Review of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

I often find it really helpful to look at other reviews of a book I’m about to review.  It helps me solidify what I think is important about a book, and what I think isn’t important, usually as I mutter something along the lines of, “What?!”  In the case of this book (which by the way I loved) I found myself completely embroiled in the “I loved it,” “ Everyone else loved it but I didn’t” debate.  I guess it says a lot about the book that so many people have devoted so much time to blathering on about whether it c0ntains a worthy message for readers or not.  Personally, I don’t think the message overrides everything else about a book.  The writing style, in this case, is one that you will either love or hate.  It doesn’t mean it is or isn’t a good book, it’s just a matter of taste.  I happened to find it very amusing, and the character of Frankie very believable.  In case you don’t know anything about the story, it goes something like this: Frankie attends the same exclusive boarding school that her sister and their father attended.  Her family treats her like a little girl and even calls her Bunny Rabbit.  At school she made a few friends during freshman year and even had a boyfriend.  During the summer between freshman and sophomore years her body matured, and at the beginning of sophomore year she catches the eye of a senior who she has admired from afar.  Her relationship with him is magical: he adores her and she adores him and his witty friends.  It takes her a while to figure out that they accept her as an fun, attractive sidekick, but not to be taken seriously.  She discovers that her boyfriend Matthew is part of a secret, boys-only society (that her father was part of also), and although she tries to give him openings to tell her what’s going on, he never does.  The most galling thing is that every time Matthew’s friend Alpha (the head of the society) calls, Matthew goes running.  When Alpha goes away for a long weekend, Frankie decides to co-opt the society by emailing instructions purportedly from Alpha for carrying out elaborate pranks, much better pranks than the society has pulled for a long time. The thing that makes Frankie believable for me is that she goes back and forth between being annoyed at the way she is treated, and feeling warm and fuzzy and loved.  She really wants for Matthew to figure out what’s going on and tell her, “Wow, you’re really as smart and clever as we are.  We should have let you lead the society all along.”  In reality, Frankie sums it up nicely when she says to Matthew after she tells him her role in what’s happened, “Why is it psychotic if I did it, and brilliant if Alpha did it?”  The ending doesn’t wrap things up too happily; suffice it to say Frankie learns that she can’t have it all, but she can pick which part she wants to have.  Review by Stacy Church