girlinthepages
Written on Jul 15, 2019
I've been a fan of Katelyn Detweiler's since I read her debut novel, Immaculate, which explored themes of faith, religion, and miracles in modern society. I found it incredibly well written and thoughtful in its approach to question the inexpiable. So when I was offered the opportunity to read her newest novel that provided an inside look into the publishing world, I quickly accepted.
The Undoing of Thistle Tate follows Thistle, a prolific teen author who has penned a famous YA series, Lemonade Skies. As a book blogger, the plot rang true from reading about Thistle's promotional tours to her worry and anxiety about reviews rolling in. It's a YA book about the YA book community in a lot of ways which was fascinating and fun to read about. The story also included excerpts from the fictitious Lemonade Skies series which was a fun touch that paralleled what was going on in Thistle's life.
However, as mentioned in the synopsis, Thistle has a secret- she's not actually the author of the bestselling series, and it's actually being ghost written by somebody else. Thistle's "fame" has alienated her from most of the outside world and coupled with her mom's death at a young age, she pretty much only has one friend (her next door neighbor and inevitable love interest, Liam).
In a turn of events that will probably surprise no one, Thistle's ghost writer is unable to meet her final deadline and it's pretty much all downhill from there. She frantically tries to extend deadlines and put out fires, hoping no one asks too many questions while secretly penning her own ending to the trilogy. Meanwhile, she's juggling a love triangle with Liam and the older brother of one of her super fans, and making mistakes and generally just trying to be a teen who is in WAY over her head. It was actually refreshing to see a teen protagonist who was allowed to make mistakes but wasn't completely vilified either- I found Thistle to be a mostly neutral character with both positive and negative attributes that didn't make me love her nor hate her. She's just a person in a really bizarre situation that escalated WAY TOO FAR and is trying to do damage control when she should really just be hanging out with friends and doing homework like any other 17 year old.
A huge theme of The Undoing of Thistle Tate that I as a reader found to be most important was the manipulation and exploitation of a teen by adults. Though Thistle's arrangement may seem glamorous at first (she gets to reap the rewards of being a teen author prodigy, is semi famous, will probably get into any college of her choice etc) it becomes clearer and clearer throughout the book how insidious and uncomfortable the arrangement is and how there's likely no end in sight to the charade. As the synopsis states, readers have to reconcile whether Thistle is a fraud, a victim, or perhaps a little bit of both. The narrative also brings up a dialogue about exploitation by family members, how guilt and grief can live in such a similar space, and how suffering loss does not make one immune to being hurtful or cruel to others.
Overall: The Undoing of Thistle Tate was an interesting look at the behind the scenes processes of the YA book publishing world. While the love triangle felt like it weighed down the story a bit for me, it overall had a unique premise that I enjoyed, especially as a book blogger.This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages