A review by trin
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

5.0

From a bare-bones plot summary—a young sophomore infiltrates a secret society at her elite private school, blah blah—this book could easily be mistaken for generic YA fiction. This is unfortunate, because what Lockhart has actually written is a wonderful, vivid, funny, feminist antidote to miserable tripe like [b: Twilight|41865|Twilight (Twilight, #1)|Stephenie Meyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361039443l/41865._SY75_.jpg|3212258]. This book is about Frankie, newly pretty after a summer’s growth spurt, returning to school to find that the popular boys are suddenly interested in her—and that none of them even remember the geeky ghost she was the year before. Frankie hooks up with Golden Boy Matthew—who Lockhart does a great job making realistically appealing as well as realistically flawed—but soon realizes that she could all-too-easily let herself be consumed by the force of her boyfriend’s personality and his powerful friends. Frankie refuses to be controlled, refuses to just be someone’s arm candy, and I absolutely adore her for it. She’s smart and knows it, but now that she’s becoming aware that she can be pretty and sexually confident, too, she’s not willing to sacrifice her smarts and just be either of those things, or slot herself neatly into the roles her school allots for women. She’s like the anti-Bella. I’d love to read about her snubbing vampires and fighting crime. She absolutely rocks.

Anyone who thought Twilight offered a good role model or an important narrative for women needs to read this book. Or else be smacked over the head with it.