On the surface, MARGO’S GOT MONEY TROUBLES appears to be another tale of a young woman struggling to figure her life out and making all the wrong decisions along the way. And in some ways, that’s exactly what this book is—but it’s also got much more beneath the surface. 

 

Out titular character, Margo, gets pregnant during an affair with her freshman English professor, who wants nothing to do with her or the baby she’s stubbornly keeping. Freshly 20 with a newborn named Bodhi, very little parental support and less-than-enthusiastic roommates, Margo struggles to keep a job, make rent and support her child. She turns to OnlyFans out of desperation and builds an unlikely social media presence, but this choice of career lands her in hot water with her family, friends and Bodhi’s sperm donor—er, dad. But with the support of her newly present father, remaining roommate and new friends, she just might be able to figure it out. 

 

I struggled through the first 40% of this book. It felt a little flat, purposeless and redundant, and although I was starting to warm to our cast of characters, there didn’t seem to be much of a point. But things quickly took a turn and I was suddenly invested, with the plot moving much faster and my bitter heart growing a few sizes thanks to endearing characters. This pickup kept me from DNFing, and I mostly liked the story by the end, but the balance left me thinking that the book was mostly fine. 

 

I did really like the more nuanced things Thorpe introduced throughout the story. The main thing that struck me was the use of both first and third-person narration, which Margo very pointedly explains comes from her English class and raises questions as to how and why authors might separate themselves from their art through tense. Margo is very clearly desperate to control her own narrative and even alludes to lying to the reader at some point. While this was interesting, I was left with questions—who is Margo writing this story for, that she needs to distance herself from it? Who are we, as readers, to her? 

 

I have heard that the audiobook for this, narrated by Elle Fanning, really brings this story to life, and I believe it. That’s not my preferred format, but perhaps I will like this story better in the TV adaptation.