Hello! Here before you stands one of the biggest fans of E.Lockhart, so prepare for a little bit of fangirling (Although I’ll try to stay objective). Overall, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks was quite an easy read. It only took me two days to finish, and it would’ve take less if not for school time detracting from reading time.
Obviously, the book is about the titular Frankie Landau-Banks, sophomore at a prestigious boarding school. Frankie is searching for herself — trying to be something more than just a sister, daughter, or, as her family calls her, “Bunny Rabbit.” Adding intrigue to the mix, there is a society — a secret society. There are some boys, a first love, and a little bit of mystery. Sound interesting?
Frankie was quite an intriguing character. Let me begin with the fact that she is the perfect image of an average high school girl. She thinks about the opposite sex, tries to grow out of her “sweet little girl” image, and finds herself unsure of how to deal with the fact that boys now find her attractive. She’s already had a break-up and (OMG) a requited crush on the boy of her dreams. She, realistically, doesn’t quite know yet what she wants to do with her life or who she wants to be. Frankie is also creative and definitely has a brain, even if the whole “secret society pranks” bit of the plot didn’t grab me.
Now for the boys. One of them, Matthew, was definitely not my type. I was much more on Team Alpha since I found Alpha’s character more developed and grown-up as opposed to lazy, handsome, rich-kid Matthew. Alpha had his tough moments in life, and he fought for what he had accomplished and was not afraid of the consequences of his actions.
Overall, the plot was okay. I’ll say that I may be a little bit “adult” for this book in the sense that I’ve already dealt with these types of problems long ago, so I couldn’t relate to Frankie as much as I thought I would. However, she is a worthy inductee into the “Great Book Characters Society,” Although I didn’t find her methods amazingly logical, I really liked her motivation. I was drawn to the aspect of her trying to find herself and prove to everyone else that she is so much more than what they think. Don’t we all sometimes think, “Why can’t you see the real me?”
Ultimately, I liked the book and rated it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. It was enjoyable and funny with quite an intriguing and curious main character. I’d recommend it to all of you who love a little bit of adventure.
I would love to hear your thoughts about it!