The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Reader reviewed by WilowRaven

YA Fiction.
I very much enjoyed this book. The protagonist, Frankie
is smart, funny and constantly underestimated by her family, friends
and especially her popular new boyfriend. Frankie is a student at
Alabaster Preparatory Academy and her boyfriend is part of a "Good Old
Boys" club called The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. Frankie knows
she will never truly belong to this group but she is determined to
discover their secrets and make her own mark in life - by beating the
boys at their own game. Lockhart makes some interesting correlations
between Alabaster and The Panopticon.

Reader reviewed by mearley

Frankie is a sophomore at an elite New England boarding school.  While dating a senior, she realizes that even though he likes her, his first priority is to be with his friends.  Feeling left out, Frankie follows Matthew one night and eavesdrops on a meeting of a secret society--no girls allowed.  Desperately wanting Matthew to respect her on the same level he respects his "brothers," Frankie starts secretly manipulating the secret society.

Told by a detached yet informed narrator, advanced readers will find this novel a nice change of pace from typical YA books.  I really enjoyed Frankie's manipulation of language and the complexity of her character.  On the other hand, her desperate need for acceptance by the boys began to annoy me.  (But maybe that's what will make readers relate to her.  Many high school girls feel the same way...)

Reader reviewed by GirlwiththeBraids

Alabaster Prep is a widely-known boarding school with rich kids roaming the halls. Alabaster students dont give a second thought to the mysterious all-male society, the Basset Hounds. Some of them dont even know who they are. Then a mildy geeky, curvaceous young woman, Frankie Landau-Banks, wants to take the Basset Hounds farther than just quiet beer parties and lame pumpkin pranks. But she cant become a member because, obviously, she is a girl and her boyfriend would certainly not let her join (though he, himself, is a member). In a world of goofballs and wannabes, Frankie must show the Bassets how its done.

The story itself was original and fun. The writing was phenomenal and put other books to shame. I tried really hard, though, to like Frankie, the main character, but I didnt not achieve my goal. The only character I did like was looked down upon by everyone else in the book. Once I got to the middle, I was a little drawn away from it. There was a lot of feminism.

The quirky pranks were hilarious so I got a kick out of reading it. I also learned a lot of new words that I will try to remember in the future and use in my everyday vocabulary. Though I had a lot of back-and-forth admiration for this book, it is definitely worth checking out at your local library.

(Another left-down, but there are some sexual references within the pages of this book.)

Reader reviewed by Vanessa

Summary: Frankie Landau-Banks has always just been Bunny Rabbit. Known as harmless and adorable to the people around her. She attends Alabaster, a boarding school that her dad thinks more of a way of making connections for after you graduate rather than for its magnificent education system. Frankie comes back for her sophomore year a new woman... she is prettier and has grown boobs. Of course, big man on campus Matthew Livingston notices this when he stumbles on her having fallen over her bike. They begin a relationship. But this relationship is not ordinary. Matthew is keeping secrets from her. The loyalty he has with the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds is greater than a 2-month-old relationship. Since Matthew doesn't seem to want to tell Frankie about this secret society, Frankie tries to find out herself. And what she does after that is more than any other Basset has ever done (which have all been males, by the way). Frankie has always been underestimated and in this way she thinks to prove to everybody what she is capable of. However, what happens when things get more complicated?
My Thoughts (may contain spoilers): Great book! I mean, it took me around 60 or 70 pages to really get into it. But then on it was nonstop action. It made me laugh (once) even though it's not supposed to. I really didn't like Matthew much. He was so ugh, acting as though he didn't remember her from freshman year, etc. I wished something happened with Alpha. However, this book kept me on the edge of my seat as I was reading. Frankie is really something and I admire her character. I think I'll start using neglected positives from now on, haha.

Reposted at whatvanessareads.wordpress.com

Reader reviewed by Stephanie

The summer before her sophomore year at the esteemed Alabaster Prep boarding school, Frankie Bunny Rabbit Landau-Banks grows into an attractive young woman. With her new physique comes male attention in the form of Matthew Livingston, the handsome and self-assured senior Frankies had her eye on for a while; admittance into his enviable group of friends&and not much else, she soon begins to realize. For everyone only knows her as Matthews Girl, and if she even tries to make a semi-intelligent comment or argument, no one seems to really hear her.

So Frankie decides to take things into her own hands. There is a secret society at school, The Loyal Order of the Basset Hound, that stands for camaraderie, disorder, pranking&and masculinity, for it is an all-male club. Frankies ultra-WASPy father was a proud basset hound, and so, now, are Matthew and his best friend, Alpha (correlation to his pack status totally intentional). But lately the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound has been slipping a bit in terms of the quality of prankstership. I mean, seriously, sticking forks in the grassy quad? How lamer can you get?

When Alpha leaves campus for a few days before Halloween, members of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound begin to receive emails from the mysterious [email protected], instructing them of what they have to do in order to carry out delightfully roguish pranks. Soon the whole school is in a stir over the social activism of the Basset Hounds pranks; students laudor just laughat the pranks, while the faculty is worried about these students mode of expression for their dissatisfaction in, say, cafeteria food.

Alpha gallantly accepts credit for being TheAlphaDog, the mastermind of the recent great pranks, but when TheAlphaDogs identity is compromised and they must reveal who they are, who is it really? And what are the consequences for that student for usurping the brotherly bond that is the Loyal Order?

E. Lockhart takes us through a delectable romp of the secret lives of boarding school students in a lively novel that combines feminism, teenage boys, and a hearty dose of pranking.