November 2, 2013
Yet another book for my YA course, I've actually finished this one quite a bit ahead of schedule. It's the book I've been assigned for a literature circle group in the class, consisting of myself and several other intelligent women, and I'm looking forward to the discussions that we'll have. I kind of feel like a huge geek now that I've finished it, since we have two weeks to complete it. In my own defense, I happen to not be as busy this weekend as I have been, and undoubtedly will be in the next few weeks, until I get an entire week off for Thanksgiving break (I love teaching, haha). So I figured, hell, I'm not doing anything on a Saturday night, so why not get this one out of the way and open up my schedule a bit? I have a much better time reading a book than going out and drinking. Not entirely sure what that says about me...
Anyway, in that respect, I saw a little of myself in Frankie as she, as a sophomore attending a party with popular seniors, observes that the gathering was boring. I respected this character in how much she trusted her own gut, in how well she reasoned things out. Like most quality YA heroines, she's intelligent. She attends an exclusive (and very expensive) boarding school called Alabaster, located in Massachusetts. Her parents aren't super wealthy, at least not compared to many of her classmates' families, but they're certainly well-off. Though Alabaster is, of course, co-ed, it was an all-male prep school for a very long time, and there's still a patriarchy, an 'Old-Boys' clubby mentality, that runs the whole thing. Frankie, with her intelligence and her feminist role models (though her mother and sister only view her as being an innocent child), doesn't like this. She wants to shake things up.
This book is pretty light-hearted compared to some of the books I've been reading for this course. No one dies; there aren't even really any serious consequences for the events that occur in the book, though Frankie is a constantly evolving character. On the one hand, she's a cute, small girl...that's how the world, and especially her boyfriend, view her. When she "fills out" during the summer before her sophomore year, she finally gets the attention of Matthew, a popular senior with whom she is enamored. It's clear that Matthew is a prep school elitist dickhead, but Frankie is a teenage girl, after all. Smart and witty though she may be, she is not completely immune to her hormonal urges. She even thinks that she "loves" Matthew, though she knows that he doesn't really understand, or try to understand, her.
Matthew is part of a "secret" society called the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound. The upper class really like their secret little clubs, don't they? This is a theme that has been covered in many works of literature and popular culture, these societies that have all these secrets, there's this sort of aura of mystic or romance around them. Frankie's sister Zada (that's a pretty cool name, I must admit) dismisses it as being stupid guy stuff. Their father, a proud Alabaster alum, was a Basset Hound himself, so Frankie has a little inside information. But when she realizes that her boyfriend is a member, she wants to know more.
It becomes something more than knowing her boyfriend better, though. Frankie wants to be a part...even if all the guys do is get together to drink or play lame pranks, she likes that kind of power that being part of a secret society (much like attending a prestigious prep school) can bring her. She also, as I pointed out, wants to shake up the system. And she wants to belong somewhere. Her motives for what she does are not always clear, but they are numerous. It boils down to this: adopting the identity of "Alpha" (another douchebag who runs with Matthew's crowd...Frankie may or may not be attracted to him), Frankie begins emailing all of the boys in the society (she knows who they are, having spied on their meetings) and giving orders for them to carry out elaborate pranks. Her plans are always meant to send a message, such as decorating the portraits of past headmasters and prominent alumni (all male) with bras in protest of the lack of feminine representation at the school. Alpha, rather than admit that he's not the mastermind, takes credit, while demanding that Frankie (whom he emails, not knowing her true identity) to give up the long-lost book written by former society members, called The Disreputable History of the Order of the Basset Hound. After several pranks, Frankie is only found out after Alpha is almost forced to take the fall for the whole thing and get expelled. Matthew is disgusted that his sweet, harmless girlfriend would do this, while he had admired Alpha when he though he was the one coming up with all the brilliant pranks.
While I can sympathize with Frankie's struggles, and feel her frustration when she's not taken seriously (and she clearly deserves to be), it's hard to take the themes of this book too seriously in themselves. As I said, this is a lighter text. The setting and situations are alien to the experiences of most teenagers. Boarding schools seem to be a popular setting for teen pop culture, as they allow the characters almost the same amount of freedom as a college student would have, while still having characters who are at an accessible age. Yet most teens go to public school; if they have college prospects, it's community college (at least to start), or a public university, or perhaps a small private college (Iowa has an endless supply of those, it seems), while Frankie and her classmates dream of Ivy League acceptance letters. They're going to be okay. They won't have to worry about much, because they have money and connections (the narration, through Frankie's eyes, acknowledges this). This wasn't much more than a fun read, though I can always appreciate a strong female character. Perhaps some girls who read this book will be inspired to shake things up in their own worlds, in meaningful and unexpected ways.
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Basset hounds are darling! Awwwww!
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