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Poor People With Money
Monday Woolridge is a fighter with a face covered in scars and life full of debt.Her Avondale flat has no furniture, her father’s dead, her catatonic mother’s in an expensive nursing home and her kickboxing gym is going to Thailand.Monday's shitty bartending job pays fifty cents over minimum wage, and she desperately needs another way to generate income.Dealing drugs off the dark web with her flatmate JJ looks like it's working – until it really doesn’t, and the pair have to flee Tamaki Makaurau to escape the gangsters, the vampires and the ghosts of Monday’s past.This is a pacy, heart-twisting, punch-in-the-guts, darkly comic novel that captures life on the poverty line in Aotearoa now.From the award-winning poet and playwright Dominic Hoey, author of Iceland, I Thought We’d Be Famous, and the 2021 SST Short Story Award winner, 1986.
239 pages, Paperback
First published August 2, 2022
29 people are currently reading
682 people want to read
About the author
Dominic Hoey
6 books66 followersDominic Hoey is a poet, author and playwright based in Auckland, New Zealand.
His debut novel Iceland was a New Zealand bestseller, long-listed for the 2018 Ockham Book Award and his short story 1986 won the 2021 Sunday Star Times Short Story Award. His latest poetry collection I Thought We’d Be Famous was released in October 2019.
Dominic has written and performed two one-person hit shows about his bone disease and his inability to get arts funding. In a former life, Dominic was an MC battle and slam-poetry champion.
Through his Learn To Write Good creative writing course, Dominic has taught hundreds of students around the world how to think dyslexic.
He also works with young people through the Atawhai program, teaching art, yoga and meditation to help them with their mental health and self-esteem.
Currently he lives with a small, vicious dog and dreams of one day owning an animal rescue farm.Zealand International Film Festival and Show Me Shorts.
Dominic is currently working on a new novel and a book of poetry.
His debut novel Iceland was a New Zealand bestseller, long-listed for the 2018 Ockham Book Award and his short story 1986 won the 2021 Sunday Star Times Short Story Award. His latest poetry collection I Thought We’d Be Famous was released in October 2019.
Dominic has written and performed two one-person hit shows about his bone disease and his inability to get arts funding. In a former life, Dominic was an MC battle and slam-poetry champion.
Through his Learn To Write Good creative writing course, Dominic has taught hundreds of students around the world how to think dyslexic.
He also works with young people through the Atawhai program, teaching art, yoga and meditation to help them with their mental health and self-esteem.
Currently he lives with a small, vicious dog and dreams of one day owning an animal rescue farm.Zealand International Film Festival and Show Me Shorts.
Dominic is currently working on a new novel and a book of poetry.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
August 17, 2022
Grimy AF, super Kiwi and full of gritty details that pull you into the story. The writing is ugly and exciting and kinda beautiful at the same time. Story gripped me hard and I read it in two days.
November 5, 2022
I'm really not sure how I felt about this book. The writing is fantastic, the story so compelling, but the protagonist is so damn unlikeable, I really struggled with sticking with it. It's not that she's damaged or scarred or messed up, it's that she's so... disconnected with everyone. People care about her and she doesn't give a damn. It's not even that she's messing around with booze and drugs that makes her so repulsive, it's that she doesn't give a damn about anyone except the basic sense of obligation. It's revolting, but that said, the story had me hooked. I needed to know what happened. I was enamored by Dominic's fantastic language and the story he has woven. I'm kind of glad I finished it but I still feel like I'd be better off without ever knowing about Monday. A very conflicting book!
September 25, 2022
Unlocked a new feels — disliking a main character so much but also rooting for them to win.
December 25, 2023
Almost my last read of 2023 and it’s up there as one of the best. I started with the audio book which is read by the author and has a spoken word feel about it. The interesting sentence structures and the large number of lines that made me stop and pause, took me to the text version too which I finished just after the audiobook.
This is gritty, tightly written (no extra editing needed here), darkly funny, with plenty of interesting characters and settings. A lot of reviews found Monday really unlikeable but she had a certain charm for me, even if I did want to yell at her often.
Highly recommended!
This is gritty, tightly written (no extra editing needed here), darkly funny, with plenty of interesting characters and settings. A lot of reviews found Monday really unlikeable but she had a certain charm for me, even if I did want to yell at her often.
Highly recommended!
December 31, 2022
New Zealand Trainspotting? #3wordbookreview
July 17, 2024
Blasted through it in a few sittings. Absolutely lyrical form propels you through the action. Monday is just such a sympathetic character and I love to read anything set in Tāmaki Makaurau. Genuinely awesome book.
January 13, 2023
Devoured in one sitting. Punchy, anxiety-inducing, a bit depressing and so kiwi it made me a bit homesick.
September 2, 2025
Never needed a character to have a win more
December 19, 2025
This is possibly the most insanely tense, funny, repulsive, yet entirely relatable book I’ve ever read. Set right here in my own backyard, in Mt Albert, Auckland, I felt so immersed in the characters and places, I could literally visualise this as I was reading it, in a way I have never experienced before. Published just 2 years ago, I could so vividly imagine these characters alive and thriving (or should I say, ‘surviving’) just across a very thin divide from my own (what now feels like such a sweet and easy) life. I’ve just read the last page and I have so much adrenaline pumping through my veins, I almost want to puke. Yet to have had the joy of immersion in reading this perfect and raw and ‘home-grown’ book, equally makes me want to cheer.
To Dominic Hoey, I take a bow. Can’t wait to read your next one. (Though I may need some time to ‘recover’ from this trip first!) What a freaking ride!!! 😃
To Dominic Hoey, I take a bow. Can’t wait to read your next one. (Though I may need some time to ‘recover’ from this trip first!) What a freaking ride!!! 😃
October 12, 2022
I really enjoyed reading this book, particularly the first half, and I read it in 2 sittings. I really enjoy Dominic's writing style as always. I liked the length, it felt like an easy and non-daunting read, I loved the authors description of characters and appreciated the respect with which he treated Māori characters and language. Overall I enjoyed it and was raving when I finished it, however after it settled in I felt a little less fulfilled for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe if the final chapters were a little longer I wouldn't have been left hungry, but then again, it did feel like the author left potential for a follow-up book. Overall I would recommend to New Zealanders, young-ish New Zealanders in particular.
November 17, 2022
Hard to say why I enjoyed this so much. It felt a bit like a cross between Once Were Warriors and Breaking Bad. It always seems such a talent for a writer to make the reader root for a truly obnoxious character. I do hope Monday and JJ are safe and well somewhere.
January 20, 2023
Fucking brilliant with an impending sense of doom.
December 15, 2023
I enjoyed this - I always love a book set in Auckland. Monday was a very unlikeable main character, but she's like a car crash that you can't look away from. A short and entertaining read.
January 12, 2025
OMG this book is gritty AF!!! So raw it stings a bit. The turn of phrase is excellent and the story feels so real. Set in and around Avondale, Kingsland and Mt Albert in Auckland NZ I could almost touch the story!
I listened to it as an audiobook and the authenticity of the author’s accent, who is also the narrator is great. However his pronunciation of the Māori conversations isn’t that great. But that is a minor issue.
I listened to it as an audiobook and the authenticity of the author’s accent, who is also the narrator is great. However his pronunciation of the Māori conversations isn’t that great. But that is a minor issue.
December 14, 2025
I just wasn’t as in thrall to this as I expected to be! great pacing and narrative and ending, but I could not stop being like wtf girl
February 13, 2023
Painful at times but a great story. Familiar Tāmaki setting made it interesting but also all the more sad…Wanted more from the ending but I get that happy endings are for chumps. I am a chump.
February 1, 2023
Poor People With Money carries a sense in impending doom, keeping you anxious along its fast paced journey. It deals with social inequality, and touches on the impacts of land disputes, climate change & pollution in rural communities.
I disliked the main character, but you can’t help but root for her! She’s obsessed with disappearance of her brother, although the motif goes no where and reveals nothing, and I couldn’t find much symbolism to it either. And despite her Dad dying too, she seems to never think about him. Also, her mothers house payments which ruled over her life were seemingly forgot about after she traveled North - strange.
I felt the paranormal and psychic plots were a missed opportunity. I was really intrigued by the dotted theme of ghosts, but this also went no where. It would be great to explore this further and tie in Monday’s brother - it felt like it was leading up to this, but never did. Aroha’s psychic abilities also led no where. It was cleverly dotted in the right places, but never had a pay offs.
The ending was good, but I was left unfulfilled and unsatisfied at the somewhat - cliffhanger ending. Seems to be left open for a follow up book. If final chapters were longer I think I would feel more satisfied - they felt rushed compared to Part 1 of the novel.
Despite its flaws, I read this book in two days, and once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down. The story was compelling, with the fact that Monday’s telling the story to her missing to brother feeling so special. It’s a good length, and an easy read, with lots of twists and turns.
Rated just above a three and half stars.
I disliked the main character, but you can’t help but root for her! She’s obsessed with disappearance of her brother, although the motif goes no where and reveals nothing, and I couldn’t find much symbolism to it either. And despite her Dad dying too, she seems to never think about him. Also, her mothers house payments which ruled over her life were seemingly forgot about after she traveled North - strange.
I felt the paranormal and psychic plots were a missed opportunity. I was really intrigued by the dotted theme of ghosts, but this also went no where. It would be great to explore this further and tie in Monday’s brother - it felt like it was leading up to this, but never did. Aroha’s psychic abilities also led no where. It was cleverly dotted in the right places, but never had a pay offs.
The ending was good, but I was left unfulfilled and unsatisfied at the somewhat - cliffhanger ending. Seems to be left open for a follow up book. If final chapters were longer I think I would feel more satisfied - they felt rushed compared to Part 1 of the novel.
Despite its flaws, I read this book in two days, and once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down. The story was compelling, with the fact that Monday’s telling the story to her missing to brother feeling so special. It’s a good length, and an easy read, with lots of twists and turns.
Rated just above a three and half stars.
January 11, 2023
Yeah, not for me.
I liked how short the segments were in Iceland that made it easily readable, and while I recognise that as a manifestion of Hoey's dyslexia (and/or ADHD blah blah) in Poor People it fragments up the narrative so much that it disrupts the flow entirely almost unbearably so. I'm not sure why there has to be so many breaks, it's not really justified. It also feels like young adult fiction, it's not as literary as it cosplays.
I also felt there was a lot of contrarian virtue signalling going on. Hoey's main characters here are 'marginalised' figures, which he's not trying to lionise as virtuous but the opposite, I feel like he's trying to flaunt his insight into the lives of the ethnically discriminated and impoverished. However the book also tends to skim over many details of the life of its protagonist Monday. She's very obsessed with the disappearance of her younger brother even fifteen years later and this motif goes nowhere, reveals little and symbolises nothing. On the other hand she seems to never think about her father's suicide and despite being anxiety ridden over making payments for her mother's care home when she goes on the run later in the book it's never mentioned again. I guess we're supposed to interpret that these details inform Monday's character but really it's just a list of traumas in lieu of writing a character that's not one-dimensional.
It's also clear that Monday's goal to go to Thailand is never ever going to happen and that she's clearly delusional, though nobody around her seems to confront her with that fact, only bothered by more minor behavioural inconsistencies—the book doesn't seem to care either, ending on an uncompelling cliffhanger. It was also entirely predictable who stole the money—and I hate when I predict things because I'm actually really terrible at predicting shit, so that really says something. It confuses me as to why this book is being marketed as darkly comic because I didn't find it very sardonic at all. Monday is pretty brickheaded and not that street smart despite the premise of the book being that she is.
I wouldn't recommend this book.
I liked how short the segments were in Iceland that made it easily readable, and while I recognise that as a manifestion of Hoey's dyslexia (and/or ADHD blah blah) in Poor People it fragments up the narrative so much that it disrupts the flow entirely almost unbearably so. I'm not sure why there has to be so many breaks, it's not really justified. It also feels like young adult fiction, it's not as literary as it cosplays.
I also felt there was a lot of contrarian virtue signalling going on. Hoey's main characters here are 'marginalised' figures, which he's not trying to lionise as virtuous but the opposite, I feel like he's trying to flaunt his insight into the lives of the ethnically discriminated and impoverished. However the book also tends to skim over many details of the life of its protagonist Monday. She's very obsessed with the disappearance of her younger brother even fifteen years later and this motif goes nowhere, reveals little and symbolises nothing. On the other hand she seems to never think about her father's suicide and despite being anxiety ridden over making payments for her mother's care home when she goes on the run later in the book it's never mentioned again. I guess we're supposed to interpret that these details inform Monday's character but really it's just a list of traumas in lieu of writing a character that's not one-dimensional.
It's also clear that Monday's goal to go to Thailand is never ever going to happen and that she's clearly delusional, though nobody around her seems to confront her with that fact, only bothered by more minor behavioural inconsistencies—the book doesn't seem to care either, ending on an uncompelling cliffhanger. It was also entirely predictable who stole the money—and I hate when I predict things because I'm actually really terrible at predicting shit, so that really says something. It confuses me as to why this book is being marketed as darkly comic because I didn't find it very sardonic at all. Monday is pretty brickheaded and not that street smart despite the premise of the book being that she is.
I wouldn't recommend this book.
July 21, 2024
A rare miss from the recommendation team at Time Out bookstore.
In terms of positive elements, Hoey does have something of a talent for weaving a yarn. The last third especially was fairly engaging and pulled me through to the slightly disappointing ending. And he manages to evoke a certain degree of the difficulty escaping the cycle of poverty and bad decisions that plague the central characters.
On the whole though, there are far too many poorly developed themes and narratives, the characters don't grow a great deal or have much depth, and the writing style is not really for me. And to describe this as darkly comic is itself something of a sick joke.
The book in most respects comes across as half baked. Which makes sense as judging from the acknowledgements, I would wager the author was fully baked at the time of writing.
In terms of positive elements, Hoey does have something of a talent for weaving a yarn. The last third especially was fairly engaging and pulled me through to the slightly disappointing ending. And he manages to evoke a certain degree of the difficulty escaping the cycle of poverty and bad decisions that plague the central characters.
On the whole though, there are far too many poorly developed themes and narratives, the characters don't grow a great deal or have much depth, and the writing style is not really for me. And to describe this as darkly comic is itself something of a sick joke.
The book in most respects comes across as half baked. Which makes sense as judging from the acknowledgements, I would wager the author was fully baked at the time of writing.
October 2, 2023
been following Dominic Hoey for a few years now and went to see a live reading of his a few months ago - love the way he refines his language and dismisses pretension outright. the story is also a real and un-glamourised depiction of poverty in Aotearoa, only issue I found was with the ending (I don't like when catalysts are endings in themselves but I don't want to ruin it for anyone, so that's all I'll say). highly recommend!
December 31, 2022
I did not like this book. I accept that people do lives this way and have this kind of limited vocabulary but it doesn’t add up to evocative writing. The narrator is a powerful and colourful personality but she is supposedly haunted by her brother Eddie’s death or disappearance yet that haunting seems to get forgotten a lot of the time. Grim realism can. Are for powerful stories but this story with its twists and turns seems to lead nowhere.
January 2, 2024
Great first book of the year. My only downfall was the audiobook is narrated by a male (author) when the protagonist is a female.
January 9, 2024
Yeah fire
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 21, 2024
Loved this NZ novel, set in some very recognizable parts of Auckland and also in some unfamiliar to me parts of the far North.
Read
February 3, 2024An excellent, tragic, pacy and compelling story. I was gripped from finish to end the writing is excellent and unusual. The broken timeline worked well for this story interweaving the past and present building up a picture of Monday's past.
JJ & Monday : I would love to hear more of your story.
JJ & Monday : I would love to hear more of your story.
January 4, 2024
I loved this book. It felt refreshing to read a story that refelcts the cultural context of New Zealand. The voice of the protagonist reflects a voice that feels unique to home.
June 4, 2023
Love this book!!!
March 6, 2025
i love it
June 21, 2023
Poetic
November 17, 2024
A very “easy” read — dark and gritty and so fun. What a devastating, frantic, hilarious and compassionate look into grief, poverty and survival in our country.
I was anxious the entire time. Couldn’t finish it fast enough and get my blood pressure back to normal.
Lingering quote:
“And I can feel you Eddy, so close. I'm waiting for that light everyone talks about, that feeling of peace. But there's nothing. Only darkness and pain and the sound of water. I reach out for you, starting to panic.
Then I feel your hand in mine, pulling me out of the car, into the night. In the distance I think I can hear the river, then I realise it's the sound of waves. I'm ready to follow you Eddy. To sleep next to you at the bottom of the ocean.”
I was anxious the entire time. Couldn’t finish it fast enough and get my blood pressure back to normal.
Lingering quote:
“And I can feel you Eddy, so close. I'm waiting for that light everyone talks about, that feeling of peace. But there's nothing. Only darkness and pain and the sound of water. I reach out for you, starting to panic.
Then I feel your hand in mine, pulling me out of the car, into the night. In the distance I think I can hear the river, then I realise it's the sound of waves. I'm ready to follow you Eddy. To sleep next to you at the bottom of the ocean.”
Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews