Where to find it: Wherever you buy or borrow books
What is it, in summary?: Margo Millet is twenty years old, a junior college dropout, and after an ill-advised affair with her English professor, pregnant. Absolutely no one thinks she should have the baby, but she's naive enough and tough enough to do it. Unfortunately, she's also broke and facing eviction when her ex-wrestler father, Jinx, shows up, fresh off a divorce and a stint in rehab. He moves in with Margo and starts helping with childcare, slowly bonding with both Margo and the baby. In need of quick cash, Margo starts an OnlyFans, and she turns out to have a knack for the weird-but-hot (for instance, she offers a service matching dick pics to Pokemon). Soon, she's mixing in some of Jinx's pro-wrestling techniques to create characters and storylines that bring in a big audience. Margo's correspondence with one fan even becomes authentic and romantic. But when her OnlyFans is outed, she's at risk of losing custody of her son.
What do you love about it?: This book is such a wild and satisfying ride. It's smart, funny, and messy, always coming at mundane problems from weird angles, much like Margo herself does. There are bad decisions and harrowing moments (Margo's mom is not supportive, and there is some public shaming), and the late stage capitalism of it all is awfully real, but the book overall is warm and defiantly hopeful. And the writing is so fresh and honest:
The sadness from the morning didn’t exactly go away; it dried on me and slowly crumbled, leaving me covered in little flakes, like if you eat a glazed donut in a black shirt. 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.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I love a complex father-daughter relationship, and Margo and Jinx are so great both individually and as a duo. What's it like if they take the baby to Disneyland? If someone recognizes either or both of them in person? I love Jinx's wrestling war stories and wonder if there are more he could tell Margo, and how she'd react. Or if she's got anger at him that neither of them have faced yet--how do they go on navigating it? I'm also mildly obsessed with Margo's in-universe writing/performing for OnlyFans, and I'd love to read more of the story of Hungry Ghost, the sexy maybe-alien. What would her backstory be, if Margo was to flesh her story out? Where's her home? What happens if she wanders out into the world?
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: No.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): drug addiction, including overdose, sex work and shaming about sex work, pregnancy and childbirth, references to sexual assault. Also, POV shifts between first, second, and third person, but it's worth rolling with that.
Margo's Got Money Troubles - Rufi Thorpe
Media: Contemporary novel
Approx length: About 300 pages in hardcover
Where to find it: Wherever you buy or borrow books
What is it, in summary?:
Margo Millet is twenty years old, a junior college dropout, and after an ill-advised affair with her English professor, pregnant. Absolutely no one thinks she should have the baby, but she's naive enough and tough enough to do it.
Unfortunately, she's also broke and facing eviction when her ex-wrestler father, Jinx, shows up, fresh off a divorce and a stint in rehab. He moves in with Margo and starts helping with childcare, slowly bonding with both Margo and the baby.
In need of quick cash, Margo starts an OnlyFans, and she turns out to have a knack for the weird-but-hot (for instance, she offers a service matching dick pics to Pokemon). Soon, she's mixing in some of Jinx's pro-wrestling techniques to create characters and storylines that bring in a big audience. Margo's correspondence with one fan even becomes authentic and romantic. But when her OnlyFans is outed, she's at risk of losing custody of her son.
What do you love about it?: This book is such a wild and satisfying ride. It's smart, funny, and messy, always coming at mundane problems from weird angles, much like Margo herself does. There are bad decisions and harrowing moments (Margo's mom is not supportive, and there is some public shaming), and the late stage capitalism of it all is awfully real, but the book overall is warm and defiantly hopeful. And the writing is so fresh and honest:
The sadness from the morning didn’t exactly go away; it dried on me and slowly crumbled, leaving me covered in little flakes, like if you eat a glazed donut in a black shirt. 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.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I love a complex father-daughter relationship, and Margo and Jinx are so great both individually and as a duo. What's it like if they take the baby to Disneyland? If someone recognizes either or both of them in person? I love Jinx's wrestling war stories and wonder if there are more he could tell Margo, and how she'd react. Or if she's got anger at him that neither of them have faced yet--how do they go on navigating it?
I'm also mildly obsessed with Margo's in-universe writing/performing for OnlyFans, and I'd love to read more of the story of Hungry Ghost, the sexy maybe-alien. What would her backstory be, if Margo was to flesh her story out? Where's her home? What happens if she wanders out into the world?
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: No.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): drug addiction, including overdose, sex work and shaming about sex work, pregnancy and childbirth, references to sexual assault. Also, POV shifts between first, second, and third person, but it's worth rolling with that.