Review: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Title: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Author: E. Lockhart (sidenote: LOVE) (other sidenote: I wish I could come up with an awesome penname like E. Lockhart. I mean, REALLY.)
Published: March 2008 by DisneyHyperion
Where I got it: Local indie <3
Why I got it: I was hungry. Just kidding, Hannah Moskowitz said she liked it. Plus I loved Lockhart's Ruby Oliver series...

Okay, before I get started on saying anything, I have to get this off my chest: The whole time I was reading this, I imagined Matthew Livingston looked like Matt Lewis. Yes, Matt Lewis who was Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies. I don't really know why he kept popping into my head, but I am highly suspicious of their similar names being the culprit.

I mean, seriously! Totally Matthew. In my head.

Here's the description 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 all-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.

I have to admit, I wasn't the biggest fan of that little blurb thing. Parts of it seemed eh at best. I mean, Debate geek to knockout? Gorgeous senior boyfriend named Matt Lewis--I mean, Matthew Livingston? Criminal mastermind? "This is the story of how she got that way"? (I mean, really. That's just a little cheesy.)

Okay. Sounds like a dream come true. So what's the story?

To my relief, the book was close to nothing like the hook on the back of the book, and I'm glad I read it. It was witty and definitely an enjoyable read, and I found myself cheering for Frankie the whole way through. True, she may have been a bit... overdependent? on Matthew sometimes--he was pretty much constantly on her mind, and she was always worried about what he would think about what she was doing. This may annoy some readers, but when I think about it in retrospect, I feel like this aspect of Frankie added to her character, not necessarily in a positive way, but in that it made her more like a real teenage girl, which is something a lot of authors who are writing "strong female characters" might shy away from. I felt like Lockhart was able to embody the strong girl-power image while not alienating girls who, in the end, really really really want to impress their boyfriends. Which can be viewed by some as pathetic. But come on. She's a sixteen year-old. And if you have a significant other that you really really really REALLY like a lot, don't tell me you wouldn't like to impress them with your smarts.

The plot of the story was great as well--I found the pacing enjoyable, moving at a speed that kept me entertained, which is always a good thing. I laughed reading this multiple times, and I stayed up until 2:30AM reading this, so apparently it kept my attention, too! This book has a great cast of characters (though some weren't as well-rounded as I would have liked), and if you're into quirky and E. Lockhart, you'll definitely enjoy this book.

Pack bandaids for when you fall into the pages!

WIP It Good

So I'm well underway with my new WIP (the last one is currently suffering from a bad case of whatdoIdointhemiddle syndrome, so it is currently sitting all lonely-like on my desktop. Of my computer, not my actual desk, I haven't printed it out), at a whopping (not really) 9,648 words! Which is awesome, as about 2500 of those words got written in the past couple days. Which is more than I have written in a couple days since... before I started college.

A year ago*****.

Which is just, if you ask me, ridiculous.

So I decided to replace that word count meter on the left of my page with a daily word count kind of thingimajig, so you all can follow my progress as well! (It'll be updated daily, so the word counts for any given day will be the the day that was closest. That didn't make sense. Maybe I'll just put dates.) For this particular WIP, I've employed a new strategy: I'm not setting an end goal as far as word count goes, so I can never really knowingly reach the slumping middle that has always been a problem with my stories. Genius, right? No? Anyone?

Stay with me here.

Anyway, yeah. Word metrics (which one of my fellow bloggers calls it! Woo! She's in Australia. I don't know if you'll read this, but hi, Jess!).

The past however long it's been since I've last posted here (what is it, six months or so?) have been fairly eventful. I did the following:
1. Finished my internship with the literary agency I worked for (though I still won't share which one, just got privacy and that fancy stuff--don't want angry writing coming after me demanding why the agent didn't get to see their work--eep!),
2. Got another internship (non-book related) at school,
3. Finished that one,
4. Got into the Journalism major (woo!),
5. Decided I also wanted to be an Econ major (woo!),
6. Did summer quarter at my school because School Kristine apparently hates Summer Kristine and wanted her to suffer, but
7. As a result of number six, officially became a junior in college just in time for the start of my second year (woo!),
8. Had lunch with author/agent Mandy Hubbard--non-business related, just for fun, and the first agent/author I've met in person! OF COURSE I asked her to sign my copy of YOU WISH, are you crazy?,
9. Is there a nine? There probably is, but I can't think of one, so... cookies! *throws cookies onto every's magically appearing plates in front of them*
10. Oh! I joined the Absolute Write forums! I haven't been super active on there, since I'm still actively working on actually writing instead of just talking about it, but I'm there!

Right. There's more, but I should get back to writing my WIP. It's called TROGDOR*, by the way. As in Trogdor the Burninator. Because, you know. Burninating is awesome. Especially if you're Trogdor.

*Not the real title, in case you didn't get that. I mean, you know I totally would actually title my book that. It's TROGDOR. But the whole copyright thing** probably ruins all that.

**Maybe, I actually don't know about all that stuff***.

***I could look it up, but I need to write****.

****I set a goal earlier today that I couldn't go to the bathroom until I'd written 500 words. According to my Twitter feed, that was an hour ago. I have 154 words to go. BYE.

*****OH WAIT just kidding I totally forgot about my 11k word dash in the first three (?) days of NaNo 2010, after which I stopped writing completely and it was a sad affair don't ask

News!

All right, so I know I haven't been the best blogger. I haven't ever, really, except for those first few days when I had this blog. Man, those were the good days.

But anyway, NEWS! I am delighted to inform you that I am now an intern for a literary agent, who shall remain unnamed and the agency unrevealed, just for general privacy reasons. But I am le EXCITED, guys! It's amazing. I've already started on a couple assignments (I already get to dabble in queries!), and when I do the work, it doesn't feel like work at all. I adore it. I don't know if I'd ultimately become a literary agent or anything (but we'll see as the internship goes on...), but let's just say that I would not say no to a job in publishing. I feel at home.

As for my own writing, and not just my reading of others' writing, it's been slow lately. I've been needing to concentrate more on school lately, and on top of reading for my classes (because all my classes are reading intensive) and reading for my internship, I haven't found enough time or energy to invest myself in my stories. I've been thinking about them a lot, for sure, but I just haven't been working on them. I mean, I'm sure if I looked hard enough I'd be able to find the time, but I read the energy that I'll need to spend that will take away from the work I need to do now.

Can you believe it's almost February? Craziness.

I was about to say that time seems to be moving so quickly, but then I realized that no, it didn't. Not really. It just seems to be moving at a normal rate. Strange.

I hope you're all well! What are your latest endeavors?