Die unrühmliche Geschichte der Frankie Landau-Banks

Ich mochte irgendwie keinen der Charaktere...? Frankie war okay, obwohl sie schon ziemlich eigen war. Das Ende war mal etwas anderes, das hat mir gefallen.

Rating: 2.5/5 (meaning it was ok and I liked some parts of it) The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is the story of Frankie Landau-Banks, a 15-year old girl who goes to a private boarding school. The book begins with Frankie's letter of admission of mal-doings at her school and we're then told how everything happened. Many of my Goodreads friends absolutely loved this book so I decided to give it a chance and picked it up. Something that made me especially happy was people talking about girlpower in the book and about what a strong and intelligent female protagonist Frankie Landau-Banks is. I didn't get that impression but more of that later. When I started to read I was immediately thrown off by the writing. It was trying too hard to be whimsical and cute and interesting. Instead of having the desired effect it had me at having to reread very often, because it was a bit hard to get a grasp on the writing and therefore to get immersed in the story. Thankfully the writing didn't always try at the whimsical so it was possible for me to get immersed into Frankie Landau-Banks's world sometimes. The humor definitely shone through sometimes and made me smile or giggle. It never managed to make me laugh out loud however. Most scenes seemed silly instead of funny. Now onto the most important part of the book, which I mentioned at the beginning. Frankie Landau-Banks and the alleged girlpower. This is where many people will disagree with me. I don't know if E. Lockhart has mentioned before what she wanted to achieve and deliver with The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks so I can only say what I took away from the book. I don't think what was displayed in the book was girlpower. Oh, Frankie was definitely intelligent in one way, don't get me wrong here but over all she seemed like a silly girl who was trying too hard to get her boyfriend to see her the way she really is. In the first third of the book all she tries to do is to appeal to Matthew, to make sure she doesn't get on his wrong side. Matthew treats her like a little girl, talks down to her and more but she never speaks up for herself. Instead all she does is complain in her head how he doesn't see her the way she really is. Well Frankie, news for you: if you want to see him the way you are you have to tell him. But honestly, if he doesn't see it by himself he's not worth your time and you break up with him. Frankie loves Matthew, of course!, so she doesn't break up with him but instead follows him to find out where he goes and what he does, when he blows her off and spends time with his friends. First mistake. If you want to know what your boyfriend does? Confront him and ask him about it. If he's secretive and doesn't want to tell you he doesn't trust you or maybe he just doesn't want you to know. Maybe I'm alone in this but I think two people should be allowed to have secrets from each other as long as it's nothing major. What bugged Frankie the most wasn't that he didn't tell her, it was that she wasn't allowed to participate. I'm not sure I agree with the notion of all-male clubs but she simply could've done what her sister told her to do: to make her own club. But she didn't. She wanted what Matthew had. Why? Anyway. So. When Frankie finds out what Matthew really does in his free time with his friends she lies to and manipulates the members of the Basset Hounds to get what she wants. Which is for Matthew and his friends to see her for who she really is. I don't know why she's trying so hard to get those boys to like her, they're not even worth the time. I get wanting to be accepted as an equal but it didn't really seem that way to me about Frankie. Maybe it was a little part of it but it wasn't the main reason she did it. And she went about it the wrong way. You don't manipulate and lie people to get what you want. And then for her to go through Matthew's backpack to find out more? Um. Okay. No, no, no. This is not something you do if you want to be a respectable human being. You respect people's privacy. What I wanted to say: girlpower should not equal manipulating and lying to people. This is what it basically came to. It seems weird to me that people equate this with girlpower. Like... what? Frankie's intelligence definitely showed itself when she planned for the Basset Hounds' mal-doings but she should've used it for more important things in life. The upside of it was that later on she at least tried to convey messages through the pranks and didn't just do it to be silly. I think I'm losing a bit of track here so I'll move on. What really pissed me off was when she basically insulted Trisha for what she likes to do. So what if she likes to bake and cook? The message of this book in the beginning was "You have to do what men do. If you don't you're not worthy of being accepted as an equal.". Why should a woman have to go to parties and drink beer and basically behave like a man to be accepted as an equal? That makes no sense. A woman shouldn't have to BE a man to be accepted as an equal. And why should we have to be ACCEPTED by man as an equal? If you're saying that men have to accept women as equals it means you're still giving them power over women, saying that HAVE to accept us. Why? They should accept the fact that we're equals or we should be. But by saying you want them to accept women as equals it still gives them the power, because it means they can decide we're not. Oh and now the boys in the book. Every teenage boy is a meanie, a liar or a cheat apparently. The only exception being Artie but he's described at too feminine, making it seem like it seem like he's not really a man and therefore not counting him. Sorry but what!? I don't get where Matthew gets the description of being goofy from. He wasn't. He was silly twice but he was never goofy. The best thing is the last paragraph of the book which is when Frankie finally realizes that you don't need someone who doesn't accept you for who you are and that you should follow your ambitions to reach your goals. I think I haven't said everything I wanted to say and maybe not everything came across the way I wanted it to but the review is long enough as it is.

Ich mochte irgendwie keinen der Charaktere...? Frankie war okay, obwohl sie schon ziemlich eigen war. Das Ende war mal etwas anderes, das hat mir gefallen.