■ "Margo's Got Money Troubles," by RufiThorpe. Publisher: William Morrow, 304 pages Margo's got troubles aplenty in "Margo's Got Money Troubles," a plucky, amusing, somewhat dirty, distinctly unerotic novel by RufiThorpe. She's 19.
She has a baby whose father, her English professor, makes her sign a nondisclosure agreement. Two of her three roommates fl ee, leaving her in the lurch. Her father, a drug-addicted professional wrestling celebrity, moves in.
She loses her waitressing job after missing too many hours. And her mother, a poker-addicted one-time Hooters waitress, is marrying a prim pastor, requiring much dissembling from both mother and daughter. So you might say that money is the least of her troubles.
And you'd be right. It's that baby, of course! As Margo says, "I didn't understand how not set up the world is for women to have babies. The whole childcare system is unworkable.
Like, it ruins your life." But not if you have money. Which is where the real troubles begin.
Because Margo's solution is to set up an OnlyFans account and post "pictures of her boobs on the internet," as she so frankly puts it. This is also where the fun begins, as Thorpe, via Margo, steers us through the mechanics and social politics of online sex work, with detours to Instagram and TikTok, now-nearly-historical references like camgirls, and a slew of WWE and RPG names and memes. Needless to say, complications ensue, as Margo's online antics crash into her IRL world.
Beginning with the bab.