Margo's Got Money Troubles

One of my favorite books of the year, full of flawed and compelling characters making their best out of limited and at times terrifying circumstances. Read beautifully on audio by Elle Fanning.

Margo is a young single mother whose talents and interests have always been confined by her economic background. The book is about her desperately trying to get a handle on life with a baby, surrounded by eclectic undergraduate roommates, a professional wrestler father, and a mother whose new relationship teeters atop stacks and stacks of lies.

She stumbles into OnlyFans (I just googled whether that was one or two words on a work computer without thinking), and sex work becomes a uniquely flexible and lucrative avenue for her to provide for her family. Still, people in her life judge her harshly for viewing this as her best option, questioning her judgment and fitness as a mother.

The book is really a story about how money (or lack thereof) ties directly into the consequences for your actions. If you have exorbitant wealth, nothing is illegal — you can mess up, slack off, be callous and cruel and selfish, and face minimal if not zero repercussions.

But if you lack financial and social supports, you can make one mistake, have one bad day, and that's it. Sometimes something even happens adjacent to you, in your general vicinity, and that's enough. You are condemned, cooked. This is definitive, permanent proof that you are undeserving, unworthy, depraved, reckless.

Margo's greatest challenge (and this is a competitive category), is to be brave enough to believe she deserves love, happiness, and success, in a world eager to punish her for who they believe she is. She is my hero and I love her. Really great book. Really great writing. Really great book.

For fans of [b:Fierce Femmes|32279708|Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars|Kai Cheng Thom|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480517872l/32279708.SY75.jpg|52903547], [b:Interior Chinatown|44436221|Interior Chinatown|Charles Yu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1639073843l/44436221.SX50.jpg|69005176], [b:Belly Up|35128563|Belly Up|Eva Darrows|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1527451038l/35128563.SY75.jpg|56448240], Juno, and [b:My Year of Rest and Relaxation|44279110|My Year of Rest and Relaxation|Ottessa Moshfegh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597676656l/44279110.SY75.jpg|55508660].