Margo’s Got Money Troubles: A Review

Margo’s Got Money Troubles review:

To start off, I really appreciate books that have a straight storyline. No past and present chapters or different characters’ viewpoints to distract us, just the story. They generally require more talent and character development too.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles (on Amazon here) wasn’t exactly a straight story though. It did fluctuate between first and third person but not by chapter. It was more random and didn’t interrupt the flow. That was nice.

Another review mentioned that these two perspectives were there to show Margo’s two different states, and one of them was a more self-forgiving one. But nothing jumped out at me so I didn’t pay too much attention to the meaning behind these choices.

Anyway, I don’t normally go for such popular, mainstream books but the premise of this one sounded too good. As soon as I started reading I was like, “whoa, this is high tier.” It was relaxing for my brain to read something where the author took such great care to set the stage, make sure not much came easily to Margo, and that nothing unnecessarily lingered on the page too long. It was smart and fast moving; beautifully done.

But fear not, I do have critique.

While Margo’s Got Money Troubles was lighthearted and funny it was committed to the pain, helplessness and abandonment Margo had to face. But I was prepared for something even harder-hitting given the situation she was in.

For example, while the book takes great care to show the frustrations Margo endures while trying to care for her baby alone, her baby is quite a happy one and she doesn’t really struggle with any mom guilt, anxiety or fear that she’s not doing a good enough job. She doesn’t really loose herself, and a first baby often does that to a mother: ripping her apart so much so that she is barely able to think straight. Something closer to Nightbitch’s portrayal of motherhood would have made more sense. See my review for Nightbitch.

Again, because there was such a commitment to accuracy it disappointed me that this, along with a few other details were acknowledged but not doven into. Like, how did she get 1K Instagram followers after just starting an anonymous account? And how did she have the confidence to show her body so soon after giving birth?

Other observations:

I would have appreciated seeing a bit more of Margo’s conviction or for the author to expound on the lack of it more. Maybe she could have shown how Margo reverted to that temperament growing up with a single mother, constantly needing to adapt to her environment for survival and suppressed her own strong feelings to do so.

What would have been even more interesting than Margo embarking on an Only Fans ‘adventure’ would have been her trying to make money from home via all the ways we see promoted endlessly on social media: making Amazon review videos, selling digital products, reselling courses, creating faceless videos for social media…That would have been awesome.

Margo also felt a bit too fearless going about this way of making money for someone in her situation. Though it is hard to say if that kind of desperation makes one more or less fearless. My guess is she would have been frozen in fear.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles’ messages:

I didn’t take away too many messages from the book; my focus was more on what would happen. In terms of my approach to what Margo was doing morally, I didn’t walk away with anything new. Her work was portrayed as not optimal for a few reasons including practical, but if it’s what a person has to do and they like doing it, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, which is what I felt previously.

The book did play upon the idea that so many were perfectly ok with her getting an abortion but appalled at the idea of her doing this, and I liked that being highlighted. I also liked how the book was balanced. It showed at least two sides to almost every character. Maybe those were the deeply woven messages.

My rating: 8/10