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

Feb 13, 2011 by shanyn

Title: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Hardcover, 342 pages
Author: E. Lockhart
Publisher: Hyperion
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
Source: Library
Buy: Amazon

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Book Summary:
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father’s “bunny rabbit.”
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Laundau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take “no” for an answer.
Especially when “no” means she’s excluded from her boyfriend’s all-male secret society.
Not when her ex boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she’s smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew’s lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.

This is the story of how she got that way.

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Review:
As I begin to write this review, I am noticing just how many awards this book received. WOAH. Nominations and awards up the wazoo. I knew it was a National Book Award finalist, since my library copy has a big shiny sticker declaring that, but Goodreads lists a ton, too.

But anyway.

This book kind of kicked me in the pants in the beginning. I guess most of the YA I have been reading lately has used more simple language, which allowed me to read very quickly – because I certainly could not do that with The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. The tone and voice is quite distinct and intelligent, which is ultimately why I liked the book so much – even if it did catch me off guard. The sentences and thoughts and dialogue are very intricate, well written, thought out.

Besides the intelligent writing, E. Lockhart has written a book with a great message (and a CLEAR message – not one that you can kind of assume when the narrator chooses one guy over the other or decides to not use her paranormal ability anymore etc etc etc). The last page, last sentence, last thoughts of Frankie show her progression through the novel, what our reader should have learned about her – and what the reader should realize about themselves.

I appreciate a good message. I also appreciate good character development, which was evident in this book. A few of the side characters weren’t very deep for me – I didn’t have a clear picture of them in my head and didn’t really totally understand their personality – but the main, major characters? Yeah, I got them. I pictured them walking through campus, having lunch, debating the lack of salad bar. So I’m not sure I minded too much about those minor characters kind of fading back.

I’m thinking that The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is quite different from E. Lockhart’s other books (The Boyfriend List, …, …,), in that the tone and subject matter are quite a bit different, but I will say that I am intrigued to see what she’s done in those books much more after reading this one.

Overall an intelligent read, with clever bits and a strong female lead. Much enjoyed!

Buy: Amazon

Related Posts:

• Review: The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade
• Review: Dramarama by E. Lockhart