Contemporary Fiction Without Tropes: Sunday Salon

Trope free:  

I found two upcoming novels that are contemporary fiction/women's adult fiction that have none of the tropes that fuel so many modern plots. In other words, the situations created in both books can't be explained by the standard plot formulas. I'm not sure I liked the books very much, though I did give them three and four stars.

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Publication: June 11, 2024; William Morrow, NetGalley

Genre: contemporary fiction, adult fiction

Margo Millet, impressionable student, becomes pregnant by her junior college professor Mark, who wants nothing to do with her decision to keep the baby. The novel follows her struggles to make enough money to survive - by using social media, getting followers, and making them pay for her various online services. I was amazed at the ways Margo makes money online. In a slightly pornographic way, she gets paid to describe pictures of male private parts, and also writes brief essays, on demand, for people who give her their writing prompts. Because she is creative in her writing, she gets attention and soon is making enough money with her web activities.

This means of making income must happen a lot in real life, I came to the conclusion, and it's interesting to be reading a book about it. There is romance at the end but this book is in no way a rom com. That Margo is able to retain sole custody of her child when the father later surfaces and demands custody, is cleverly plotted.

This is a book for people who are social media fans and who interact with others online in a significant way. The book was an eye opener for me about the direction our society is going in relation to the web and social media.

Though what Margo does in the beginning was morally iffy and barely legal, she finds ways to monetize her online activity and later heads into advertising and a more acceptable way of supporting herself.

I Hope This Finds You Well: A Novel by Natalie Sue

Publication in May 21, 2024; William Morrow, NetGalley

Genre: women's fiction, contemporary fiction, adult fiction

My take on this book: I admit it was difficult to spend my reading time about a group of uninteresting, uninspiring, petty and unfriendly, unfunny group of people, people that main character, Jolene, works with in her drab office for 40 hours a week. Until the new Human Resources manager, Cliff, arrives, her life was not only boring, but very pathetic. How and why she stayed in that particular job for so long was not immediately clear.

Told in the first person, the novel has Jolene eventually opening up and finding a few worthwhile things about some of her office mates that made them a little less unlikeable. Nevertheless, it was not easy to keep reading about this uninspiring group. I kept wanting things to move in another direction. Realistic people and realistic workplace, you might say.

That Jolene found her "true" self in the end helped, especially after working through guilt about a past incident in her life that could explain why she remained so long in that job. I was glad Cliff came to her rescue.

What's on your reading schedule this week and/or the rest of the month?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

Wishing you all happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year's Eve!