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Cha-Ching!
Theo, our scruffy, big-hearted and quick-witted heroine, is not so much down on her luck as delivered luckless into a culture where the winners and losers have already been decided. Her adventures in getting over take her from SF to NYC, from dyke bars to telemarketing outfits, casinos to free clinics. With the signature poet's voice that has won her awards and acclaim, Liebegott investigates the conjoined hearts of hope and addiction in an unforgettable story of what it means to be young and broke in America.
Praise for Cha-Ching!
"Cha-Ching! is a rush - the clatter of youth on the angry move, the rattling of dreamy gambles in crappy apartments, the desperate crash of falling for someone despite the million reasons why and the bang! bang! bang! of our tender hearts."—Daniel Handler, author of Why We Broke Up
"Cha-Ching! is so raw with need that I found myself itching that addict's itch to chase the seemingly impossible."—Karolina Waclawiak, deputy editor of The Believer and author of How to Get Into the Twin Palms
"An open-hearted, deeply romantic story about a fucked-up dyke, her pit bull, her search for love, her tenuous grasp on hope, a pretty girl and the literal spin of the wheel."—Sarah Schulman, author of The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination
"In the game of American-life-on-the-go hopscotch, Ali Liebegott's heroine Theo just jumped a square ahead of Dean Moriarty. . . . The author's fine writing about gambling is as good as I ever read, including Dostoevski's and the Barthelme Bros. In the end, love, in whatever twisted, pallid form, a love that has little to do with sexuality, is the only answer. . . .Wonderful book."—Andrei Codrescu, author of So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems
Praise for Cha-Ching!
"Cha-Ching! is a rush - the clatter of youth on the angry move, the rattling of dreamy gambles in crappy apartments, the desperate crash of falling for someone despite the million reasons why and the bang! bang! bang! of our tender hearts."—Daniel Handler, author of Why We Broke Up
"Cha-Ching! is so raw with need that I found myself itching that addict's itch to chase the seemingly impossible."—Karolina Waclawiak, deputy editor of The Believer and author of How to Get Into the Twin Palms
"An open-hearted, deeply romantic story about a fucked-up dyke, her pit bull, her search for love, her tenuous grasp on hope, a pretty girl and the literal spin of the wheel."—Sarah Schulman, author of The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination
"In the game of American-life-on-the-go hopscotch, Ali Liebegott's heroine Theo just jumped a square ahead of Dean Moriarty. . . . The author's fine writing about gambling is as good as I ever read, including Dostoevski's and the Barthelme Bros. In the end, love, in whatever twisted, pallid form, a love that has little to do with sexuality, is the only answer. . . .Wonderful book."—Andrei Codrescu, author of So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems
224 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2013
9 people are currently reading
411 people want to read
About the author
Ali Liebegott
10 books79 followersAli Liebegott is a lesbian American author whose work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Her first book, The Beautifully Worthless, won the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction. Liebegott is a recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the New York Foundation for Arts. She taught creative writing at UC San Diego and currently lives in San Francisco.Her debut novel entitled The IHOP Papers was published in early 2007 and was awarded a Lambda Literary award for Women's Fiction, a Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction, and was a finalist for a Stonewall Prize. She has toured the U.S. extensively with Sister Spit's Ramblin' Road Show and is represented by The Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
January 23, 2016
"It was 1994, the year of bad, low-blood-sugar decisions. As soon as Theo was done watching her favorite episode of Top 25 Best 911 Emergencies she planned to leave her empty San Francisco apartment and move to New York."
I'm not going to say much about Cha-Ching! other than I really like Liebegott's main characters - they are flawed but good at heart - and even though their stories are quite depressing and deal with difficult issues like addiction, anxiety, and the role of being an outsider, there is also so much warmth and hope in Liebegott's books.
I'm not going to say much about Cha-Ching! other than I really like Liebegott's main characters - they are flawed but good at heart - and even though their stories are quite depressing and deal with difficult issues like addiction, anxiety, and the role of being an outsider, there is also so much warmth and hope in Liebegott's books.
January 4, 2016
I think I understand why some readers flat out hate this book--it makes you so uncomfortable, and it offers no hope. Oddly enough, I really enjoyed it because Liebegott is such a good storyteller. It hardly matters if the story itself is disturbing and difficult to digest. It begins with Theo, who seems convinced that moving from San Francisco to New York will give her a fresh outlook and incentive to give up her addictions (alcohol, cigarettes, gambling). Along the way, she meets Marisol, a librarian, who is fighting her own addictions as well as depression. These two seem both meant for each other and mismatched as can be. There are more passages involving killing and disposing of mice than I would've liked, and Theo's NYC apartment in general was enough to make me jump up from my seat and start cleaning my own place furiously. There was little chance of me gambling before reading this book, and now there's no chance at all. In many ways, it has the same feel as The IHOP Papers, which I enjoyed so much that I wanted more. But if you read The IHOP Papers and were satisfied only when everything more or less worked out in the end, you won't get that satisfaction here. I love these characters nonetheless.
July 27, 2022
7/26: Reread. Still compulsively readable and deeply empathic. Liebegott is a terrific writer.
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Ali Liebegott’s ruefully hilarious, downwardly-mobile lesbian protagonists are confused and damaged and struggling against difficult circumstances, none more so than their own darkest impulses, compulsions, and obsessions. But they never stop trying, which makes you root even more passionately for them to beat the odds. As ruthlessly, page-turningly entertaining as The IHOP Papers, Cha-Ching has confirmed me as an Ali Liebegott fan for life. Unfortunately for me, though, not much left unread in her published oeuvre save for The Beautifully Worthless and, and, oh what’s this? An anthology she edited called Faggot Dinosaur, the contents of which are on the theme of…Faggot Dinosaur? Well sign me right up for that one too, and underline 3 times my previously stated “Ali Liebegott Fan for Life” status. Final score for this one is 4 ½ outta 5 stars - Cha-ching, baby.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ali Liebegott’s ruefully hilarious, downwardly-mobile lesbian protagonists are confused and damaged and struggling against difficult circumstances, none more so than their own darkest impulses, compulsions, and obsessions. But they never stop trying, which makes you root even more passionately for them to beat the odds. As ruthlessly, page-turningly entertaining as The IHOP Papers, Cha-Ching has confirmed me as an Ali Liebegott fan for life. Unfortunately for me, though, not much left unread in her published oeuvre save for The Beautifully Worthless and, and, oh what’s this? An anthology she edited called Faggot Dinosaur, the contents of which are on the theme of…Faggot Dinosaur? Well sign me right up for that one too, and underline 3 times my previously stated “Ali Liebegott Fan for Life” status. Final score for this one is 4 ½ outta 5 stars - Cha-ching, baby.
June 20, 2013
This is a pretty great, pretty brutal, downbeat queer romance. The protagonist is a gambling addict and the casino scenes are scary as shit - no joke it was like I was watching a horror movie with my fingers half over my eyes, Theo risking so much money. The other scene I found super scary recently was in the new Farguar movie About Elly, where Elly is running down the beach in close-up looking really happy, and you know something terrible must be happening. Who needs horror movies when you can watch the terrifying spectacle of other people's optimism.
April 22, 2013
I wish goodreads let you give six stars, 'cause this is a six star book! It's just brimming with wit and passion and damned good writing with lots of snappy dialogue and beautifully delineated characters. It also gets points for depicting the world drifting, marginal queer youth, a place where literature all too often fears or fails to tread.
April 9, 2013
Wow! What a great book! I'm not done yet but gee, I really wish I had more books like this one. Theo is a charming, if charmingly flawed, protagonist who I want to see succeed, and also have a beer with.
May 25, 2013
I love Ali Liebegott's writing so much that I want to gay marry it, that's saying something since I don't even like the idea of marriage. What I do love is Liebegott's character development and awesome story telling abilities. I need more Liebegott right now!
December 22, 2013
One of the saddest novels I've ever read but also unassumingly beautiful. Sort of like Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe in the way your heart breaks for how much love and feeling the characters have.
June 7, 2013
Loved this!
June 13, 2022
A fun cast of characters who are clearly at the point in their lives where they are leaning into adulthood and still learning from the mistakes they keep making so as to keep trying to learn the lessons meant to impart. In Liebegott's signature style she hones in on the struggles of not having a lot of money, on the difficulties related to addictions and queer relationships and family. Theo and her dog Carey Grant steal the show, though each character is allowed to blossom and shine in their own way. I love that this is a book published through Sister Spit Imprint and we need more lesbian fiction, I was happy to read it during pride month and it kind of reignited my desire to see more queer love stories and stories of everyday life all year long. What would a year of queer-only content consumption/engagement look like for me? For you?
December 27, 2018
This book is about a gay, alcoholic gambler in the 90s who decides that moving to a new city will definitely change her personality and also make her suddenly not poor and miserable. She also has a pitbull with a long history of abuse. I do think the dog has more going for her than the main character - I mean, at least she's a dog.
I quit two thirds into this book. As I read it, I felt a strange mix of incredibly successful (because the main character fails at everything) and really, REALLY depressed for the same reason. I felt like I was watching a really drawn out drug documentary.
It was not badly written or anything. I just didn't like it.
I quit two thirds into this book. As I read it, I felt a strange mix of incredibly successful (because the main character fails at everything) and really, REALLY depressed for the same reason. I felt like I was watching a really drawn out drug documentary.
It was not badly written or anything. I just didn't like it.
August 27, 2020
Theo moves from San Francisco to New York, gambling that she will find a better life there. Unfortunately she moves to the wrong part of New York, where she finds none of her people. In fact, most of Theo's life is a gamble, including drinking too much and losing too much money. She hooks up with women on a whim and tends to trust her gut when make a decision, not always a wise move. But she is a likable butch and the reader enters her world easily.
May 24, 2021
Sometimes I felt a little lost reading this but I'm
giving it five stars bc it felt so GOOD to read it. also feel like I'm friends with theo and don't want to let her down, & Cary Grant is my new favorite literary dog
giving it five stars bc it felt so GOOD to read it. also feel like I'm friends with theo and don't want to let her down, & Cary Grant is my new favorite literary dog
September 24, 2025
I just really loved this. It’s really tender and very funny and I felt like I knew every character. I wish there was more but it also ends perfectly.
(read with Steve Martin and Chevy Chase the first foster kittens)
(read with Steve Martin and Chevy Chase the first foster kittens)
September 10, 2019
Interesting writing on the culture of poverty, gambling, alcoholism, depression, and drug abuse. But, be prepared to be depressed while reading.
August 11, 2025
For some reason I was just waiting for Theo to transition I don’t know where I got this idea but didn’t happen. Very butch4femme.
May 27, 2014
It’s a thin kind of love, but you have to start somewhere.
Ali Liebegott’s style is one that pushes out from the dull edges of just making it through the day, to see the surroundings as part of what closes you into yourself for security. But to be alive takes more. And so the road trip begins.
Theo packs a light physical but a sharp awareness of what she no longer wants. Pushing off from that certainty she already knows what she can fall back on, but decides she doesn’t want to fall anymore. She wants to stand.
With the sketchiest of dreams she sets off across the country joining the dots of previous contacts to turn them into a whole new drawing. Her travelling companions are a pit bull she calls Cary Grant and the novels of Dostoevsky. Somewhere in there the twirling brushstrokes of Van Gogh’s painting also stirs her to life.
Despite the hard decisions to give up bad habits, the behaviours return. There is something gendered about these habits. What seems to be success in them is actually what most undermines Theo as herself. As she chooses her own true preferences the outer success loses its hold over her and something deeper forms.
It seems particularly relevant that I read this at the start of Gambling Awareness Week. For those who are enthralled by the lights and machines, there might be something that just touches the surface of their own need for something more, for something other. Whether this helps them find their own sketchy dream I cannot say. But it might just amuse them enough to consider an alternative.
That thin love fills out. But you have to live into it to let it grow.
Ali Liebegott’s style is one that pushes out from the dull edges of just making it through the day, to see the surroundings as part of what closes you into yourself for security. But to be alive takes more. And so the road trip begins.
Theo packs a light physical but a sharp awareness of what she no longer wants. Pushing off from that certainty she already knows what she can fall back on, but decides she doesn’t want to fall anymore. She wants to stand.
With the sketchiest of dreams she sets off across the country joining the dots of previous contacts to turn them into a whole new drawing. Her travelling companions are a pit bull she calls Cary Grant and the novels of Dostoevsky. Somewhere in there the twirling brushstrokes of Van Gogh’s painting also stirs her to life.
Despite the hard decisions to give up bad habits, the behaviours return. There is something gendered about these habits. What seems to be success in them is actually what most undermines Theo as herself. As she chooses her own true preferences the outer success loses its hold over her and something deeper forms.
It seems particularly relevant that I read this at the start of Gambling Awareness Week. For those who are enthralled by the lights and machines, there might be something that just touches the surface of their own need for something more, for something other. Whether this helps them find their own sketchy dream I cannot say. But it might just amuse them enough to consider an alternative.
That thin love fills out. But you have to live into it to let it grow.
April 10, 2013
I got this book free through Goodreads First Reads.
This isn't the normal kind of book I read, so I'm not even sure how I'm going to review. I'm going to do the best I can though. Theo has had it with California and wants to go to New York and start a brand new life there, which she is hoping will be better than her life in San Francisco. Once in New York, she has many adventures.
What I liked the most about this book was the characters. They were all very unique and seemed like the people who you would meet in real life. They all had flaws, and I found myself hoping that good things would happen to some of them, especially Theo.
I also liked how real the book was. The things that happened in the book could happen in real life. Everything about the book was real. I like fantasies and Sci-Fis but it was nice to read a book like this for a change also.
Something not so good about the book was there was no clear plot. Theo just tried to survive in New York and that was the plot. There are times when I will lower the ratings I give a book when they do not have a clear plot, but I feel that it worked for this book.
Overall I would give this book four out of five stars.
This isn't the normal kind of book I read, so I'm not even sure how I'm going to review. I'm going to do the best I can though. Theo has had it with California and wants to go to New York and start a brand new life there, which she is hoping will be better than her life in San Francisco. Once in New York, she has many adventures.
What I liked the most about this book was the characters. They were all very unique and seemed like the people who you would meet in real life. They all had flaws, and I found myself hoping that good things would happen to some of them, especially Theo.
I also liked how real the book was. The things that happened in the book could happen in real life. Everything about the book was real. I like fantasies and Sci-Fis but it was nice to read a book like this for a change also.
Something not so good about the book was there was no clear plot. Theo just tried to survive in New York and that was the plot. There are times when I will lower the ratings I give a book when they do not have a clear plot, but I feel that it worked for this book.
Overall I would give this book four out of five stars.
December 8, 2013
I read this book because I really enjoyed the author's other book, The Ihop Papers, but I didn't really like Cha-Ching! that much. It was too depressing. The Ihop Papers was funny, the main character had spunk, but in Cha-Ching, the narrator was too addicted and too much in denial to even fight her addiction to alcohol and gambling. I wanted to root for her that she would not loose the money she won, or that she would not feel ashamed to admit that she wasn't drinking when people offered her alcohol, but she never could. I did like that she rescued her dog and knew how to take care of her. But her relationships were with people who had issues just like her, her apartment in NY sounded nasty, her jobs were horrible, etc. etc. Just no hope. The tattoo she had that she described looking like a giant penis was a great symbol for how fucked her life was. It's probably a realistic description for a lot of people's lives but I like books that talk about how they rise above, through resilience or other strength of character. I don't think this one captured me long enough to finish it, even. I can't remember. Just not the book for me.
November 17, 2013
If you've ever been close to someone who struggles with addiction issues and frustrated at their lack of impulse control, this book is a fascinating glimpse into what goes on in the addict's mind as it follows young queers in New York trying to move on from the tumult of the "shit years" of the early twenties into something with a bit more stability.
Theo, our sirma'amsir protagonist, and her love interest Marisol (a freshly unemployed Brooklyn librarian) both struggle with alcohol addiction, and Theo also has a gambling problem - just to make things interesting. Despite their problems, both characters are happy (or trying to be) and hardworking, which keeps the book from being too dark. Credit here should also go to Cary Grant, the docile pitbull who survived being raised in a fighting ring and being thrown off a roof, and seems to keep Theo from getting into too much trouble.
Cha-Ching!, as its name implies is a story about luck: the hand we're dealt in life and what we choose to make of it. Though the characters' choices are often questionable, they've got a lot of heart and you can't help but root for them to get what they're after.
Theo, our sirma'amsir protagonist, and her love interest Marisol (a freshly unemployed Brooklyn librarian) both struggle with alcohol addiction, and Theo also has a gambling problem - just to make things interesting. Despite their problems, both characters are happy (or trying to be) and hardworking, which keeps the book from being too dark. Credit here should also go to Cary Grant, the docile pitbull who survived being raised in a fighting ring and being thrown off a roof, and seems to keep Theo from getting into too much trouble.
Cha-Ching!, as its name implies is a story about luck: the hand we're dealt in life and what we choose to make of it. Though the characters' choices are often questionable, they've got a lot of heart and you can't help but root for them to get what they're after.
August 7, 2013
This book was witty and funny and depressing and disturbing — one of my favorite combinations. Ali Liebegott writes with total authority and sustained insight about addiction and the lifestyle that attends it. The insight is subtle, she doesn't hand anything to you. But it's all there in the detailed picture that she paints: a slice of Theo's (the protagonist) life accompanied by Carey Grant, her rescue dog. The dog quickly becomes the ballast holding up Theo's precarious world. The ending is real — not happy but also not sad, exactly. It's an ending that reveals how this story, like all stories, doesn't begin or end with first and last pages. And I somehow walked away with some hope for the characters, while also missing them.
July 4, 2013
I loved reading Cha-Ching! I got it in San Francisco and started reading it the same night. Putting it away to do homework was actually a mini version of torture. I really finished about a week ago, but I haven't had time to review. This book made me laugh! I love books that can make me laugh. It was very well-written. The only thing that I found confusing (not confusing enough to give less than 5 stars) is the change in POV towards the end. The entire book is written from Theo's POV, but one of the last few chapters is from Marisol's POV. Anyway, this book is great. I wish it were longer. I figure, it's a good sign when I don't want the book to be over.
January 31, 2014
When I was about a third through I seriously considered not continuing. It just didn't interest me at all. I did finish it after all. I just can't not finish a book. But I kept waiting for the plot to happen. This either geniusly describes the very bland life of an alcoholic, depressive gambler (which is still a boring read) or the author is a bad writer who only got this published because it's one of too few LGBTIQ themed books. I'd probably have to read her award winning ones in order to judge, but after this I'm just not motivated to do that.
May 1, 2015
I definitely enjoyed the beautifully worthless a lot more and I think this book would've benefited from the use of first person. The story and style were pretty tangled... We start getting Marisols point of view out of nowhere and it's completely unbalanced with theos. There were a lot of loose ends that I assumed were leading somewhere but ultimately didn't. All in all this felt like a good start to a book rather than a finished product.
January 9, 2014
It's 1994 and Theo leaves San Francisco to start a new life in New York. She's an alcoholic. She rescues a dog. She drives to New York with a pit stop along the way to gamble. Despite her lack of planning she gets a job, finds a place to live, and builds a community for herself. She gambles a lot and struggles with her drinking. She falls in love.
Mostly depressing. Yet somehow redemptive.
Excellent prose, world building, and character development.
Mostly depressing. Yet somehow redemptive.
Excellent prose, world building, and character development.
October 13, 2014
This book read like an indie film. Things happened and nothing really happened at the same time. There is a young woman, who wants to overcome her addictions (to gambling and alcohol), but doesn't seem to really know how to go about it. She moves across the country and falls in love. There is an adorable dog. There are a lot of extremely uncomfortable scenes in casinos. And then the book is over and you're left feeling hopeful, but also worried, about Theo and Cary Grant.
August 1, 2016
"Cha-Ching! is a rush - the clatter of youth on the angry move, the rattling of dreamy gambles in crappy apartments, the desperate crash of falling for someone despite the million reasons why and the bang! bang! bang! of our tender hearts."—Daniel Handler, author of Why We Broke Up
March 6, 2013
i love ali liebegott's books. this one was- as all her's are- funny and heart breaking and sometimes really hard to read. deals with addiction in a way i've not seen in many books: human, difficult, not damning.
May 5, 2013
I wanted to like it, it felt well-meaning, and I did like aspects- but there were also cliches and the plot felt clumsy, especially in the second half. Best thing- I mostly liked Theo, the main character, and how the reader is witness to her struggles with alcoholism and a compulsion to gamble.
October 22, 2013
her best book yet! i loved it. i loved the characters. theo and marisol, and theo's roommate. the dog was sweet. i loved the glimpse inside the gambler's mind. and i loved the love story, sweet to see two people hitting rock bottom and bouncing back together, in love.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews