In Rufi Thorpe’s Kirkus-starred 2024 novel, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, the title character is a freshman at a California community college who becomes pregnant during a brief affair with her married English professor. She impulsively decides to keep the baby and raise him as a single mom, but she quickly finds herself in deep financial straits. Desperate for cash, she finds unexpected success posting photos and videos on a lucrative amateur-porn website. The story also delves into Margo’s relationships with her flighty, difficult mother, Shyanne, a lonely former Hooters waitress; and her father, Jinx, an ex-professional wrestler and recovering addict who was absent most of her childhood. A new Apple TV series adaptation stars Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Nick Offerman, and it’s mostly faithful to the text, although it stumbles at times. It premieres on April 15.

The novel was a Kirkus Prize finalist, and it’s a lively, fun read. Our reviewer rightly noted its “terrific characters” and “rich worldbuilding” as narrator Margo intriguingly tells her story from first- and third-person perspectives, “using third for distance from her cringier mistakes.” For example, her decision to have her baby seems mostly driven by a general sense of aimlessness than by any desire to actually be a parent: “Just…what am I even doing with my life?...You can’t get a job with an English degree, and I can’t even think of anything else I could study! So, what do I do, like, waitress?...At least this would be something.” However, after she has the child—a son she names Bodhi—she quickly finds herself without a job and with no reliable means of financial support. Her profound lack of foresight, though, isn’t maddening, but relatable—nearly every reader has made spur-of-the-moment decisions in their 20s, although they usually didn’t have such earth-shattering consequences.

Her choices lead directly to the money troubles of the title, which, in turn, lead her to a new career as an OnlyFans model, posting nude pictures and humorous narrative videos to attract paid subscriptions and tips from viewers. The book offers a thoughtful portrayal of her new job and makes a compelling case that sex work can be a creative, artistic outlet as well as a practical way to make a living. Thorpe also engagingly addresses the stigma that sex workers face, as when Margo’s mother practically disowns her after learning of her new occupation; later, Margo’s job becomes an issue when Bodhi’s college-professor father, Mark, suddenly re-enters her life, seeking custody.

Still, Margo’s financial issues aren’t nearly as troublesome as readers might expect. For example, Mark’s rich mother supplies Margo with $15,000 and a trust for Bodhi early on, in return for signing an NDA; Margo’s estranged father arrives out of the blue, conveniently willing to help out with free child care; and Margo’s roommate, Suzie, is also very helpful as Margo pursues her new career. Indeed, Margo has more hardships regarding her family than she does with money; Shyanne’s self-centered reaction to Margo’s OnlyFans work leads to a schism that’s never fully resolved, and Jinx’s addiction issues are very real, despite his determination to change his ways.

The new, eight-episode Apple TV series, created and co-written by David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies), largely follows the text, and it depicts the difficulties of single motherhood with honesty and little sentimentality. It also portrays the world of sex work just as positively and frankly, with none of the coyness that one might expect in a mainstream TV production. Like the book, though, its greatest strength is its characterization, which is helped along by fine performances: Margo, as portrayed by Fanning, is always charming, even when she makes questionable choices; Offerman, as Jinx, effortlessly inhabits a man with a big heart who wants, more than anything, to make amends for past wrongs. Pfeiffer, too, is very good as the conflicted Shyanne, although Kelley (Pfeiffer’s spouse in real life) has softened the character quite a bit, which is a shame; one wishes that the adaptation had the courage to keep the character as unsympathetic as she is on the page. The custody battle is different, too, and it’s a far quirkier enterprise in the adaptation; Margo’s lawyer, in this version, is a tough-as-nails ex-wrestler played by Nicole Kidman, instead of the novel’s far more realistic shlub. Indeed, the whole case, as portrayed in the series, feels more like Kelley’s previous show, Ally McBeal, than anything in Thorpe’s pages. Still, this adaptation is never less than entertaining, and viewers will have no trouble following Margo’s adventures all the way to the final episode.

David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.