Disreputable Proves Reputable

We thought The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks was a pretty neat book. We've read a few "boarding school" novels in our day (we even made it through Prep), and thought that DH makes it near the top. We know a lot about boarding school in general, as we're constantly threating to send our worst widgets there (the fidgety ones). While this particular story probably hasn't been told before, all of the pieces are relatively formulaic. We have a young, average (read: bland) girl who suddenly explodes onto the social scene as she grows up, a inter-grade relationship, and intrigue in a secret society. Surely all of these things have popped up in books before. The author does in interesting job of telling the story of Frankie's time as a secret-society subverter.

We enjoyed this book because of its fun use of words and language (it gruntled us). We also enjoyed the messages about class and gender. No one respects everyone more than Patricorp, and this book certainly suggest that's a good idea. How about you show us some respect and go pick up Frankie.