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Money for Something: Sex Work. Drugs. Life. Need.
'It's easy to talk to these women, tell them my deepest secrets. Look where we are. What else do we have to hide?'
When nineteen-year-old Mia is fired from her job at an insurance company, she answers an ad in the newspaper. The ad says: 'Erotic Massage. Good Money. No Sex.'
Mia takes to her new job with recklessness, aplomb and good humour. Over the next few years, as she works her way through Sydney's many parlours, she meets exquisite and complex women from every walk of life who choose sex work for myriad reasons. While juggling the demands of her new job, she battles her problematic drug use, and the mental illness that has shaped her life.
But rather than needing saving from sex work, it is the work that sometimes helps to save Mia from herself.
A raw and honest memoir about surviving, sex work, friendships, drugs and mental illness.
When nineteen-year-old Mia is fired from her job at an insurance company, she answers an ad in the newspaper. The ad says: 'Erotic Massage. Good Money. No Sex.'
Mia takes to her new job with recklessness, aplomb and good humour. Over the next few years, as she works her way through Sydney's many parlours, she meets exquisite and complex women from every walk of life who choose sex work for myriad reasons. While juggling the demands of her new job, she battles her problematic drug use, and the mental illness that has shaped her life.
But rather than needing saving from sex work, it is the work that sometimes helps to save Mia from herself.
A raw and honest memoir about surviving, sex work, friendships, drugs and mental illness.
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 2, 2020
9 people are currently reading
242 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
December 1, 2020
(3.5 stars)
At “... this point it’s not bravery at all. It’s that nothing feels real, so nothing matters. It’s easy to do things—huge things, good things, bad things or things that fall along a line in between—when nothing matters.” Set in Sydney at a time when the internet was accessed with a modem that “beeps and wails as it connects”, Money for Something overlaps with many elements of my own life story. The novel, by Mia Walsch, is an exploration of how you address feeling nothing: operating without the same sense of prohibition other people seem to have. Sex work, drugs, BDSM all seem inherently less risky when your baseline is that you’re a bad/unworthy/unloveable person. I was also gripped by the same desire as Walsch not to “live a rote life” like my parents or the normal people I saw around me.
Walsch’s writing is brusque with short, non-flowery sentences, so the narrative moves at a good clip. To my eye, this book is an accurate description of girls’ room life in massage parlours & BDSM houses across Sydney. Some characters—“The seats are for the Mistresses”—felt instantly familiar to me.
The bits of this book I didn’t like were the heavy-handed justifications for injected drugs (having someone else do your hits, of course at your suggestion) which perhaps reflects legality and Amie, the person in question, still being alive. Ditto the justifications of sex work, though perhaps this is a genre demand in a world where sex work is still heavily stigmatised, despite it being decriminalised in NSW for the last 25 years, including the time period described in this book.
“I first had ecstasy at the Big Day Out when I was seventeen, split with some stranger in a mosh pit, and the day turned to pure crimson and gold and I felt better than I had ever, ever felt.” Drug use, particularly poly-drug use is well-described, with a focus upon pleasure: “soon we’re all in that sparkly place as we feel the first tendrils of the drug start to wrap around us and warp us.” The author carefully explains that her drug use and poor mental health were enabled by sex work, without blaming the work or negating that it can work differently for other sex workers: “Being slutty isn’t self-harm for everyone, but sometimes it is for me.”
Money for Something is pretty right-on, with tight and careful writing about a period that actually sounds like it would have been very loose. Maybe that’s the bit that didn’t quite gel for me: it felt like reimagining the kaleidoscopic, technicolor past through a grown-up lens that stripped out the colour. Maybe that’s the process of memoir writing itself, though?
At “... this point it’s not bravery at all. It’s that nothing feels real, so nothing matters. It’s easy to do things—huge things, good things, bad things or things that fall along a line in between—when nothing matters.” Set in Sydney at a time when the internet was accessed with a modem that “beeps and wails as it connects”, Money for Something overlaps with many elements of my own life story. The novel, by Mia Walsch, is an exploration of how you address feeling nothing: operating without the same sense of prohibition other people seem to have. Sex work, drugs, BDSM all seem inherently less risky when your baseline is that you’re a bad/unworthy/unloveable person. I was also gripped by the same desire as Walsch not to “live a rote life” like my parents or the normal people I saw around me.
Walsch’s writing is brusque with short, non-flowery sentences, so the narrative moves at a good clip. To my eye, this book is an accurate description of girls’ room life in massage parlours & BDSM houses across Sydney. Some characters—“The seats are for the Mistresses”—felt instantly familiar to me.
The bits of this book I didn’t like were the heavy-handed justifications for injected drugs (having someone else do your hits, of course at your suggestion) which perhaps reflects legality and Amie, the person in question, still being alive. Ditto the justifications of sex work, though perhaps this is a genre demand in a world where sex work is still heavily stigmatised, despite it being decriminalised in NSW for the last 25 years, including the time period described in this book.
“I first had ecstasy at the Big Day Out when I was seventeen, split with some stranger in a mosh pit, and the day turned to pure crimson and gold and I felt better than I had ever, ever felt.” Drug use, particularly poly-drug use is well-described, with a focus upon pleasure: “soon we’re all in that sparkly place as we feel the first tendrils of the drug start to wrap around us and warp us.” The author carefully explains that her drug use and poor mental health were enabled by sex work, without blaming the work or negating that it can work differently for other sex workers: “Being slutty isn’t self-harm for everyone, but sometimes it is for me.”
Money for Something is pretty right-on, with tight and careful writing about a period that actually sounds like it would have been very loose. Maybe that’s the bit that didn’t quite gel for me: it felt like reimagining the kaleidoscopic, technicolor past through a grown-up lens that stripped out the colour. Maybe that’s the process of memoir writing itself, though?
March 12, 2021
First off, let me say that I am so angry that this memoir got lost in the mess that was 2020. It honestly deserved better and comes from a woman who is so lovely in person that its an utter disservice to both this work and her other publications that it flew under the radar.
This book is full of heart and a little bit of hope. A glaring review of the author's life in the Australian sex work industry, it details the highs of feeling wanted, lows of broken relationships and her struggle with addiction, body dysmorphia, trust issues and lack of belief in herself and her support systems.
Starting from her entry into the business as a baby masseuse, charging through to her learning the art of the Pro-Domme and culminating with her ultimate decision to leave full time SW in pursuit of more socially acceptable endeavours, Money has everything you could want from a memoir.
This book is full of heart and a little bit of hope. A glaring review of the author's life in the Australian sex work industry, it details the highs of feeling wanted, lows of broken relationships and her struggle with addiction, body dysmorphia, trust issues and lack of belief in herself and her support systems.
Starting from her entry into the business as a baby masseuse, charging through to her learning the art of the Pro-Domme and culminating with her ultimate decision to leave full time SW in pursuit of more socially acceptable endeavours, Money has everything you could want from a memoir.
September 3, 2020
An outstanding, illuminating and shocking slice of life that makes it abundantly clear that you can never really know what’s going in another person’s life. Reading this memoir was like a small safe taste of addiction; couldn’t stop until it was done, would do it again in a heartbeat
January 27, 2022
Walsch's narrative voice is erratic, quick, tangential and raw, which makes the pace of this book astounding (I devoured it in a few days). The context of the story is boldly novel, but the discussion of mental illness, pain and suffering is what actually gripped my attention.
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February 8, 2023"I don't have shame about the work, but other people do"
April 21, 2025
My reviews aren’t posting and it’s giving me the shits!!!!!
Quick & easy (pun intended). Palatable insight into the sex work industry.
Self harm & substance abuse content throughout.
Quick & easy (pun intended). Palatable insight into the sex work industry.
Self harm & substance abuse content throughout.
May 9, 2024
pretty good! love memoirs which write honestly on topics like this but found the whole thing really rushed - wanted more about her life, childhood, feelings etc
July 21, 2020
This review was first posted http://bookgirl.beautyandlace.net/boo...
Thank you Beauty & Lace and Allen and Unwin for providing me with a copy of “Something for Money” by Mia Walsch.
This book is the story of Mia’s life as she navigates mental health issues, drug use & sex work and the struggles she endures to try & heal herself. This was a brutal, unfiltered story & at first I thought that the way it was written was very haphazard, the way that the story line jumped all over the place – backwards & forwards, seeming to just stop in the middle of a story only to come back to it later on. Then I realised that this was used as a depiction of her life & how scattered & unpredictable it would be to live with mental health issues & drug addiction.
In the end Mia comes to find a healthier way to work in the sex industry & make that industry work for her instead of harming her. This book is quite explicit and won’t be for everyone but overall I found it very interesting to read & enjoyed it.
Thank you Beauty & Lace and Allen and Unwin for providing me with a copy of “Something for Money” by Mia Walsch.
This book is the story of Mia’s life as she navigates mental health issues, drug use & sex work and the struggles she endures to try & heal herself. This was a brutal, unfiltered story & at first I thought that the way it was written was very haphazard, the way that the story line jumped all over the place – backwards & forwards, seeming to just stop in the middle of a story only to come back to it later on. Then I realised that this was used as a depiction of her life & how scattered & unpredictable it would be to live with mental health issues & drug addiction.
In the end Mia comes to find a healthier way to work in the sex industry & make that industry work for her instead of harming her. This book is quite explicit and won’t be for everyone but overall I found it very interesting to read & enjoyed it.
November 27, 2020
I’ve been a sucker for a sex worker memoir since reading an extract of Kate Holden’s In My Skin in the weekend paper when I was fourteen - trashy, gritty, literary, I’ll read them all. Money For Something hits somewhere in between. The way Walsh acknowledges the intersections of sex work, drug use and mental illness is really refreshing. The book focuses only on Mia/Sasha’s early years of sex work and her life and struggles at that time. I wish there was at least something about her earlier life, family and onset/contributing factors of her mental illness, but appreciate this isn’t the point of the book. I got a bit tired by all the descriptions of how tiny and thin and beautiful the workers were, and as with most memoirs, I found the ending a bit rushed and simplistic.
December 30, 2020
Mia Walsch is an author from Melbourne, Australia. She has previously published three novels. Money For Something is her first non-fiction book.
Nineteen year old Mia living in Sydney is fired from her job at an insurance company; she is addicted to drugs and in a toxic relationship. With no future prospects of being able to maintain a nine to five job juggling her drug addiction and mental illness she answers an advert in the newspaper for a body slider at an erotic massage parlour. Mia needed to consider if she was the type of person who could handle the industry, but with the allure of copious amounts of money and perceived excitement along with flexible working hours, forming friendships with the other workers and being able to maintain her drug use it was hard to resist.
The first few client meetings were nerve-racking but exciting, so often what the men really wanted was for someone to listen to them; erotic massage and sex was a vehicle to get to that. Mia moves from parlour to parlour exploring different avenues, she is young, attractive and has a good physique, most men are lining up to give her money but the reality was a little different. Mia had to line up with other girls and she was not always the client’s first choice or other workers would undercut her. The industry is very competitive and ruthless and support was not always easy to find unless she was working with a great bunch of women. She found it to be a very lonely journey and the psychological burden of relating to her clients was difficult which didn’t help Mia’s self-loathing issues. At times she often expected to do what other escorts would or wouldn’t do, having to push the boundaries of taste and performance.
Mia receives a diagnosis but chooses not to share which unfortunately I felt cheated by as she had come so far speaking of her sex work, mental illness and drug use. It was time to re-evaluate her life as she didn’t like what she saw. Mia ended up making the industry work for her. Her life slowly comes together and she was able to pay for her education and find a whole new level of empowerment in a change of career and lifestyle although she did go back to the industry from time to time to earn extra money.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Money For Something and became engrossed in Mia’s life as a sex worker. If you are curious about the sex industry, how it all works, and the different reasons people enter it, then this is the book for you. It's shocking, funny, thought provoking, and moving. The only thing that was a disappointment is you don’t get to learn of Mia’s background; how she grew up and what impact from her childhood caused her mental illness.
If you are to read this book please keep am an open mind. People smoke even though it’s frowned upon, people take drugs even though it’s often illegal or dangerous. People do all kinds of things because they convince themselves that the end justifies the means. Entering prostitution is no different. What people don’t realise is that they probably already know a person who is a prostitute or similar. It’s not something most will talk about. We really shouldn’t judge and this book will have you thinking twice before you weigh in on any future debates.
Thank you B&L and Allen & Unwin Australia for the chance to read and review.
Nineteen year old Mia living in Sydney is fired from her job at an insurance company; she is addicted to drugs and in a toxic relationship. With no future prospects of being able to maintain a nine to five job juggling her drug addiction and mental illness she answers an advert in the newspaper for a body slider at an erotic massage parlour. Mia needed to consider if she was the type of person who could handle the industry, but with the allure of copious amounts of money and perceived excitement along with flexible working hours, forming friendships with the other workers and being able to maintain her drug use it was hard to resist.
The first few client meetings were nerve-racking but exciting, so often what the men really wanted was for someone to listen to them; erotic massage and sex was a vehicle to get to that. Mia moves from parlour to parlour exploring different avenues, she is young, attractive and has a good physique, most men are lining up to give her money but the reality was a little different. Mia had to line up with other girls and she was not always the client’s first choice or other workers would undercut her. The industry is very competitive and ruthless and support was not always easy to find unless she was working with a great bunch of women. She found it to be a very lonely journey and the psychological burden of relating to her clients was difficult which didn’t help Mia’s self-loathing issues. At times she often expected to do what other escorts would or wouldn’t do, having to push the boundaries of taste and performance.
Mia receives a diagnosis but chooses not to share which unfortunately I felt cheated by as she had come so far speaking of her sex work, mental illness and drug use. It was time to re-evaluate her life as she didn’t like what she saw. Mia ended up making the industry work for her. Her life slowly comes together and she was able to pay for her education and find a whole new level of empowerment in a change of career and lifestyle although she did go back to the industry from time to time to earn extra money.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Money For Something and became engrossed in Mia’s life as a sex worker. If you are curious about the sex industry, how it all works, and the different reasons people enter it, then this is the book for you. It's shocking, funny, thought provoking, and moving. The only thing that was a disappointment is you don’t get to learn of Mia’s background; how she grew up and what impact from her childhood caused her mental illness.
If you are to read this book please keep am an open mind. People smoke even though it’s frowned upon, people take drugs even though it’s often illegal or dangerous. People do all kinds of things because they convince themselves that the end justifies the means. Entering prostitution is no different. What people don’t realise is that they probably already know a person who is a prostitute or similar. It’s not something most will talk about. We really shouldn’t judge and this book will have you thinking twice before you weigh in on any future debates.
Thank you B&L and Allen & Unwin Australia for the chance to read and review.
October 24, 2020
An accurate, compassionate, honest and complex story about this Authors youth and her journey through growth and mental illness. I loved the description of the different parlours and clients and her no-nonsense take on sex work in Australia- it is extremely accurate.
This story is bold and not for the faint hearted, who believe that everyone lives a square life inside the lines. This story is about one person who coloured outside those lines and had the balls to honestly portray it. Her life was raw, messy, experimental and complex.
I adored the humour and the humanity inherent in this piece. I ate up every work and cackled along with the descriptions of her thoughts whilst venturing into new and previously uncharted waters.
Keep an open mind and an open heart, and let this story open a window into how the real world is..a world that no-one likes to freely admit. A world that is still taboo and still real. It is not bad, it is just another aspect of the kaleidoscope of life.
I loved it. A brilliant read.
This story is bold and not for the faint hearted, who believe that everyone lives a square life inside the lines. This story is about one person who coloured outside those lines and had the balls to honestly portray it. Her life was raw, messy, experimental and complex.
I adored the humour and the humanity inherent in this piece. I ate up every work and cackled along with the descriptions of her thoughts whilst venturing into new and previously uncharted waters.
Keep an open mind and an open heart, and let this story open a window into how the real world is..a world that no-one likes to freely admit. A world that is still taboo and still real. It is not bad, it is just another aspect of the kaleidoscope of life.
I loved it. A brilliant read.
July 18, 2020
Obviously a true story here, by a woman who has lived through the hardships of mental illness, and drug abuse.
It think this author has made the most out of what adult live has thrown at her. I also think that those who have had a privileged life, with good education and no financial or personal hardships might be critical to this story. It takes a certain type to be empathetic of alternative life journeys of some unlike their own.
Nice that the story ended on a positive note, as there did not seem so many during.
I will recommend this to my friends who I think could handle such brutal honestly - that is not lined with a fairytale.
It think this author has made the most out of what adult live has thrown at her. I also think that those who have had a privileged life, with good education and no financial or personal hardships might be critical to this story. It takes a certain type to be empathetic of alternative life journeys of some unlike their own.
Nice that the story ended on a positive note, as there did not seem so many during.
I will recommend this to my friends who I think could handle such brutal honestly - that is not lined with a fairytale.
August 24, 2020
I didn't so much read this book as consume it in one ravenous gulp. It turned up in the mail today and I thought I'd just flick it open and read a little bit before I got back to proofreading. Instead, a couple of hours later, I was closing the covers on a whirlwind of words that had sucked me all the way in.
This open, honest account of one woman's experience with sex work, from erotic massage to BDSM, and the way that it interwove with the rest of her life, is incredibly compelling. It's tightly written, with powerful descriptions that paint a clear picture of Mia's world for the audience.
This open, honest account of one woman's experience with sex work, from erotic massage to BDSM, and the way that it interwove with the rest of her life, is incredibly compelling. It's tightly written, with powerful descriptions that paint a clear picture of Mia's world for the audience.
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October 30, 2020This is a gut-punch of a book. MW is able to bring to life the self-destructive, chaotic experiences of self-medicating with drugs, risky behaviour and self-harm. Yes, this book is framed around the author’s experiences as a sex worker but it is the exploration of her undiagnosed mental illness and the lengths she goes to in order to feel nothing (or, perhaps, something) that leaves the biggest impression. Pay attention to the content notes at the start of the book; this is visceral and unflinching.
August 22, 2021
Engaging and sympathetic memoir of a life of sex work in Sydney in the early 2000's. Mia Walsch delves into her experiences of mental illness and drug use to craft an observant and entertaining tale that oscillates between suburban massage parlours, inner city bondage dungeons and eventually university halls. Expressive and empowering narrative that turns a critical eye on sex, gender relations, capitalism, and the concept of "easy money".
May 21, 2025
Forgot to add this bad boy in. No flaws. This book made me feel seen and heard whilst simultaneously being fully swallowed by someone else’s world. Everything is written so well, you can literally smell the apartment the author writes of, you can feel the crisp winter night air, you can feel the brothel carpet.
December 12, 2025
This book is a raw, honest sex work memoir which may be tough for some people to read, but still important nonetheless. I enjoyed reading it.
My only criticism is that there were quite a few adjectives throughout the book that didn’t seem to fit the voice of the narrator, making the writing a little jarring - “resplendent” caught me off guard twice.
My only criticism is that there were quite a few adjectives throughout the book that didn’t seem to fit the voice of the narrator, making the writing a little jarring - “resplendent” caught me off guard twice.
June 28, 2020
This brutally honest memoir is incredibly hard to put down. I read it fast and devoured each page. Mental health is hard, this book shows a glimpse into what that feels like and I love the honesty in what sex work entails. 5/5 stars
July 21, 2020
Mia is an incredible writer. I've found it hard to concentrate on reading during the pandemic but that was not the case for this book; I couldn't put 'Money For Something' down. She has a brilliant ability to capture her own emotions while telling a seriously compelling story.
November 21, 2020
An easy read, in the sense it's hard to put down rather than its subject material is light. (Reading about the sex work is less challenging than the substance misuse and struggles with mental illness, for the record.) Walsch's prose is engaging and insightful; highly recommended.
April 23, 2023
Inhaled over three days, devastated to be finished. Walsch has such clarity in her writing - something me with my brain full of bees envies. One of many 2020 releases that deserve a boost, having been largely lost to that bananas time.
July 15, 2020
Yes, this book has an amazing story and a great insight into sex work but it's also written with humour, originality and a real flair for description.
January 2, 2021
Something I wouldn’t normally read but I really enjoyed it. A great in sight into sex work, drugs and mental illness. Easy and enjoyable read
May 16, 2021
3.5 🌟
June 30, 2021
Absolutely LOVED this book! Mia’s writing is beautiful and it was such an interesting look into the many layers of the sex work industry.
July 15, 2021
Easy to read and interesting insight into the world of the sex worker in Sydney. Would recommend.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews