Teen Pick: 52 Reasons To Hate My Father

52 Reasons to Hate My Father
by Jessica Brody
Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
2012
352 pages

See the book trailer here

Outrageously witty, snarky and bitingly sarcastic, and dripping with teen drama queen behavior, 52 Reasons To Hate My Father is this year’s best guilty pleasure.

Lexington Larrabee is a spoiled teen queen who has everything: a giant McMansion complete with servants, a shiny new Mercedes convertible, scads of designer duds, private planes with pilots who can fly her anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat, credit cards with no limits, and piles of cash. The only thing she’s missing is a real family. Her father is always too busy running his billion dollar empire to “visit” Lexington at their palatial mansion. Her mother died many years before, and her older brothers are grown up and on their own. Lexi acts out and exhibits true bad girl behavior—underage drinking and clubbing; she wrecks her brand new Mercedes, and she’s in for it this time!

Her father calls his clean-up squad and they cover up everything before the press can get all the details. He takes away Lexington’s trust fund of $25 million that was supposed to be hers in a few weeks when she turns eighteen. He hires an assistant who will oversee –babysit—Lexington for the next 52 weeks. If she can work at 52 menial jobs on her father’s list and complete each week without quitting or being fired, she will get her trust fund back. Lexi is livid! Lexington Larrabee work as a maid? Clean houses? Muck horse stalls? Serve fast food? No way! Her dad can’t make her do that.

Sadly for her, she finds out he can and he does. He cancels her credit cards and freezes her bank accounts; he instructs all his employees that no one is to take Lexington anywhere unless it’s to her job. He puts Luke, a twenty year old intern, in charge of her and she can’t catch a break. Luke drives her to and from each job and demands that she send him updates for each week.

Lexington hates her father! And Luke! She drags herself from one awful job to the next until she starts a week at Don Juan Tacos, a fast food place. She actually starts having fun. Rolando, a co-worker, shows her how to have fun at the job and she realizes that if she changes her attitude, she might just have fun, too. Pretty soon, Lexi is looking for “awesomeness” of everything. Luke even notices the changes in her behavior.

Girls who love teen divas getting what’s coming to them will love Lexington Larrabee. And we all want her lifestyle. This novel is indeed a “comedy of heiress.”

The book cover is spot-on. The surly attitude on Lexington’s face, the fast food hat, the diamond jewelry, and the flash of the camera bulbs will cause teens to stop in their tracks and pick up this book. The mop bucket, mop and rubber gloves on the back cover give it a comic touch.

Highly, highly recommended grades 7-up. It does mention that Lexington has drinks and wrecks her car but she does have consequences. That’s the worst of it. No drugs or other bad behavior. A pretty good kiss with Luke. It is pretty tame compared to what teen girls see on t.v. Even the Family Channel is pretty racy these days.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.