help her! And to think that there are some people that do experience this irl is just heartbreaking.

This book deals with some difficult issues such as drug abuse and shaming of sex workers. Margo’s ex (who was also her college professor and the father of her child) degrades Margo and her profession as an Onlyfans creator. Other characters also have the same outlook on sex workers.

I admire Jinx for supporting his daughter for what she chooses to do and for even assisting her in gaining followers.

The POV switches from third to first person a few times throughout the book which I found interesting but it wasn’t unintentional - it links back to what Margo’s English lit professor taught them in college about narratives in regards to truths and lies.

I feel this story is very relatable to what some young mothers go through today especially in this economy and in a world where social media triumphs.

Thank you to netgalley and Hachette for the ARC in exchange for an honest review ✨

Review: Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

There are so many times that I’ve looked at the cover of a book and thought to myself “That sounds interesting,” and then scrolled on, or walked away with nothing to show for it. When I first stumbled across this title, I had that exact thought. But unlike all of the times I’ve just continued with my life, I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe from Hachette Australia/New Zealand. And I’m very pleased to say, my initial thought was very much fulfilled.
Synopsis
As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet's always known she’d have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can’t imagine how she’ll ever make a living. She’s still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor—and while the affair is brief, it isn’t brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to keep the baby, mostly out of naiveté and a yearning for something bigger.

Now, at twenty, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion—fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she’s turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?

The characters
It’s hard not to like Margo.
Many people choose to pick up a book to escape their realities and not to be reminded of the very real world that they live in. There is something mildly depressing about reading the idea of reading about the financial difficulties of young people in 2024, particularly if you are somebody who uses the same social media apps that Margo uses: Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat. We’re exposed to so many creators on these apps that say the same thing: if you are looking to improve your financial circumstances, it is easy to do it using the internet.
What may feel like a jarring parallel to the realities that some readers face in their lives, this book was incredibly endearing. We’re taken on a journey through Margo’s psyche as she navigates the very messy aftermath of an affair with her professor and the realities of reclaiming her agency. She is a very relatable character, despite being a 20-year-old single mother. Margo is a melting pot of modern womanhood. She is angry, stubborn, kind, witty, sharp, naive, timid, fierce, loyal, enterprising. It’s hard not to like her.

The supporting characters of Margo’s mother, father, and roommate are whole and complex. Sometimes when you read a book set in the present, it can be difficult to connect to supporting characters in the same way that you would to the main character. Supporting characters can sometimes be caricatures of real people, and when you read the blurb to find out that Margo’s mother was a Hooters waitress and her father was a former pro-wrestler, that scepticism is likely to flood your assumptions about how this book will read. But I was so pleased with the depth of the supporting characters, even those with only one or two pages of contact with the reader. They’re diverse and feel very real, so you’re very unlikely to find yourself wanting when it comes to the interactions that Margo has with others in the story.

The writing
Thorpe’s writing is engrossing. She pulls you deep into Margo’s hopes and fears. The way that you’re sucked into the story is seamless, so much so that there were many times I found myself stopping just to admire the artistry of the writing itself. Margo’s narration moves between first and third person in a way that shows how she is rationalizing her circumstances and trying to process what is happening in her life. The moments she detaches from herself to process everything that’s happening in the story are so carefully, and meticulously. The way that Thorpe draws readers into those moments of panic and loneliness that a new mother experiences, which seems to be a universal experience of the early days of motherhood for every woman with children, is so deliberate and painfully accurate. But that’s not all. There are moments where Margo directly addresses the reader, which creates such an intimate relationship between you and her, that it is difficult to find any reason not to root for her. She talks about herself with a reflective humor that softens some of the more difficult subject matter for the reader. The writing truly is nothing short of fantastic, whether you enjoy the plot or not.
The craft of the writing itself is a good enough reason to pick up this book!

The Plot
The plot follows Margo from her affair, through the birth of her child and into the heart of the financial struggle that accompanies parenthood for single mothers in present-day America. It is well-paced and (aside from the main character’s father being a former pro-wrestler) is quite believable. I think that the believability of the plot falls squarely on the central idea of a young person struggling to gain financial independence to support herself and provide for her family. Margo is struggling to find a way to thrive in an environment that many people struggle to survive in. Many readers in similar life stages as Margo can relate to this.
The plot also touches on some tough themes like the imbalance of power in affairs, the struggles young women have when trying to be taken seriously, and the balancing act that a child raised in a single-parent household has to do when it comes to trying to establish a credible relationship with the other parent. All of these are presented both irreverently and with meticulous care. I’m not even sure I can truly describe how well these things have been packaged into the plot in a way that is both confronting and very much expected.

Ultimately, this book was great. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to read this prior to its release, and I can genuinely say that I recommend this book!

If you liked Eleanor Olpiphant you will love Margo’s Got Money Troubles.

Review on www.catherinewritesthings.com