The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
At the age of 14, in The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, Frankie is more or less forgettable. She is attending a prestigious and competitive boarding school, the same school where her older sister and father attended. But no matter how hard she tries, nobody seems to take notice of her. Now as a returning sophomore at the age of fifteen, Frankie has changed. She’s no longer forgettable. In fact, over the summer she turned gorgeous and now is turning heads.
Frankie likes the attention and even lands herself a senior boyfriend who is a member of an all exclusive all male secret society, whose purpose is mainly to pull off campus pranks. But Frankie wants to be more than just the pretty girlfriend. Frankie wants to be a part of the society. She wants to prove that she’s just as good, if not smarter than the boys. They don’t know that she knows about it’s existence. She hatches a plan and what follows is a series of episodes in which she leads the boys unknowingly along on the best pranks they’ve seen in a long time. But will it be worth it? Or will she land herself in more trouble than what it is worth?
Overall, I liked this book. I didn’t read to much into it and enjoyed the plot. It was good to see a girl in a role where she’s capable, intelligent, and smart enough to pull off the pranks. She was sassy and fun. But, I did have a couple of problems with the characters. I just couldn’t relate to Frankie in any way. I just didn’t get why she wanted to be part of the secret society in the first place. The boys in this book were just plain silly. The secret society was just a fancy way to say that the boys got together and ate pizza and belched a lot. I kept shaking my head, saying, why? Why does she care so much? And then I remembered. Oh yeah. She’s fifteen. I was fifteen once. What we won’t do for boys when we are fifteen. At fifteen it’s the end of the world if our love life isn’t going the way we want it to.
And her boyfriend. I couldn’t figure out why she felt like she was in love with him. I just didn’t see what the draw to him was. For him, he was in it because she was eye candy on his arm. But of course, this attribute is really what drove the story. Frankie didn’t like being just eye candy. She wanted to prove that she had the brains and the pretty face.
Worth checking out.
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Tags: A-D Title, children's literature book club selection, coming of age, Cybils finalist, female author, Fiction, I-L Author, Printz, published 2008, Publisher: Hyperion Books
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I thought she wanted to be in the Secret Society because she didn’t like feeling shut out of part of her boyfriend’s life. No matter how close the two of them got, she would never achieve the status of his friends, in his mind, and that bugged her. The more she got into it, the more she realized it was stupid–and that steamed her even more, because it could have been so cool (in her mind) and these guys were so lame.
As for the boyfriend, I think she wanted to be in love really badly, as 15 year olds tend to, and so she interpreted her feelings as love. She wasn’t in love with him any more than he was, with her–if she had been, the ending wouldn’t have worked. As it is, I’ve read reviews by teens that said, “I wanted her to make up with him in the end so it could have a happy ending.” Which left me a little disconcerted because I felt they missed the whole point.
I loved this book! I reviewed it here (just in case this comment wasn’t long enough, ya’ know)
on December 28th, 2008 at 1:43 amGood post/review and interesting comment. Now I’m curious about the book. This might be a good one for my niece (13.5 yo) and I to read together. Might generate a good conversation.
Thanks to both of you.
on December 28th, 2008 at 7:08 amI really liked this book. I agree a lot with what Ali said. 15 year olds really do care about the stupid stuff and it seems SO important–where you sit, who you are seen talking to, and on and on.
As far as the boyfriend goes, I look back at the guys I liked and sometimes I think I must have been out of my mind. Matthew’s looks, his power, and his money had a lot to do with how attractive he was in Frankie’s mind I think. Plus, I think there was a part of her that just wanted to see whether or not she could ever get him. He was a challenge!
on December 28th, 2008 at 8:02 amI found this one at Borders for $3.99 the other day, so I used a bit of my Christmas giftcard to pick it up. I’m generally a sucker for teen boarding school books, so it looks pretty good!
on December 28th, 2008 at 8:33 amI enjoyed Frankie’s contradictions, the fact that she was strong, sassy, and independent, but also wanted to be accepted and acknowledged by the guys. In another character, that might have irritated me, but I thought Lockhart managed to pull it off nicely.
on December 28th, 2008 at 8:57 amThe review and the comments make me very interested in reading this book. I’m sure that hardly anyone made great decisions when choosing a boyfriend as a teenager. I know some of the guys I had crushes on were real “winners” (sarcasm here).
on December 28th, 2008 at 10:02 amI loved this book. In fact, I just reread it for the second time this week.
I felt like she wanted to be a Basset because she KNEW she was as smart or smarter than any of the boys, but she needed them to acknowledge it too. And she didn’t want them to think of her as disposable, like Star. She didn’t want to be one of the girlfriends of the group – she wanted to be in the group.
on December 28th, 2008 at 10:41 amBeth, this would be so great to read with your niece! What a cool idea.
Shoot, rereading my comment, I wonder if my point about the ending contains too much of a spoiler. If you think so, Natasha, feel free to delete it. I copied it so I can repost the rest.
on December 28th, 2008 at 10:43 amI read this book and really enjoyed it. You’re so right, she is fifteen and doesn’t understand that she isn’t ever really is in love with her boyfriend, she just enjoys the status he gives her. I enjoyed her cleverness, and I think the book ended on the perfect note. I imagine her in the future, as the CEO of some company, breaking glass ceilings. Or a politician.
on December 28th, 2008 at 7:06 pmHmm, I commented earlier and it didn’t show up.
Anyway, I’ve read this book twice this year and really enjoyed it. I just really loved Frankie.
on December 28th, 2008 at 7:29 pmAli – It’s like being in love with the idea of being in love. I think she got so excited she landed the hottest guy in school and yeah, you’re right, was upset that his guy friends were more important than she was.
Beth F. – I think it would be a fun one to read together.
Tricia – Boys were the most important thing to me when I was fifteen. I think I was out of my mind too!
Nicki – Worth $3.99! Mine was a library copy, I would buy it at that price! I hope you enjoy it!
Charley – Very true. She was so proud of herself for being so smart and independent. But it seemed to be for all the wrong reasons – to belong to the boys.
Janssen – I’m glad you enjoyed it so much! I agree with your comments. I wouldn’t want to be disposable either.
Kim L. – This book begs for a sequel. I would read it if she writes one.
on December 28th, 2008 at 8:06 pmthough I wanted to shake the boys, there was nothing about this book that I didn’t like. look for my review on The Well-Read Child!
on December 28th, 2008 at 10:42 pmFor some reason, the cover made me think this book was a Western. Thanks for the review.
on December 30th, 2008 at 7:10 amI didn’t love this one so much though I know a few people that just absolutely love it.
Becky
on December 30th, 2008 at 9:47 am[...] Maw Books Books and Other Thoughts Bold. Blue. Adventure. Becky’s Book Reviews Fizzy Thoughts Bottle of Shine [...]
on February 12th, 2009 at 9:03 amI also could not relate to Frankie at all, and I found Matt Livingston absolutely annoying. All the characters were annoying. Needless to say, I didn’t like the book, mostly because I can’t remember being like that at 15. I don’t think I was. I always was a geek.
on July 29th, 2009 at 1:02 pm