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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
A pretty compelling story of a young woman trying to "figure it all out", with results both amusing and awkward. Recommended for people who enjoy complicated characters in their young adult lit.
This was a fun read but I didn't love it.
My issues were:
1. The writing style, it just didn't work for me. It came across as trying to hard to be different while unecessarily over-explaining things and hitting the reader over the head at times.
2. The premise of the book only started happening around the 50% mark. Until then it was mostly about the main character's relationship. Which was an intetesting take on the (not actually) unpopular girl dating a popular guy as Frankie was also on a journey of getting fed up with being underestimated and being expected to comform to a narrowly defined version of femininity now that she was one of the "cool girls" thanks to who she was dating. Most of these were placed on her by her boyfriend and his friends and I appreciated how she didn't accept them and try to change who she is to please them (but she was definitely conflicted and reflected on the whole thing which was interesting).
Overall, this novel sends an empowering message and makes good observations about how women, especially girls are not taken seriously and still get excluded from certain spaces, traditions etc by men.
Not everything was perfect though, I wish all of this could have been done without dissing traditional femininity. Like that time Frankie thinks that her best friend should have gone out to party with her cousins more even if she didn't like it at all rather than doing things she enjoys (watching movies and baking) because this means her counsins will stop looking at her as an equal and will begin to expect her to make food for them. So basically staying home and not wanting to get drunk in a parking lot with people she barely knows means she will be stuck in the kitchen forever. Which makes little sense because she later goes to the big party organised by her fellow geeky students and she's excited about it and Frankie herself disliked a very similar party she criticised her friend for skipping. And even if her BFF was not into parties at all, it wouldn't be her fault if her cousins (or anyone) were sexist towards her.
Similarly, at the end of the book, it is mentioned that Frankie didn't want to join the field hockey team because it is a "feminine" sport men don't respect or value. If she truly is the revolutionary the narration keeps teling us she is then why doesn't she think to come up with a plan to expose the unfair double standard? It seems most of her feminism is about breaking into patriarchal institutions by doing things boys do and distancing herself from most things that are considered feminine or associated with women.
I don't agree with this kind of feminism and it was made worse by having Frankie dislike most of the girls at her school. It was never portrayed as wrong or questionable as most secondary female characters were written as two dimensional, shallow and even stupid, all of them presented as clearly lesser than the main character. Also, her friendship with her best friend was underdeveloped and I get it wasn't the focus of the story but I think it was only included for plot reasons and because many YA stories do "the protagoinst has only one friend when we meet them" thing but this wasn't done well.
My issues were:
1. The writing style, it just didn't work for me. It came across as trying to hard to be different while unecessarily over-explaining things and hitting the reader over the head at times.
2. The premise of the book only started happening around the 50% mark. Until then it was mostly about the main character's relationship. Which was an intetesting take on the (not actually) unpopular girl dating a popular guy as Frankie was also on a journey of getting fed up with being underestimated and being expected to comform to a narrowly defined version of femininity now that she was one of the "cool girls" thanks to who she was dating. Most of these were placed on her by her boyfriend and his friends and I appreciated how she didn't accept them and try to change who she is to please them (but she was definitely conflicted and reflected on the whole thing which was interesting).
Overall, this novel sends an empowering message and makes good observations about how women, especially girls are not taken seriously and still get excluded from certain spaces, traditions etc by men.
Not everything was perfect though, I wish all of this could have been done without dissing traditional femininity. Like that time Frankie thinks that her best friend should have gone out to party with her cousins more even if she didn't like it at all rather than doing things she enjoys (watching movies and baking) because this means her counsins will stop looking at her as an equal and will begin to expect her to make food for them. So basically staying home and not wanting to get drunk in a parking lot with people she barely knows means she will be stuck in the kitchen forever. Which makes little sense because she later goes to the big party organised by her fellow geeky students and she's excited about it and Frankie herself disliked a very similar party she criticised her friend for skipping. And even if her BFF was not into parties at all, it wouldn't be her fault if her cousins (or anyone) were sexist towards her.
Similarly, at the end of the book, it is mentioned that Frankie didn't want to join the field hockey team because it is a "feminine" sport men don't respect or value. If she truly is the revolutionary the narration keeps teling us she is then why doesn't she think to come up with a plan to expose the unfair double standard? It seems most of her feminism is about breaking into patriarchal institutions by doing things boys do and distancing herself from most things that are considered feminine or associated with women.
I don't agree with this kind of feminism and it was made worse by having Frankie dislike most of the girls at her school. It was never portrayed as wrong or questionable as most secondary female characters were written as two dimensional, shallow and even stupid, all of them presented as clearly lesser than the main character. Also, her friendship with her best friend was underdeveloped and I get it wasn't the focus of the story but I think it was only included for plot reasons and because many YA stories do "the protagoinst has only one friend when we meet them" thing but this wasn't done well.
After finishing We Were Liars by E. Lockhart I knew I had to read more from her. I loved her writing and the story was great.
When I read the blurb for this book I was intrigued.
This is the story of Frankie Landau-Banks, a 15-year old girl who goes to a boarding school and becomes the girlfriend of idolized Matthew Livingstone. But she finds out that he is in an all-male secret society. She decides to infiltrate it and things are starting to happen.
The great thing about this book is that it is a feminist novel in disguise! This book is full of societal structures, great political statement and equality. You have to look past the surface to actually see this story for what it really is.
I enjoyed Lockhart’s writing; it’s beautifully written but also incredibly funny. The main character, Frankie could be annoying sometimes, but most of the time she was awesome. She rebels in her own way and the best part is that she is smart and strong. Although I thought that more stuff would happen, I was still happily surprised while reading this book.
Girls of all ages should read this book because it is really fantastic.
More book reviews here: Elzas book reviews
When I read the blurb for this book I was intrigued.
This is the story of Frankie Landau-Banks, a 15-year old girl who goes to a boarding school and becomes the girlfriend of idolized Matthew Livingstone. But she finds out that he is in an all-male secret society. She decides to infiltrate it and things are starting to happen.
The great thing about this book is that it is a feminist novel in disguise! This book is full of societal structures, great political statement and equality. You have to look past the surface to actually see this story for what it really is.
I enjoyed Lockhart’s writing; it’s beautifully written but also incredibly funny. The main character, Frankie could be annoying sometimes, but most of the time she was awesome. She rebels in her own way and the best part is that she is smart and strong. Although I thought that more stuff would happen, I was still happily surprised while reading this book.
Girls of all ages should read this book because it is really fantastic.
More book reviews here: Elzas book reviews
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Feminism, yay! I loved the way this book tackled the subtle but still very real ways in which male privilege is encouraged even in a supposedly equal society. I loved the way it dealt with a fun, intelligent girl who wants to be accepted as an equal and as "one of the guys," and her slow realization that in the minds of these guys, her gender will always exclude her from the group - unless she's in the official position of girlfriend, and even then she's relegated to the fringes. I loved the way Frankie took what she was learning about societal rebellion and culture-jamming in her classes and applied it to her own problems at Alabaster. The only thing I didn't overwhelmingly love was the ending, which was a bit of a downer and almost seemed to negate the whole go-against-the-flow message of the rest of the book.
If Wes Anderson was to write a young adult novel about Massachusetts boarding schools, I somehow feel like this book might be it. I’m a big Lockhart fan, and I feel like this story and writing was a big step above anything she’s put out at this point. An interesting narrative, a fun story, and it just works really, really well for me.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
For FYA book club. Started in May 2010? Just picked up and finished. Good for YA but I'm craving a little more adult reading.