Tuesday 11 November 2014

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

22907596Book Blurb (from goodreads)
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 a
ll-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.
 


My Review: 
I have never read a book almost purely about high school life, and as soon as I saw that it was by E. Lockhart the author of we were liars  which I adored and therefor threw against the wall (those of you who have read it will know why), I had to buy it. I had high expectations for this, they were probably a little too high because I feel a little short but I still thoroughly enjoyed the book. 
The plot in this book was well thought out and explained. We got a lot of Frankie's history and family life which would be harder to do if you are placing almost all the scenes in a boarding school. However it did take a little bit too long to get to the main plot which only really came around in the last 200-150 pages. This was a 360 (somewhere around that number) page book, that's a long time for a plot to really come into, for me, however it was worth the wait. The pranks in this book where funny, and I loved how each one had their own meaning. And may I just say that if Frankie doesn't end up being a spy when she grows up she will defiantly be a criminal. 
The characters in this book where, well just there. We got a lot of history on Frankie which was great and I loved her character because I could really relate to it, but that was it. I know that the whole book was about Frankie's development from cutsie girl to 'criminal mastermind' but I doesn't mean that you have to cut out the other characters back story. For example I really, really wanted to know more about Trish but the information never came. I felt like she could have been a really important character to Frankie and I wish that they had more girl time together so there could be some kind of best friend thing going on because that was one thing that this book was lacking. 
Mathew and Frankie's relationship, whilst cute felt a little inappropriate. It is a senior, so an 18 year old boy (something like that) dating a 15 year old girl. I know that it is not that rare-a-thing in the world world but still made me feel uncomfortable in their moments where I think they were suppose to be the cute couple. It just did not feel right to me. 
Okay, now for a quick rant about something that has been annoying me and I have been holding my frustration in. GRAMMAR, grammar lessons in a book? NO! You do not do that, that is not allowed. I get that it was part of Mathew's character and all, but we got a 5 page grammar lesson in this book, A 5 PAGE GRAMMAR LESSON! You can not put in a 5 page grammar lesson in a book. I does not work like that. The reader (or at least me) does not care about those kind of things in a book whilst reading. I just skip over it. It was thoroughly annoying that, that was in there. Okay i'm good. On to the stars...
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars (I actually really did enjoy this book despite its faults!): 







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