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—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.
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Margo Millet’s got money troubles. As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, she’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 their 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?
Blisteringly funny and filled with sharp insight, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a tender tale starring an endearing young heroine who’s struggling to wrest money and power from a world that has little interest in giving it to her. It’s a playful and honest examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative, and an empowering portrait of coming into your own, both online and off.
Early Praise
'Margo’s Got Money Troubles is an audacious, wildly funny, completely unpredictable novel by a writer so singular that it's hard to compare her to anyone else. Rufi Thorpe writes wildness so well, the messiness of the choices we make, the strange ways we bend and twist ourselves to accommodate those choices, and she does it with the rare qualities of tenderness and empathy. An absolutely brilliant book.' — Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here
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“A hilarious novel about making the most of what you’ve got. Sharp and funny by turns, this is an exceptionally tender look at young motherhood and love that also involves professional wrestling, and yes, OnlyFans. I gobbled it up.” — Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow
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'A thrilling, uproarious, and above all affirming exploration of one young woman's fight to make it in a world that's rooting against her. Margo is an unforgettable heroine, so real she walked right off the page and into my heart.' — Kirstin Chen, New York Times bestselling author of Counterfeit
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'Long after the last page of Margo’s Got Money Troubles, I think of certain lines and bust out laughing. In public. This novel is damn funny, but also touching and smart and surprising and beguiling and just completely bad ass. Rufi Thorpe is truly one of one!' — Deesha Philyaw, award-winning author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
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“Rufi Thorpe is one of the most talented and daring novelists at work today. Thorpe takes a young, single mother's desperation and weaves from it a madcap, remarkable family of misfits. Margo’s Got Money Troubles is just so good: the humor, the pathos, the redemption—every sentence, every twist of plot is wildly original and unexpected. When has such a lovable heroine ever been created? Reading Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a joy; you will fall in love on page one.” — Stephanie Danler, New York Times bestselling author of Sweetbitter
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