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trin's review against another edition
5.0
From a bare-bones plot summary—a young sophomore infiltrates a secret society at her elite private school, blah blah—this book could easily be mistaken for generic YA fiction. This is unfortunate, because what Lockhart has actually written is a wonderful, vivid, funny, feminist antidote to miserable tripe like [b: Twilight|41865|Twilight (Twilight, #1)|Stephenie Meyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361039443l/41865._SY75_.jpg|3212258]. This book is about Frankie, newly pretty after a summer’s growth spurt, returning to school to find that the popular boys are suddenly interested in her—and that none of them even remember the geeky ghost she was the year before. Frankie hooks up with Golden Boy Matthew—who Lockhart does a great job making realistically appealing as well as realistically flawed—but soon realizes that she could all-too-easily let herself be consumed by the force of her boyfriend’s personality and his powerful friends. Frankie refuses to be controlled, refuses to just be someone’s arm candy, and I absolutely adore her for it. She’s smart and knows it, but now that she’s becoming aware that she can be pretty and sexually confident, too, she’s not willing to sacrifice her smarts and just be either of those things, or slot herself neatly into the roles her school allots for women. She’s like the anti-Bella. I’d love to read about her snubbing vampires and fighting crime. She absolutely rocks.
Anyone who thought Twilight offered a good role model or an important narrative for women needs to read this book. Or else be smacked over the head with it.
Anyone who thought Twilight offered a good role model or an important narrative for women needs to read this book. Or else be smacked over the head with it.
carlisajc's review against another edition
3.0
E. LOCKHART AND PRINTZ HONOR REQUIREMENT
This is a story of a girl—Frankie Landau Banks—trying to make her way through her boarding school. She starts her sophomore year and the boy of her dreams, Matthew Livingston, suddenly notices her and they start dating. She soon finds out that he's part of a secret, all-male society...that she isn't allowed to be a part of, or even know about. So she tries to take it down from the outside in.
I liked this book well enough, but overall I was kind of let down by it. To me, Frankie was in the same place she was in the end. She didn't really change at all. I kind of just felt like this book was 300+ pages of Frankie preaching feminism to me. Which sure, I'm all about the feminist movement...but that was her entire character. And her feminism didn't even seem legitimate, as every time she had a feminist thought, she'd attribute it to her older sister. Bah. Also, her boyfriend was a jerk, and treated her awfully...but she never really noticed?
The only things I still remember about her is this extreme-feminism and her weird word-building. She makes up words by adding or taking off prefixes, and it's probably supposed to be endearing or quirky...but honestly, I was just annoyed by it and thought it was rather pretentious. Like, for example, she takes off the prefix of "impetuous" (meaning hot-headed or impulsive) and says "petuous," which according to Frankie means careful. But she says these things and knows that whoever she's talking to has to ask, giving her that supremely triumphant feeling.
So, overall, I just was kind of annoyed by Frankie. Despite this, it's well-written and has an interesting concept. Also it's won a lot of awards, so don't take my annoyance as absolute truth.
This is a story of a girl—Frankie Landau Banks—trying to make her way through her boarding school. She starts her sophomore year and the boy of her dreams, Matthew Livingston, suddenly notices her and they start dating. She soon finds out that he's part of a secret, all-male society...that she isn't allowed to be a part of, or even know about. So she tries to take it down from the outside in.
I liked this book well enough, but overall I was kind of let down by it. To me, Frankie was in the same place she was in the end. She didn't really change at all. I kind of just felt like this book was 300+ pages of Frankie preaching feminism to me. Which sure, I'm all about the feminist movement...but that was her entire character. And her feminism didn't even seem legitimate, as every time she had a feminist thought, she'd attribute it to her older sister. Bah. Also, her boyfriend was a jerk, and treated her awfully...but she never really noticed?
The only things I still remember about her is this extreme-feminism and her weird word-building. She makes up words by adding or taking off prefixes, and it's probably supposed to be endearing or quirky...but honestly, I was just annoyed by it and thought it was rather pretentious. Like, for example, she takes off the prefix of "impetuous" (meaning hot-headed or impulsive) and says "petuous," which according to Frankie means careful. But she says these things and knows that whoever she's talking to has to ask, giving her that supremely triumphant feeling.
So, overall, I just was kind of annoyed by Frankie. Despite this, it's well-written and has an interesting concept. Also it's won a lot of awards, so don't take my annoyance as absolute truth.
chocolateandpie's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.5
Reading this book in my mid twenties as compared to my mid teens was a very different experience.
I remember really loving it the first time I read it something close to 10ish years ago. I remember thinking it was clever and engaging and I remember loving the titular character Frankie.
Upon rereading it I can solidly say that whilst it is still a fairly enjoyable book with a fairly engaging main character I am definitely not the target audience of this book anymore.
I like it for what it is but I think that my nostalgia made me expect more from it than what it actually delivers.
But overall it is still a fairly enjoyable and relatively fast-paced read although I think the plot overall definitely picks up the pace in the second half.
I remember really loving it the first time I read it something close to 10ish years ago. I remember thinking it was clever and engaging and I remember loving the titular character Frankie.
Upon rereading it I can solidly say that whilst it is still a fairly enjoyable book with a fairly engaging main character I am definitely not the target audience of this book anymore.
I like it for what it is but I think that my nostalgia made me expect more from it than what it actually delivers.
But overall it is still a fairly enjoyable and relatively fast-paced read although I think the plot overall definitely picks up the pace in the second half.
curiouslyjade's review against another edition
5.0
This has everything I love in a book: strong female protagonist, smart pranks, having been written for teenagers, frozen custard, and dogs.
tmiles's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
futurama1979's review against another edition
2.0
Disclaimer: this was assigned reading for my MG and YA class.
Honestly my least favourite book we've had to read for this course so far. I was so close to rating it one star but there were a few tiny elements I liked, namely the little section with the chant lyrics as a clue to figure out where the lost book was.
But in all honesty this was really hard to get through. A super dated obsession with gender and not being like other girls, a consistent and overdone gimmick of the MC being a feminist while she spews misogynist rhetoric constantly, and zero character development for said MC really turned me off of this novel. I'll probably not be picking up anything else by this author again.
Honestly my least favourite book we've had to read for this course so far. I was so close to rating it one star but there were a few tiny elements I liked, namely the little section with the chant lyrics as a clue to figure out where the lost book was.
But in all honesty this was really hard to get through. A super dated obsession with gender and not being like other girls, a consistent and overdone gimmick of the MC being a feminist while she spews misogynist rhetoric constantly, and zero character development for said MC really turned me off of this novel. I'll probably not be picking up anything else by this author again.
kivt's review against another edition
3.0
This was a totally fine book. I think if it I'd read it around Frankie's age, it would have been a really important book to me. It was fairly charming but not very captivating to present me. It's more of a coming of age book with pranks in it than a secret society shenanigans book with coming of age in it. Which is fine! It is a very good coming of age story with a lot of philosophy that would have been good for me.
will_overthink's review against another edition
5.0
Quirky and unexpected, Frankie deals with a distant boyfriend by... infiltrating his secret brotherhood and leading them all a merry chase. This book deals with something a lot of young women go through: The change in the way people treat you when you demonstrate that you are not, and probably have never been, the small, inconsequential thing they always thought you were. Adorable? Try mastermind.
smusie's review against another edition
5.0
Loved it. I wish this book had existed when I was in high school, although that anachronism would surely cause the space-time continuum to collapse into a black hole.