Margo's dad has retired from his WWE pro-wrestling career and endured another stint in rehab before he moves in with Margo, his bastard daughter, who's recently gotten pregnant by her married English professor and has decided to have the baby, despite living in a shared apartment with fellow college students, losing her job, getting less than no help from her mother, and having no idea what she herself is doing as a mother. So why not try her hand (and new mom body parts) as an OnlyFans creator? What could go wrong?
Themes: coming of age, new motherhood, controlling your own narrative, 
POV: we get the main character's POV from both first and third person -- "It's true that writing in third person helps me," Margo says. "It is so much easier to have sympathy for the Margo who existed back then than try to explain how and why I did all the things that I did."
Setting: mostly Margo's four-bedroom, one-bath apartment somewhere near the  Fullerton College campus in Fullerton, Calif. Margo lives geographically close to Disneyland, but her situation is emotionally distant from the Happiest Place on Earth
Timeline: present day, between now and when OnlyFans was created in 2016
I loved it. Why? Author Rufi Thorpe managed to successfully tie in pro wrestling, OnlyFans, and the Virgin Mary. Margo and her supporting characters were richly drawn. And as laugh-out-loud funny as this book was, there were also philosophically challenging questions posed. Margo grew to have empathy for others and what they'd created for themselves, but also for her past self and the choices she'd made.
"I like getting to be the me now watching the past me. It's almost a way of loving myself. Stroking the cheek of that girl with my understanding. Smoothing her hair with my mind's eye."
(The only thing I didn't like was that the douchey baby daddy wears a Duke sweatshirt in one scene where he's supposed to look extra-douchey and pathetic. Oof, that hurts a Blue Devil's heart.)
This is a five-star-plus read that I highly recommend
[Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

✨ Review ✨ Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Thanks to William Morrow for the gifted advanced copy of this book!

Okay, this book made me laugh so much, but also think really deeply about sex work and ethics and parenting. It's got:
1. Margo, a new mom
2. Mark, a gross professor who got her pregnant
3. Margo's new OnlyFans account
4. A pro wrestler dad who moves in and helps Margo think how to get subscribers to stay
5. Margo's ex-hooters waitress mom with her new pastor boyfriend
6. Margo's cosplaying roommate and new OnlyFans friends

Somehow this combination of characters (well, minus Mark) was a total delight in what Rufi Thorpe DELIVERED here. We laugh with Margo as she figures out OnlyFans and cry with Margo when her and the baby get the stomach flu. We empathize with characters as they learn and grow. We yell at Mark when he gets back involved in the story.

But aside from all this, the book challenges you to think about OnlyFans and cam girls and this type of on demand sex work that can be done in the home. Does doing this work inherently make you a bad parent or can you juggle both? I liked that this made me think.

Last, but not least, I'm obsessed with this gorgeous cover!

This book definitely lives up to the hype

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(4.25)
Genre: contemporary fiction
Setting: Fullerton, CA
Reminds me of: Green Dot
Pub Date: June 11, 2024

Unfortunately, I was bored for the majority of this book. I kept thinking to myself, "Where is this going? What am I reading towards?" In short, the synopsis is the entire story. Margo becomes unexpectedly pregnant by her college professor, decides to keep the baby, and starts an OnlyFans to have money for said baby. Nothing else happens. With a Goodreads rating of 4.03, I guess I expected more. I am definitely the outlier from all of these rave reviews, but it did not leave any impressions on my soul.

Margo...needed to grow up. Overall the story was enjoyable but their were issues in terms of pacing and character motivation. Her father was a flawed but compassionate man and her former professor was just immature. Some of the parts where she spoke about her ideas for the videos was a bit excessive and took away from the plot. It was an entertaining read but not memorable.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

I absolutely adored this book - hands down one of my favorites of 2024. With a cast of quirky, misfit characters, this was such a unique book that I will not soon forget.

Pals! If you need marketing techniques and increased interactions on OnlyFans, Margo is going to give you run down. Poor girl, herself, had to do a crash course on OnlyFans to be able to provide her kid because she thought keeping the baby of her professor would be a good idea. To be fair, it was her decision as it should be, but I don't think as a 20 year old she did not really think consequences of having a child. Forget about everything, you need child care just to go to your classes Margo!

Margo has an interesting family: a mother about to marry a pastor and a father who was a WWE man with a complete family on the side. Margo's mother made the same decision her daughter made years later. She decided to keep Margo, revolve her life around Margo, and hope that AMrgo would made better decisions that she did. Love is nice and warm and fuzzy, until you need to pay the bills because the father has other kids and a wife to take care of. Margo got an idea on how to make money (idea came from her father, no surprise), but that decision was as life altering as her keeping Bodhi.

Sometimes people underestimate how resourceful 20 year olds can be even though they are still not to be trusted with major life decisions :) They know how to make their case, find similar situations, and do not take no for an answer. Margo was hilarious and she earned my respect. I had so much fun watching her power through all struggles.

I'm a big fan of Rufi Thorpe's writing, and this one did not disappoint. Through Margo, the protagonist, Thorpe gets into a compelling discussion of motherhood, sexuality, sex-work, and--most surprising of all--pro wrestling. The juxtaposition of Margo and her father, both of whom are using their bodies to make money, albeit in non-traditional ways, is very compelling.

I found this book like any other book I've read and I'm still thinking about it, not sure in a good or a bad way. I think Margo is so flawed that there were times I was SO annoyed with the decisions she as making and it felt like a lot of the time she was an unreliable narrator and the ending fell a little flat in my option and I left the book really wanting more for every character.

4.25//I really enjoyed Margo's Got Money Troubles. I loved the author's debut, Knockout Queen, but her sophomore novel just felt so much more put together, heartwarming, and humorous. The characters felt like they could be real and I enjoyed much of the comedic relief throughout. Despite her dumb decisions I was rooting for Margo and I am happy nothing *too* bad happened to her; it's refreshing to have characters where things go right for them on occasion.

This book was unlike anything I had ever read before! It explored hard topics while also being funny and reverent. The book could have been very depressing and yet somehow was so uplifting, Cant wait to read what this author writes next!

This made me laugh and cry and really think about how fucked up it is to be a young woman in today’s world. Elle Fanning did such a wonderful job with the audiobook.

Margo's Got Money Troubles is a book that creates complex, dimensional characters that explore complex real life situations. Often in life, it is very easy to approach a subject as simply good or bad and not see the variations that exist in between. The characters in this book live in that in between space, and challenge the reader to confront that often situations are not clear cut and simple. After having an affair with her much older college professor, Margo finds herself as a young, single mother with no income to support herself and her newborn child. With no real safety net of family or friends to turn to, and job prospects that would make more money than childcare being non-existent, Margo turns to the world of pay for access internet entertainment. The characters in the story shine light on the humanity of people who are dealing with child protective services, unemployment, adult entertainment services, drug addiction, sources of power and abuse.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rufi Thorpe, William Morrow for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. I would recommend this book for readers who are willing to think about tough topics and be challenged to see the humanity and needs of others, and for those who like books with complex characters who live in the grey area that falls between black and white.

I selected to read and review this book because the synopsis caught my attention: "A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman’s attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world. " 
Add in that her mother is a Hooters waitress and her father is an ex-pro wrestler, combined with Margo's attempt to make money fast by starting an OnlyFans account, I went into this book thinking it would be funny.  This book was not for me but I wonder if someone in their 20s would enjoy it more.  In the end, there was a good message about creating your own narrative which is always positive.
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for copies of this book in exchange for my honest review.

From the moment I read the synopsis for Margo’s Got Money Troubles I knew I would love this book. It was the perfect blend of heartwarming and hilarious, that still tackles some pretty heavy topics while managing to keep it light. I loved Margo and while she definitely made some questionable choices, she was easy to relate to as a main character and easy to root for. It was hard not to root for all of the characters. Thorpe does a great job of really making you feel for them.

There were also so many random references sprinkled throughout that at times I felt this was made for me. You don’t have to be a millennial former WWE fan to enjoy this story, but I think I enjoyed it more because of that.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for a review copy. I’ll definitely be checking out Thorpe’s Knockout Queen in the future!

This is a great book that is cleverly written. An insightful look at what a young single mom will do to stay afloat and the people who help along the way.

My age is going to show on this review. I really wanted to love this and be trendy and au courant. Alas, I couldn’t put aside my…? Sense of propriety? Ethical bias? Yes, there were funny elements, but I guess I just found the premise as too authentic to be too funny. And maybe that was the point? Poke fun at social mores? Make people see humor in real life? If nothing else, it surely gave me a glimpse into a world completely unlike my own!

This is the summer story I am here for! Based on the description, I figured there would have to be something for me to love in this book, and I was not disappointed. Margot and her wacky friends and family are at once so beyond my experience and at the same time felt like friends. If you love a heartwarming, quirky story (heavy on the quirky, and just a teensy bit edgy, á la Hooters and OnlyFans), you will love this story.

Margot is still a teenager (nineteen) who has an affair with her college professor and ends up pregnant. With no support from her parents, she is desperate to make extra money and starts an Only Fans account, which becomes a runaway success. I couldn't help but root for Margo to succeed in life, even if you're slapping your forehead at some of the decisions she makes to get there. It was quirky and delightful on the surface and at its depths, explores the pain of abandonment and trauma and healing. It was so good on so many levels.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy.

I didn’t know much about this novel, but I loved The Knockout Queen. This is a very different story, but what The books have in common are quirky characters and unexpected plot developments. College student Margo is a 19-year-old mom with very little support, but over the course of the book she finds support in unexpected places, including within herself. I thought the little romance was distracting and I wanted either more or less of it, but overall this was a very charming and compelling read.

A very fun, quick read! I loved Margo, Jinx, and Suzie’s dynamic so much. Agree with all the reviews that say the synopsis makes it sound like it’ll be too much (OnlyFans! Wrestling! Affair with a professor!) but that ultimately Rufi pulls the story off deftly. I also loved the switching narrator POVs and always appreciate stories that help normalize sex work.