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steph01924's review against another edition
3.0
This is a serviceable, decent book. It's definitely firmly in the "YA" camp, in that it was hard to for me to relate to as a twenty-something, which is not the case with all YA books. Lexi's situation will be hard for most to relate to, unless they have super rich and emotionally unavailable parents. But, hey, there may be some of you out there, and maybe you'll really get taken in on Lexi's journey to being a decent human being.
I liked the characters, the premise was fun (once you got past Lexi's screaming fits), it had a nice message and was written well. There just wasn't anything special or pizzaz-y about it. I won't remember it in the long run, but it filled about 4.5 hours of fun entertainment for the evening, like a mindless comedy movie or really generic chick-flick.
I liked the characters, the premise was fun (once you got past Lexi's screaming fits), it had a nice message and was written well. There just wasn't anything special or pizzaz-y about it. I won't remember it in the long run, but it filled about 4.5 hours of fun entertainment for the evening, like a mindless comedy movie or really generic chick-flick.
eatingwords's review against another edition
5.0
After seeing the book trailer to this novel I knew I had to read it. It sounded so promising!
Then I was just..meh. Disappointed somehow. It was a slow start. Lexi was a spoiled brat. But as soon as the first job started, I was hooked!
Lexi grew a lot throughout the book. And her father! You know Bart Bass from the TV show Gossip Girl? That's how I imagined him.
It was so much fun reading about Lexi's multiple encounters with all the different jobs.
I also really liked the writing style. After the first fifty pages or so it was pretty easy to get absorbed into the story.
I really loved this novel and I hope to read more from this author.
Then I was just..meh. Disappointed somehow. It was a slow start. Lexi was a spoiled brat. But as soon as the first job started, I was hooked!
Lexi grew a lot throughout the book. And her father! You know Bart Bass from the TV show Gossip Girl? That's how I imagined him.
It was so much fun reading about Lexi's multiple encounters with all the different jobs.
I also really liked the writing style. After the first fifty pages or so it was pretty easy to get absorbed into the story.
I really loved this novel and I hope to read more from this author.
leigh_47's review against another edition
5.0
This was such a fun and enjoyable read. I polished it off in a day because I couldn't put it down.
reddyrat's review against another edition
4.0
There's only 1 reason to love 52 Reasons to Hate My Father: It's a lot of fun. If you're looking for a light contemporary novel, 52 Reasons fits the bill
Lexi starts out the novel as a spoiled brat inside and out. No one has ever said no to her. She's so sheltered that people who lead a less privileged life are so foreign that they might as well be aliens. Her mother died when she was very young and she's nothing more than a fly on the wall to her busy, super-rich father. Without love coming from her family, Lexi relies on easy highs - alcohol and shopping. She is a decidedly unlikable character.
All this changes when her father forces her to do 52 weeks of minimum wage jobs. Not that it changes easily. I have to hand it to Lexi. She is stubborn, independent, and fast-thinking when it comes to getting her way. No one can make Lexi be less of a spoiled brat. It requires Lexi to get her head out of her *** and realize that there's more to life than getting drunk and partying. As she starts to evolve, we see more facets to her character. I love how Lexi remains a strong, dominant girl but becomes someone I actually wanted to root for.
Part of this book was a romance. Lexi inevitably falls for Luke, the intern her father assigns to chaperone her work project. It's a run-of-the-mill YA romance. She changes him for the better, he changes her for the better. Happy, sweet, awwww... The romance was not the high point of the book. There was nothing bad about it, but nothing memorable either. What makes this book stand out is Lexi's feisty personality, the fascinating variety of menial jobs, and her hilarious snarky comments.
52 Reasons is a quick, easy fun read. The plot develops in basically the exact way you'd expect it to, but I don't read these kind of books expecting originality. I just want to have a good time. And that's what I had.
Rating: 3.5 / 5
Lexi starts out the novel as a spoiled brat inside and out. No one has ever said no to her. She's so sheltered that people who lead a less privileged life are so foreign that they might as well be aliens. Her mother died when she was very young and she's nothing more than a fly on the wall to her busy, super-rich father. Without love coming from her family, Lexi relies on easy highs - alcohol and shopping. She is a decidedly unlikable character.
All this changes when her father forces her to do 52 weeks of minimum wage jobs. Not that it changes easily. I have to hand it to Lexi. She is stubborn, independent, and fast-thinking when it comes to getting her way. No one can make Lexi be less of a spoiled brat. It requires Lexi to get her head out of her *** and realize that there's more to life than getting drunk and partying. As she starts to evolve, we see more facets to her character. I love how Lexi remains a strong, dominant girl but becomes someone I actually wanted to root for.
Part of this book was a romance. Lexi inevitably falls for Luke, the intern her father assigns to chaperone her work project. It's a run-of-the-mill YA romance. She changes him for the better, he changes her for the better. Happy, sweet, awwww... The romance was not the high point of the book. There was nothing bad about it, but nothing memorable either. What makes this book stand out is Lexi's feisty personality, the fascinating variety of menial jobs, and her hilarious snarky comments.
52 Reasons is a quick, easy fun read. The plot develops in basically the exact way you'd expect it to, but I don't read these kind of books expecting originality. I just want to have a good time. And that's what I had.
Rating: 3.5 / 5
sailorkchick's review against another edition
4.0
After meeting Jessica Brody at the Rochester Teen Book Festival I knew she had this amazing sense of humor that just wasn't there in Unremembered, (not that I'm not dying to get my hands on the next one), but this book definitely had her funny side in it and I loved it. This books is for anyone who thinks rich people have it made.
webz's review against another edition
4.0
I wish I had tried to write a review right when I finished reading this but I didn't and am going to try to do so now. I really, really enjoyed this book. I didn't love the ending (it felt pretty anti-climatic to me) but I really enjoyed the story overall. This was pretty amusing at the beginning. I did my best to muffle my laughter while in a library but barely succeeded due to a scene that this quote resides in:
"So that's it. That's the official report on my status. I hope it exceeds your wildest expectations. I'm going to bed now. At eight o'clock at night. Like a two-year-old."
I really loved the main character's grown throughout this. I also feel like her growth as a character was pretty realistic in that by the end she was still recognizable as being the same person she was at the beginning of the story, and yet she had become a much better person then she had been. A quote that really stood out to me occurred once Lexington visited the home of a coworker.
"What the Castanos have made is a home. A place you return to not because of what is there waiting for you but because of who. "
That quote is a bit of a big deal. I teared up sometime in this scene just because while it was an amazing realization for her to have, it was sad due to the fact that It was also a big moment due to the fact that she had put so much worth in things, realizing how important something like love is was a growing moment.
All in all, this was a really good read. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I actually teared up a few times and was also actually laughing out loud as well as finding various scenes highly amusing while reading the story. Would definitely recommend it as a fun read (that is surprising in the deeper moments that happen throughout that have to do with realizations Lexi has.)
"So that's it. That's the official report on my status. I hope it exceeds your wildest expectations. I'm going to bed now. At eight o'clock at night. Like a two-year-old."
I really loved the main character's grown throughout this. I also feel like her growth as a character was pretty realistic in that by the end she was still recognizable as being the same person she was at the beginning of the story, and yet she had become a much better person then she had been. A quote that really stood out to me occurred once Lexington visited the home of a coworker.
"What the Castanos have made is a home. A place you return to not because of what is there waiting for you but because of who. "
That quote is a bit of a big deal. I teared up sometime in this scene just because while it was an amazing realization for her to have, it was sad due to the fact that
Spoiler
(not sure if this is a spoiler..) Lexi didn't get that same love from her own father. She didn't have a home because there was no one that showed that to her at the place she called home.All in all, this was a really good read. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I actually teared up a few times and was also actually laughing out loud as well as finding various scenes highly amusing while reading the story. Would definitely recommend it as a fun read (that is surprising in the deeper moments that happen throughout that have to do with realizations Lexi has.)
nagam's review against another edition
4.0
[Review originally posted on Rather Be Reading]
Let’s take a moment to characterize a few Hollywood starlets that have made magazine covers in the last 10-ish years for their terrible choices:
Britney Spears:
She SHAVED HER HEAD. By herself.
She accidentally married someone in Vegas.
Then there was the marriage to KFed. (Oops, she got married again?!)
She had a couple kids.
She flashed her underwear (or lack thereof) a whole lotta times.
And then she made a comeback and has lived a relatively “normal” life.
Linday Lohan:
She’s gotten in more car accidents than one can keep up with. (How does she still have a license?)
Someone could diagram her privates blindfolded because she’s so not careful when getting out of cars.
She’s always in trouble for drinking and drugs. Always. As in, hello, jail time.
LiLo has not learned her lesson yet. The girl is still gettin’ in trouble.
So why am I giving you a breakdown of two Hollywood troublemakers? Because I need you to relate when I explain that Lexington, the main character in 52 Reasons to Hate My Father, is a Hollywood drama-seeker. She’s Lindsay and Britney’s bookish cousin. She’s spoiled, bratty, and overly obnoxious in the beginning of the book. All she wants is to inherit money from her dad when she turns 18 so she can live a comfortable, posh life and never have to depend on him again.
The problem with this flawless (*eye roll*) plan?
She can’t stay out of trouble. After she crashes her brand new, very expensive car into a convenience store, her dad makes her work 52 jobs – one for each week of the year – in order to gain her inheritance. Oh, poor Lexington.
I greatly admire Brody’s ability to turn unlikeable Lexi into a character I could relate to. She wasn’t someone I would even want to know in the beginning of 52 Reasons. Her attitude was very woe-is-me despite all the amazing things she had in her life. The one downfall was the lack of a relationship she had with her father. All of her magazine headlines were a cry for his attention. I appreciated the complexity of Lexi and her father’s relationship; I mostly thought the book would be a humorous display of Lexi’s failed attempts to work normal jobs.
While Lexi certainly didn’t fail to deliver lighthearted, funny moments, the jobs didn’t outweigh the underlying story of the abandonment Lexi felt after her mother died. Lexi learned to keep most people at a distance, except for her two best friends. While I didn’t trust that they would stick around when things got tough for Lexi, I was happily surprised that they weren’t the shallow girls I anticipated they would be.
There is a bit of a love interest, though I’ll be honest and say the relationship between Luke and Lexi doesn’t take center stage. Luke is hired by Lexi’s father to make sure she actually completes each of the jobs. Immediately, there air is thick between Luke and Lexi because she feels he’s her babysitter and he thinks she’s a spoiled brat. They say opposites attract, and boy, these two are certainly different in every way.
I hope you’ll enjoy 52 Reasons to Hate My Father as much as I did. I’m very much looking forward to checking out more of Brody’s work. (Isn’t that the best feeling when an author you like has more books to keep ya reading?!)
Let’s take a moment to characterize a few Hollywood starlets that have made magazine covers in the last 10-ish years for their terrible choices:
Britney Spears:
She SHAVED HER HEAD. By herself.
She accidentally married someone in Vegas.
Then there was the marriage to KFed. (Oops, she got married again?!)
She had a couple kids.
She flashed her underwear (or lack thereof) a whole lotta times.
And then she made a comeback and has lived a relatively “normal” life.
Linday Lohan:
She’s gotten in more car accidents than one can keep up with. (How does she still have a license?)
Someone could diagram her privates blindfolded because she’s so not careful when getting out of cars.
She’s always in trouble for drinking and drugs. Always. As in, hello, jail time.
LiLo has not learned her lesson yet. The girl is still gettin’ in trouble.
So why am I giving you a breakdown of two Hollywood troublemakers? Because I need you to relate when I explain that Lexington, the main character in 52 Reasons to Hate My Father, is a Hollywood drama-seeker. She’s Lindsay and Britney’s bookish cousin. She’s spoiled, bratty, and overly obnoxious in the beginning of the book. All she wants is to inherit money from her dad when she turns 18 so she can live a comfortable, posh life and never have to depend on him again.
The problem with this flawless (*eye roll*) plan?
She can’t stay out of trouble. After she crashes her brand new, very expensive car into a convenience store, her dad makes her work 52 jobs – one for each week of the year – in order to gain her inheritance. Oh, poor Lexington.
I greatly admire Brody’s ability to turn unlikeable Lexi into a character I could relate to. She wasn’t someone I would even want to know in the beginning of 52 Reasons. Her attitude was very woe-is-me despite all the amazing things she had in her life. The one downfall was the lack of a relationship she had with her father. All of her magazine headlines were a cry for his attention. I appreciated the complexity of Lexi and her father’s relationship; I mostly thought the book would be a humorous display of Lexi’s failed attempts to work normal jobs.
While Lexi certainly didn’t fail to deliver lighthearted, funny moments, the jobs didn’t outweigh the underlying story of the abandonment Lexi felt after her mother died. Lexi learned to keep most people at a distance, except for her two best friends. While I didn’t trust that they would stick around when things got tough for Lexi, I was happily surprised that they weren’t the shallow girls I anticipated they would be.
There is a bit of a love interest, though I’ll be honest and say the relationship between Luke and Lexi doesn’t take center stage. Luke is hired by Lexi’s father to make sure she actually completes each of the jobs. Immediately, there air is thick between Luke and Lexi because she feels he’s her babysitter and he thinks she’s a spoiled brat. They say opposites attract, and boy, these two are certainly different in every way.
I hope you’ll enjoy 52 Reasons to Hate My Father as much as I did. I’m very much looking forward to checking out more of Brody’s work. (Isn’t that the best feeling when an author you like has more books to keep ya reading?!)
_camk_'s review against another edition
2.0
I have definitely read this book, but I can't remember when so I put it for this time last year.
I remember quite liking the male lead.
I remember quite liking the male lead.
merkyr's review against another edition
4.0
This book was like Clueless 2, light, fluffy, but somehow also full of heart and character growth. I enjoyed this book twice as much as I expected to and it would be perfect for a movie.
terrabme's review against another edition
3.0
Decent character arc
Predictable but a fun read
Ok romance
3.5 stars
Predictable but a fun read
Ok romance
3.5 stars