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

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

My chosen book is The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. Wow this book has a long title! Well, besides that fact this book is very intriguing, funny, and very insightful. I enjoyed it immensely. Moving on, it is the story of Frances Landau-Banks, a 15-year-old girl. She is fairly average, not to much exceptional about her other than she is very smart, can be funny, and enjoys words. She is at first glance, well, to be blunt, a rather cool geek; she is part of the debate club and enjoys school. That being enough by today's standards to make her an object of scorn. I also forgot to mention that she from the age of 14 to the age of 15 had well developed as a girl should............. so that also is what made her a cool geek. She attends Alabaster Preparatory Academy, one of the most expensive and highly acclaimed institutions of learning. It has a deep history and holds a secret or two, but is also just a regular boarding school to most. She begins the school year by trying to avoid her old ex-boyfriend, Porter Welsch; being her first boyfriend she had of course little experience in the ways of love (I find this necessary to comment on here this previous sentence might make most of the male species avoid this book thinking it is a chick book about romance it is not, she is a tom-boy and has some romance but I assure you not too much gag worthy!). She had, over the course of her freshman year, ogled over the immensely geeky yet very popular boy Matthew Livingston; he was fit, tan, and smart to most, that is all that is necessary for a relationship. Well after a unfortunate bike accident he finally notices her and rushes to her aid much to her surprise. As things progress she get into his cool geek club of sorts and begins to hang out with his friend Alpha, real name Alessandro Tesorieri. She is soon invited to a midnight party at a golf course and, being the cool person she was trying to be, she attended and hung out with her would-be boyfriend Matthew. She realized, though, the invitations had strange basset hound stamp on them. She had heard of the society of the basset hounds by her father who had attended. It was a all-male private exclusive club she couldn't even know the details of. As the year goes on she realizes what the basset hounds are--a society based solely on the principle of you say I can't do something, therefore I must. They do petty things such as sneak into abandoned art halls, have parties on golf courses, and have a few annual pranks. Well, she realizes that because they won't let her be a part of it she must join it. Matthew refuses to tell anything about it and lies to her and other things of the like (and I forgot to mention, due to its insignificance, she is now his girlfriend, so lying to her is a big deal ). Well, she starts to follow him and finds out things about the society; things I will not mention to preserve some of this books mysteries. She then sets up a Gmail account that has alpha's nickname on it which is Alpha Dog so everyone thinks it comes from her. They do a series of pranks that are supposed to show there lack of respect for authority but all the bassets think about is how funny they are and the male-bonding it gives. Well eventually it turns out that some evidence points to Alpha as the source to all the pranks. She then must decide to either let him take the blame, or show the faculty what she has truly been up to this year.

I wanted to add this section to my review also it is a report card on the book:

Storyline-------- +A
authors ability to write---------- A
Character development----------- +B
Enjoyability(not sure if real word but sounds cool!) --------------------- +A
Re-readability------------------- +B

Objectionable content: For a teen book about a teen who has no parents around it is fairly tame a few profanities( to those who care), and some well inappropriate content ( I will leave it at that )

Final comments: I really liked this book I would recommend it to anyone who likes coming-of-age books or just books about regular teens.

--The Splendiferous Rebecca S.