The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Read this for my Gender Construction in YA literature class. I really liked it - and paired with the readings from class, found the story quite interesting

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I have been looking for this book forever just because I enjoyed some of E. Lockhart's other work. I am so glad I finally found and read it. I have so much to say about it but I'm going to try to keep it short.

I have to admit that from the description, I would probably not want to read it. BUT the story is SO good. It's about power, privilege, and feminism. Frankie was (almost) the perfect protagonist. She didn't take crap from her white, rich, privileged boyfriend. (I'm not really sure why she liked him in the first place though. But from a fifteen year old viewpoint, I understand.) She recognized that he just wanted her to be a damsel in distress. He wanted her to be cute, seen but not heard, as girls should be in the white man's world. ”He expected her to become part of his life, but he didn't become part of hers.” Multiple male characters wrote her off as overly sensitive (infuriating to read.) So Frankie decided to rebel and take down the patriarchy, show them that not only was she pretty, she was intelligent.

I love the themes of a secret society as well, and what they're really about. This one in particular was about white men securing power, privilege, and other white, powerful, privileged allies. It was about feeling special because they could “rebel” unrebelliously, have attention shown to them, feel like they were better because they had a secret. “...but it was part of their mission as a secret society...not to be entirely secret. To be a mystery about which people know just enough to wonder what else there is to know, so that memberhisp in the society holds a certain cachet.” Good god, lemon. I love this book.

PRIVILEGE. Themes of white privilege and the privilege that comes with wealth. Male privilege. And a mixture of all three. The power that comes with privilege. Just, it's so important. “They were not afraid to break the rules, because consequences rarely applied to them. They were free. They were silly. They were secure.”

My only problem with this book was that in the second half, Frankie seemed to flip-flop between wanting to show those rich white boys that they weren't so special, that girls could be as intelligent as (and more so) than boys and wanting to accepted by them, loved by them because they were special. I was confused because that's not how Frankie seemed in the first part of the book. So, I felt she was unreliable. But I am choosing to write that off as she is a fifteen year old girl. Things aren't always clear and easy when you're fifteen.

That in mind, this is probably one of my new favorites. It was smart, funny, and feminist. If I had read this as a teenager, it would have changed a lot of things for me. This is a powerful novel, all while being hilarious and highly entertaining.

Would I recommend it?

I would recommend this book for everyone. If you are a human being, read this book. If you are an extraterrestrial that can read English, read this book.

Reread - I loved this book and read it multiple times several years ago, but it didn't age as well as I was hoping it had. The wordplay and the pranks are still great but the feminism is extremely basic. Still enjoyable, just not something I identified with as hard as I used to.

Oh. Wow. This book came pretty highly recommended so I'm not surprised I liked it, but I guess I didn't really know what it was about? I was surprised by how... ultimately grim I found it? It's a very, very smart book and Frankie is a great character and it's very well-done but I think maybe only a select type of teenager would enjoy it. Hmm. I need to think about this book a bit more I think.

Excellent novel about a girl who feels very real, with mixed and conflicting emotions, a girl who ultimately wants to be appreciated for the clever and creative girl she is. Refreshing, although I felt that the end dropped off quickly after an engrossing build-up.

I liked this book but perhaps not as much as I wanted or expected to. I didn't expect it to be so heavily laced with romance, I really thought it was more about having adventures at boarding school. Also, the feminist themes was overdone. I did like the character of big sister Zada in spite of her feminist leanings but it became a big deal for Frankie too and that I really didn't like. It was almost preachy.

I do think the characters were very well written. I absolutely fell for the ever-cool Alpha and as I mentioned before, I enjoyed the conversations Frankie had with her savvy sister.

If you like teenage romance AND boarding school hijinx AND feminism, you will probably like this book.

Love. This.