Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Title: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Author: E. Lockhart

Narrator: Tanya Eby Sirois

Date Finished: March 27, 2009

Personal Book Count: 25 out of 100

Rating: 4 out of 5

Genre/ Subject: Young Adult Fiction

Summery: Taken from authors website:

“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.”

Why did I pick this book? : I have read about it on a couple blogs (that is where I am starting to believe I find MOST of my books) and then was pleasantly surprised to notice my library had an audio copy.

Review: I love Frankie’s character. I would like to think that is the tough, smart, keep up with the boys, take no guff person I would have been as a teen. But maybe I’m just flattering myself. I love some of the pranks pulled, and would love to have seen that type of thing in real life. Matthew was so passive with her sometimes, and corrected her so often, that started to get to me. On the other hand, I think that Alpha was a good match for her, and would like to have seen them together. Not today, but maybe 10 years down the road. But I also understand why that couldn’t work, at least for now (I’m not going to spoil the book and tell you why :P)

On the other hand, I found it a little hard for me to relate that she was a jewish teenager in boarding school, but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book. In fact, I think it was the opposite. I was a little curious. And a little jealous. I always wondered what it would be like to go to boarding school. I even skipped the whole ‘college experience’ as I took night classes all the way through as I worked. My choice at the time, but now sometimes when I look back, I wonder what I missed.

My big pet peeve would be the ending. I found the punishment unrealistic. Especially in these times of zero tolerance.

But, it was a good ‘read’, and kept me quite amused through some other tasks. =D

Agree? Disagree? Recommendations? Any insights, suggestions, or comments on the book or format, or blog at all are most welcome. If you have read this and/ or review it yourself, please let me know. Can you think of any books like this? Give me a recommendation! =D