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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It's been a while since I've had to stay up and read a book till completion. This book was that effing good! I loved it so much! Man it makes me want to go out in the world and shake things up! It makes me want to punch douchebag guys who think they are better than everyone and hurt people to make themselves feel better! Go frankie!
As a freshman, Frankie Landau-Banks was a geeky girl with a passion for the debate team. Then summer came, and Frankie hit puberty. Now with a knockout figure, sophomore Frankie has attracted the attention of popular senior Matthew Livingston. The two quickly become involved, but there are certain secrets that Matthew keeps from Frankie. He is a member of the The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, an exclusively all male secret society located at their boarding school. Frankie doesn’t see why she should be left out, and concocts a plan to take over the Basset Hounds, without anyone realizing that she’s doing it.
After thoroughly enjoying Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, I decided to try out another young adult novel that takes place in a boarding school. My attention was immediately drawn to The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, a book which ended up surprising me. I suspected from the summary to be reading a light-hearted romance filled romp, much like Anna and the French Kiss, but The Disreputable History is clearly A Book With A Purpose. Yes, there’s plenty to be fun here but beneath that fun is a message about double standards, and the power struggle that can be found between men and women,
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks covers so many issues regarding gender that I wish that more young adult books would go into. At the same time, the admittedly worthy feminist message almost ends up being the book’s undoing. At times, it is dealt with too heavy handily, making the characters appear to be mouthpieces for the books overall message (an issue, interestingly enough I recently had with a very different book, Xenocide by Orson Scott Card). Fortunately, I felt the book for the most part was really interesting, so my enjoyment wasn’t dampened too much.
Another thing I enjoyed about this book is the character of Frankie herself. On one hand, she’s confident and strong (the omniscient narrator even calls her a criminal mastermind), but she can also display vulnerability and uncertainty, which makes her appear more realistic. I enjoyed many of the side characters, who were equally well drawn. Much of the dialogue in this book has a witty, back-and-forth banter like quality that was quite fun to read. The best part of the books of course were the chapters that dealt with the pranks put out by the Basset Hounds. It was at these moments that I felt the book was at it’s strongest.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks may not be a perfect novel, but it’s still an overall solid story that manages to impart important messages while still being a lot of fun to read. I would recommend it to fans of contemporary fiction for young adults, especially those looking for stories that take place in boarding schools.
After thoroughly enjoying Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, I decided to try out another young adult novel that takes place in a boarding school. My attention was immediately drawn to The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, a book which ended up surprising me. I suspected from the summary to be reading a light-hearted romance filled romp, much like Anna and the French Kiss, but The Disreputable History is clearly A Book With A Purpose. Yes, there’s plenty to be fun here but beneath that fun is a message about double standards, and the power struggle that can be found between men and women,
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks covers so many issues regarding gender that I wish that more young adult books would go into. At the same time, the admittedly worthy feminist message almost ends up being the book’s undoing. At times, it is dealt with too heavy handily, making the characters appear to be mouthpieces for the books overall message (an issue, interestingly enough I recently had with a very different book, Xenocide by Orson Scott Card). Fortunately, I felt the book for the most part was really interesting, so my enjoyment wasn’t dampened too much.
Another thing I enjoyed about this book is the character of Frankie herself. On one hand, she’s confident and strong (the omniscient narrator even calls her a criminal mastermind), but she can also display vulnerability and uncertainty, which makes her appear more realistic. I enjoyed many of the side characters, who were equally well drawn. Much of the dialogue in this book has a witty, back-and-forth banter like quality that was quite fun to read. The best part of the books of course were the chapters that dealt with the pranks put out by the Basset Hounds. It was at these moments that I felt the book was at it’s strongest.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks may not be a perfect novel, but it’s still an overall solid story that manages to impart important messages while still being a lot of fun to read. I would recommend it to fans of contemporary fiction for young adults, especially those looking for stories that take place in boarding schools.
The following response was written for the class for which I read this book:
Overall, I enjoyed The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, despite the somewhat unwieldy title. I can’t speak from first-hand experience, but it seemed to capture what the world might look like from inside the head of a developing teenage girl growing up in a modern-but-still-sexist culture.
There were some slightly problematic elements. Setting the book inside a prep school for entitled kids was undoubtedly necessary for the plot to develop as it did; but this also limited the relatability of many of the characters to a typical teen audience. While there are plenty of books that utilize a similar kind of setting, to my mind it seems like the more popular of those works amplify the setting to create a more fantastical air - for example, the H.I.V.E. series, which is about kids being sent to a supervillain training school, or the Harry Potter books, each utilize the boarding school setting as part of a larger, more fantastical world. It made me wonder if DHoFLB couldn’t have turned this trope on its head a bit and grounded itself in even more realism by exploring the world of prep schools more honestly and thoroughly, perhaps in some sort of expose fashion.
I also had some issues with the narrator, who seemed to be both first person - someone within the story (I kept waiting for the reveal that it was a grown-up Frankie) - and third person omniscient, telling the story from the outside and able to provide information from inside many characters as well as from across time and space. While this type of narration has sometimes been deployed effectively (witness Dickens’ narration in A Christmas Carol), it requires a deft hand and benefits, to my mind, from a nudge and a wink to the audience along the way.
Still, without a doubt, the story was generally well-told and paced pretty decently. And I personally thought it created a decent example that proto-feminists out there might follow - though hopefully without getting themselves (nearly) thrown out of school. Plus, the idea and inclusion of neglected positives, imagined neglected positives, and false neglected positives was pretty delightful for a word-nerd like myself.
Overall, I enjoyed The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, despite the somewhat unwieldy title. I can’t speak from first-hand experience, but it seemed to capture what the world might look like from inside the head of a developing teenage girl growing up in a modern-but-still-sexist culture.
There were some slightly problematic elements. Setting the book inside a prep school for entitled kids was undoubtedly necessary for the plot to develop as it did; but this also limited the relatability of many of the characters to a typical teen audience. While there are plenty of books that utilize a similar kind of setting, to my mind it seems like the more popular of those works amplify the setting to create a more fantastical air - for example, the H.I.V.E. series, which is about kids being sent to a supervillain training school, or the Harry Potter books, each utilize the boarding school setting as part of a larger, more fantastical world. It made me wonder if DHoFLB couldn’t have turned this trope on its head a bit and grounded itself in even more realism by exploring the world of prep schools more honestly and thoroughly, perhaps in some sort of expose fashion.
I also had some issues with the narrator, who seemed to be both first person - someone within the story (I kept waiting for the reveal that it was a grown-up Frankie) - and third person omniscient, telling the story from the outside and able to provide information from inside many characters as well as from across time and space. While this type of narration has sometimes been deployed effectively (witness Dickens’ narration in A Christmas Carol), it requires a deft hand and benefits, to my mind, from a nudge and a wink to the audience along the way.
Still, without a doubt, the story was generally well-told and paced pretty decently. And I personally thought it created a decent example that proto-feminists out there might follow - though hopefully without getting themselves (nearly) thrown out of school. Plus, the idea and inclusion of neglected positives, imagined neglected positives, and false neglected positives was pretty delightful for a word-nerd like myself.
Such a good book. E. Lockhart is a brilliant writer...right up there with John Green. I loved Frankie's character. She is bold yet feminine; strong, yet self-conscious at times. She was just very real. This definitely turbed me.
2.5 stars ****
I didn’t absolutely hate this, but I personally didn’t think it was good, at all, maybe this author just isn’t for me!
Finished this for the Magical Readathon
I didn’t absolutely hate this, but I personally didn’t think it was good, at all, maybe this author just isn’t for me!
Finished this for the Magical Readathon
A great book. All the characters seemed human. They had their flaws and their strengths. Even with the protagonist you could see the flaws. It's the kind of book that stays with you for a while. John Green fans should absolutely read it. The ending was refreshing. I would definitely recommend it to people.
I had a feeling I would like this book. Any book I've read that involves things like secret societies and exclusive prep schools just somehow does it for me. I would group this book in with others such as The Crazy Eights, The Secret History and Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Good company I think!
I love that Frankie is such a strong female character. I would recommend this to any young woman. It was a fun and quick read (I finished it in a day) that made me think about the way society treats women today and how we can push out of that mold.
I love that Frankie is such a strong female character. I would recommend this to any young woman. It was a fun and quick read (I finished it in a day) that made me think about the way society treats women today and how we can push out of that mold.
I’m sorry but my only thoughts about this book are that it’s kinda dumb and anticlimactic. I really don’t get the positive reviews.