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

Witty and clever attempt

Title: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Author: E. Lockhart
Publisher: Hot Key Books, UK
My ratings: 3 out of 5 stars
Releases: 6th November, 2014
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks was a title I have been waiting for a while. After E. Lockhart wrote the beautiful We Were Lairs, I snagged this book as soon as I could. Unfortunately it was a disappointment for me.

Let me start from the beginning. This book is about Frankie, a fifteen year old private school student who finds herself in a unique situation where she is dating the hottest guy in school, after having a 'growth spurt'. Soon she finds that her boyfriend is hiding things and before she knows it she is deep into an uncontrollable, downward spiral.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau – Banks addresses a variety of topics which I think gives a social message. It touches upon how even in this day an age there exists an elitist group of people responsible for the world as we see today. It also talks about how women still have to cross the glass ceiling which unfortunately still exists. Lockhart manages to beautifully incorporate a high school environment and use it as a stand in for the real world. We have the fresh faced Frankie who was always on the side-lines, suddenly becoming the centre of it. Dating the most popular guy at school but still not being able to become a part of his life. She wants equality, popularity, acceptance and fair treatment. I think this book accentuates these accurately and with a finesse which I belie only a talented author can succeed at.

The writing is clever and intelligent. Saying that the round about ways the point was made was a little frustrating. I found the writing somewhat funny but some reader may not and younger readers may very well get bored by it.

The message this book was trying to give while being important felt boring to me. The real plot didn’t start until the half-way point of the book and by then I had almost lost interest. It started with a great note but started dragging in the middle. While I understood what the story was trying to tell, I simply got bored of it. I was skimming pages in the hopes that something will happen that would excite me.

Overall, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks was a clever attempt at raising concerns and pointing out the faults which still exists in our society. While the writing was appreciated by me, I don’t know if reader of the age group it is aimed at, will be able to grasp the deeper meaning and commentaries being made and the parallels being drawn. This book is for eclectic readers and while some may love it, some may simply lose interest.

Review copy provided by Hot Key Books, UK