I am finally reading again. If you know me or read this blog (though I’m still not convinced anyone actually does), you’ll know I fall into frequent reading slumps. Overwhelmed by my teetering physical TBR pile, I decided to dig into my digital one instead. Apple Books loves to tempt me with endless 99p deals (I download them all, then promptly forget about them.) But on holiday this summer, when generally I never end up reading the physical books I’ve lugged across continent, I decided to travel light. No paperbacks, just my phone and iPad. And it was a revelation. After finishing the first book in this list by the pool, I actually kept e-reading when I got home, especially on the dreaded commute, where generally I do my best to disassociate. (Although I do sometimes feel the urge to let people know I am not in fact doom scrolling and am actually reading genre fiction. Then again that may be worse!)
Margo’s Got Money Troubles
By Rufi Thorpe
As the child of an ex-pro wrestler and a Hooters waitress, Margo Millet’s always known she’d have to make it on her own. When she finds herself pregnant by her English professor and in need of cash fast, she comes up with a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, producing content and writing storylines unlike anything else out there. Luckily, what Margo lacks in options she makes up for in ingenuity, and before she knows it, she’s an online phenomenon. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?
What I loved about Margo’s Got Money Troubles is how unapologetic it is. Margo is 19 and taken advantage of by her uni lecturer. I like how he’s not even portrayed as a handsome, charismatic villain, he’s no Ezra from Pretty Little Liars, just a married loser in brown shoes (which actually makes the situation feel even more horrifying!) The book doesn’t shy away from the absurdity and cruelty of the world’s response to Margo. Society frames keeping the baby as the “moral choice,” but then treats a single, unmarried mother like she’s committed a crime. Even in the midst of giving birth, the minute the midwife notices that Margo isn’t wearing a ring, the way she’ s treated subtly shifts. It’s really weird because I think many of us (myself included) struggle to comprehend that people still hold such outdated views, but events like the overturning of Roe v. Wade in America show that deep prejudices are very much alive.
It’s easy to judge people who do sex work (and pretty socially acceptable), but the book shows just how fucking hard survival is without a support system. Like, how are you supposed to hold down a job when there’s nobody to watch your baby? There’s barely any maternity leave in America, welfare is a joke, and you’re boxed into impossible choices. OnlyFans becomes Margo’s way of being at home with the baby while still making money. The book doesn’t romanticise it (well it does a bit, she meets a gorgeous guy who just wants to pay to get to know her) but it does make clear how the world is rigged against women, especially single mothers, and how sex work often becomes less about “choice” and more about necessity. I mean Margo is white… imagine she was a woman of colour!!!!!!!
What the book also does well is show the other side of OnlyFans, the playfulness. Margo has fun with it, and it highlights how clever and creative you have to be to succeed on that platform. It’s not just a case of “getting your tits out”, you’re creating a persona, producing content, thinking about what people want, and how to stand out in a saturated market. The way Margo approaches it makes you realise how much imagination and strategy goes into online sex work, even if people are quick to dismiss it as lazy or unserious.
And now, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is being adapted into a TV show, which feels both inevitable and exciting. The book already reads like a script with sharp dialogue, messy characters, and scenes that swing between absurd comedy (I mean Margo’s dad is a WWE wrestler and her Only Fans centres around her being an alien who does sex acts with the dyson hoover) and the gut punching reality of being a single mum with the whole world stacked against you. If they can keep that mix of humour and heartbreak intact, the show could be just as chaotic and compelling as the book. That said, I did feel a bit cheated when I found out the series was green-lit by Apple TV before the book even came out. I know it’s not a big deal, but it does make me love it slightly less. I wanted it to be this scrappy, unexpected success that got picked up because people connected with it, not a pre-packaged “multi-platform content experience.” Maybe that’s petty of me, and then there’s casting 27-year-old, Elle Fanning, to play 19 year old Margot. Nothing screams “teenage girl navigating impossible choices” quite like an actress who’s closing in on 30. And Michelle Pfeiffer as Margot’s mum is interesting because on one hand, it makes sense! The character in the book has that mix of glamour, sharpness, and fragility that Pfeiffer nails. But the whole point is that Margot’s mum is supposed to be young, and casting a 67-year-old as the mother of a 19-year-old doesn’t exactly scream “young mum.” It’s another example of how adaptations can get the vibe right while missing the details that made the book feel so real.
Chaotic Energy
By Stephanie Yeboah
I gave up at about 25%. There was a lot I liked about the book, the main character was relatable and I saw flashes of myself in her, but then she started catfishing this guy and I just thought, do I have the energy for this? It felt too predictably exhausting, and as life’s short, I decided to call it a day.
Experienced
By Kate Young
Bette is in love, for the first time in her life, and everything is perfect. That is, until her girlfriend Mei suggests they go on a break, so that Bette can catch-up on all the dating she missed out on in her twenties, before she came out. And it’s fine! All Bette needs to do is have lots of casual sex with lots of hot women and then she can return to Mei more ready to settle down. More experienced. What could go wrong?
But as Bette throws herself headfirst into a dating odyssey she never could have anticipated –sometimes cringingly disastrous, sometimes completely thrilling – she realises that the best things in life are those you just can’t plan for…especially when it comes to love and heartbreak.
Experienced by Kate Young just didn’t do it for me. Rom-coms are always going to be a little predictable, but this was both predictable and boring, which frankly is unforgivable. The second Ruth shows up you can see exactly where the story’s headed, but the problem is I wasn’t rooting for them at all. And that’s kind of fatal in a rom-com, you’re meant to want the couple to get together… But Bette, as a main character, is just sooooooooo dry that I couldn’t muster much interest in her happiness. Also, despite the synopsis the book is just not very…. sexy. That being said, I actually think it would make a great TV show if they cast it right, they need to make Bette into more of a relatable mess and lean hard into the booze and the sex. I’m thinking Fleabag vibes or the recent Netflix series Too Much.
I wanted to write more… but there’s not really much to say (which is a bit damning) Kate is a wonderful cook (I mean, I haven’t been invited over for dinner and definitely don’t expect an invite now) but her Little Library Kitchen is a genuinely delightful book and maybe, just maybe, she should stick to the recipes…
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