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miszjeanie's review against another edition
4.0
The Undoing of Thistle Tate is a strong young adult novel that looks behind the scenes of publishing. This book features a dynamic female protagonist who takes responsibility for her actions. It is packed with well-rounded characters and has an engaging plot. If you like YA contemporaries with a touch of mystery and romance, you’ll enjoy this one.
Read my full review here.
Read my full review here.
sarwall's review against another edition
5.0
the way this is quite possibly in the top twenty worst written books I've ever encountered but what a blast to read! I enjoyed myself so much, it is so unserious and ridiculously bad that it became a fun odyssey into hilarity and absurdity.
my fav part, paraphrased:
"its the best ya books I've ever read - okay its the only ya book I've ever read, unless you count catcher in the rye" IJBOLSKNVODIN
+ the cover is pretty
my fav part, paraphrased:
"its the best ya books I've ever read - okay its the only ya book I've ever read, unless you count catcher in the rye" IJBOLSKNVODIN
+ the cover is pretty
misskatt's review against another edition
4.0
3.5
This book was what I thought it would be, and yet not at the same time. It was an interesting idea and I think it was executed well by the author, but it wasn't...amazing. It was GOOD, but not mind blowing.
Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC!
This book was what I thought it would be, and yet not at the same time. It was an interesting idea and I think it was executed well by the author, but it wasn't...amazing. It was GOOD, but not mind blowing.
Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC!
pn_hinton's review against another edition
4.0
**Here be mild spoilers. Ye been warned. **
I heard about this book from the Hey Ya podcast and the idea hooked me, so I was really eager to pick it up. I found it to be an interesting concept that I personally hadn't read before so I was looking forward to it. However, up until the last quarter of the book, this was going to be a three star one and probably a begrudging one at that. A big part of this was that there were virtually no likable male characters in this book for a good chunk of it and that alone almost killed it for me. If a book is a set up to be a romance I need to like at least one of the love interests and for a good majority of the book, I just didn't.
Let's take Liam for instance. He was set up to be like the romantic interest, but I saw all the problem signs there almost right away. I really didn't jive with him at all especially since it was set up that he knew the secret because I was like "Oh well that's going to be a problem later on". Also, there was a comment that Thistle made early on about how she felt she didn't know the real him since her personality was different around his friends. I did make a lemon face at that since, I figured, it was setting up for an awkward hanging out moment later on which luckily never came to fruition. I would dare to say he was borderline abusive or at least starting down the pathway for it since his excuse for sharing the secret was to help her when he had to know that it was going to severely isolate her, not only from her fans and Oliver and Emma, but her dad as well. Then he would be the only one left for her. It was a very sh** move and there's no explaining that away.
Then there's Oliver who was set up to be pretentious from the start with the smirks he gave her at the reading. Smirks can be cute. They can be endearing. Those smirks were not. They set up him to be a stuck up jerk that looks down on all literary endeavors that are not the ones he likes. So he gave me a 'gross' feeling His quickness to turn on her when the secret broke was kind of baffling considering he had such a low opinion of the work initially. And a lot of that could be because of what they shared and that he was mad for his sister. But he failed to remember that what they shared, since it was never explicitly stated what they did or didn't do, was also an experience shared by her and likely her first one given her extremely sheltered upbringing. Although he did redeem himself a little later on with how caring he was towards Emma, his sister and that he came through for Thistle in the end he still was really only the lesser of two jerk-faces for the majority of the book and the margin was kind of slim.
And her dad. My goodness he enraged me so much. I don't know what it is but I've noticed this trend in books widowers who are terrible at being single dads in the fact that they just don't act like responsible adults. A good part of that can be blamed on grief but after awhile you have to buckle down and do what needs to be done. Thistle's comments about how he couldn't hold a CS job because of her personality was so annoying because it's like "You need to swallow that pride so you can feed your kid.". If it was just him on his own that would be one thing but he had Thistle And then to co-sign her to the lie without asking her first and expect her to keep up with it? I mean...it would be one thing to use a pen name and tell his editors that. I'm sure they would have been fine with having him be the writer and Thistle be the media person who went out. There has to have been someone in the past who did that. And then when he couldn't finish the story to have the attitude that "They work for us" it's like "Seriously are you that dumb?" And the answer was yes. Yes he was. -_-
And that's another thing that kind ticked me off. I get they lied and book nerds, while loyal as all get out, can also be hell on earth when wronged. But I refuse to believe that not one person, not a single solitary one, took a step before Thistle came out with her blog, would have been like "Hmm..there's something more to this". Like even if this had been Thistle's idea no one had the wisdom to be like "Why would a parent do this or agree to this?" Thistle was a minor when this happened, who was home-schooled with one parent, and did what she thought was best to help her dad who lacked the ability to keep a job not because he was incapable but because he was too full of himself. Again it was annoying. I'm not pooh-poohing being a single parent by any means; what I'm saying is he was a poor example of one since he was selfish, he didn't really think about his daughter until it was almost too late, and he didn't pull himself up by his bootstraps and do what needed to be done to get Thistle to age 18.
You know who rocked? Mrs. Rizzo. She was the bee's knees and I would have eaten all the parakeet cookies with her. I also enjoyed how she pretty much summed up Theo and Thistle's relationship perfectly by saying it was toxic. Not in an abusive way but in an unhealthy way and I did enjoy that at the end that they both realized it enough to know that a break was needed. And I do like how Thistle and her got close towards the end because I think she had a great view on it all and was probably the only person who looked the situation pragmatically.
Thistle as a character made dumb mistakes but they are ones that you would expect a sheltered teenager to make. And I think that is one of the things that kept her from being completely vilified at the end. Another thing was her stark honesty. When caught she didn't continue to lie, mince words, or try to redirect or anything of that. Her stance was she did what she thought was best for her family at the time. And I respect that. And honestly if someone can't respect that I don't know that I can respect them.
I know what you're probably thinking. With all these harsh words, why the four stars? And honestly it was the last quarter of this book including how it ended because it was realistic. Liam and Thistle weren't friends again and it was highly unlikely they ever would be. Thistle had to make do with a local college. Her relationship with her dad was still strained. The last book was published but there was some blow back on it and that was handled pretty much the way I would expect a publishing house to try to handle something like that. In fact the only thing that felt hokey to me was she ended up with Oliver since I thought that at best they would end up just friends. Life isn't always a happily ever after and while I am not one who likes unhappy endings I do enjoy realistic ones which this one definitely was. That being said would I re-read this? Probably not but I don't regret reading it a first time because it was entertaining even if it did push a quite a few of my buttons throughout.
I heard about this book from the Hey Ya podcast and the idea hooked me, so I was really eager to pick it up. I found it to be an interesting concept that I personally hadn't read before so I was looking forward to it. However, up until the last quarter of the book, this was going to be a three star one and probably a begrudging one at that. A big part of this was that there were virtually no likable male characters in this book for a good chunk of it and that alone almost killed it for me. If a book is a set up to be a romance I need to like at least one of the love interests and for a good majority of the book, I just didn't.
Let's take Liam for instance. He was set up to be like the romantic interest, but I saw all the problem signs there almost right away. I really didn't jive with him at all especially since it was set up that he knew the secret because I was like "Oh well that's going to be a problem later on". Also, there was a comment that Thistle made early on about how she felt she didn't know the real him since her personality was different around his friends. I did make a lemon face at that since, I figured, it was setting up for an awkward hanging out moment later on which luckily never came to fruition. I would dare to say he was borderline abusive or at least starting down the pathway for it since his excuse for sharing the secret was to help her when he had to know that it was going to severely isolate her, not only from her fans and Oliver and Emma, but her dad as well. Then he would be the only one left for her. It was a very sh** move and there's no explaining that away.
Then there's Oliver who was set up to be pretentious from the start with the smirks he gave her at the reading. Smirks can be cute. They can be endearing. Those smirks were not. They set up him to be a stuck up jerk that looks down on all literary endeavors that are not the ones he likes. So he gave me a 'gross' feeling His quickness to turn on her when the secret broke was kind of baffling considering he had such a low opinion of the work initially. And a lot of that could be because of what they shared and that he was mad for his sister. But he failed to remember that what they shared, since it was never explicitly stated what they did or didn't do, was also an experience shared by her and likely her first one given her extremely sheltered upbringing. Although he did redeem himself a little later on with how caring he was towards Emma, his sister and that he came through for Thistle in the end he still was really only the lesser of two jerk-faces for the majority of the book and the margin was kind of slim.
And her dad. My goodness he enraged me so much. I don't know what it is but I've noticed this trend in books widowers who are terrible at being single dads in the fact that they just don't act like responsible adults. A good part of that can be blamed on grief but after awhile you have to buckle down and do what needs to be done. Thistle's comments about how he couldn't hold a CS job because of her personality was so annoying because it's like "You need to swallow that pride so you can feed your kid.". If it was just him on his own that would be one thing but he had Thistle And then to co-sign her to the lie without asking her first and expect her to keep up with it? I mean...it would be one thing to use a pen name and tell his editors that. I'm sure they would have been fine with having him be the writer and Thistle be the media person who went out. There has to have been someone in the past who did that. And then when he couldn't finish the story to have the attitude that "They work for us" it's like "Seriously are you that dumb?" And the answer was yes. Yes he was. -_-
And that's another thing that kind ticked me off. I get they lied and book nerds, while loyal as all get out, can also be hell on earth when wronged. But I refuse to believe that not one person, not a single solitary one, took a step before Thistle came out with her blog, would have been like "Hmm..there's something more to this". Like even if this had been Thistle's idea no one had the wisdom to be like "Why would a parent do this or agree to this?" Thistle was a minor when this happened, who was home-schooled with one parent, and did what she thought was best to help her dad who lacked the ability to keep a job not because he was incapable but because he was too full of himself. Again it was annoying. I'm not pooh-poohing being a single parent by any means; what I'm saying is he was a poor example of one since he was selfish, he didn't really think about his daughter until it was almost too late, and he didn't pull himself up by his bootstraps and do what needed to be done to get Thistle to age 18.
You know who rocked? Mrs. Rizzo. She was the bee's knees and I would have eaten all the parakeet cookies with her. I also enjoyed how she pretty much summed up Theo and Thistle's relationship perfectly by saying it was toxic. Not in an abusive way but in an unhealthy way and I did enjoy that at the end that they both realized it enough to know that a break was needed. And I do like how Thistle and her got close towards the end because I think she had a great view on it all and was probably the only person who looked the situation pragmatically.
Thistle as a character made dumb mistakes but they are ones that you would expect a sheltered teenager to make. And I think that is one of the things that kept her from being completely vilified at the end. Another thing was her stark honesty. When caught she didn't continue to lie, mince words, or try to redirect or anything of that. Her stance was she did what she thought was best for her family at the time. And I respect that. And honestly if someone can't respect that I don't know that I can respect them.
I know what you're probably thinking. With all these harsh words, why the four stars? And honestly it was the last quarter of this book including how it ended because it was realistic. Liam and Thistle weren't friends again and it was highly unlikely they ever would be. Thistle had to make do with a local college. Her relationship with her dad was still strained. The last book was published but there was some blow back on it and that was handled pretty much the way I would expect a publishing house to try to handle something like that. In fact the only thing that felt hokey to me was she ended up with Oliver since I thought that at best they would end up just friends. Life isn't always a happily ever after and while I am not one who likes unhappy endings I do enjoy realistic ones which this one definitely was. That being said would I re-read this? Probably not but I don't regret reading it a first time because it was entertaining even if it did push a quite a few of my buttons throughout.
sc104906's review against another edition
3.0
I received this as an eARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
After Thistle's mother died in a car accident, she and her father have retreated from the world. The only other person in her life is her next door neighbor and crush, Liam. Thistle is the world-famous Lemonade Skies author, the only problem is, she never wrote the books. Her dad did. The two have kept this secret and Thistle can't wait to be done with the books, so that she can move on and be free from the lies. It becomes more and more difficult to keep up the lies as Thistle meets and befriends a super fan and her brother. Thistle is going to decide whether the lie is more important than being herself.
I never really liked the characters. In fact, I found myself more invested in the Lemonade Skies world. I would like to read that book. The plot was an interesting concept and there were interesting layers. It did take some time for me to become interested.
After Thistle's mother died in a car accident, she and her father have retreated from the world. The only other person in her life is her next door neighbor and crush, Liam. Thistle is the world-famous Lemonade Skies author, the only problem is, she never wrote the books. Her dad did. The two have kept this secret and Thistle can't wait to be done with the books, so that she can move on and be free from the lies. It becomes more and more difficult to keep up the lies as Thistle meets and befriends a super fan and her brother. Thistle is going to decide whether the lie is more important than being herself.
I never really liked the characters. In fact, I found myself more invested in the Lemonade Skies world. I would like to read that book. The plot was an interesting concept and there were interesting layers. It did take some time for me to become interested.
zicariofsilverkeep's review against another edition
5.0
This book took me a while to finish but my goodness did it pick up at the end.
joant's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was an excellent book which provides a lot to reflect upon!
dipali17's review against another edition
3.0
** A copy of The Undoing of Thistle Tate was provided by the publisher and Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review **
First off, what drew me to the book was its premise. I adore bookish books. What kept me reading was Thistle and her moral dilemma: does she keep lying because it makes her father happy? We've all been in situations where lying is not black or white when it comes to family and friends. I also enjoyed that each chapter began with an excerpt from Marigold's world. Oliver and Emma was a breath of fresh air and kept the book light. I wish we had gotten more of Theo and Liam's point of view. I would have appreciated getting to know more about their though processes. Overall, this is a quick summer read with surprising depth!
First off, what drew me to the book was its premise. I adore bookish books. What kept me reading was Thistle and her moral dilemma: does she keep lying because it makes her father happy? We've all been in situations where lying is not black or white when it comes to family and friends. I also enjoyed that each chapter began with an excerpt from Marigold's world. Oliver and Emma was a breath of fresh air and kept the book light. I wish we had gotten more of Theo and Liam's point of view. I would have appreciated getting to know more about their though processes. Overall, this is a quick summer read with surprising depth!
suey's review against another edition
3.0
What if the author of your favorite book series is faking it? Hmmm? That's the premise of this one! It was interesting, but a little slow in parts for me.
lydiahephzibah's review against another edition
4.0
3.5. I really felt for Thistle as she had pretty much no say in being coerced into this situation, which was very well written, but I found her quite irritating with her boy-related sub-plots, which felt out of character and painted her in a poor light.