The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks Summary

How It All Goes Down

Frankie's disreputable history begins with a trip to the Jersey Shore with her mother. Frankie's mom is a wee bit overprotective now that her youngest daughter has shot up and gained some womanly curves. Nevertheless, Frankie manages to meet a boy at the boardwalk briefly, but doesn't think she'll ever see him again.

When Frankie returns to school, her big crush Matthew Livingston finally notices her and her brand new bod. They start dating, and she hangs out with him and his friends, including Alpha (who happens to be the boy from the Jersey Shore). She soon finds out that the boys are all part of a secret society called the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, but that it's a males-only group. Which of course piques our Frankie's curiosity. So she spies on them and finds out that they do all sorts of cool pranks and practice plenty of male bonding. She's kind of jealous of the whole thing, so she does some more sleuthing. Eventually she finds the book that houses the history of the secret society.

And that's when things get interesting. Around Halloween, Alpha leaves town to go on a yoga trip with his mother, and Frankie seizes the opportunity to open a new email account and impersonate him. She pretends to be Alpha and instructs the rest of the hounds to carry out a series of pranks. This sets off a whole chain of shenanigans, all of which Frankie engineers from behind her email curtain. Even when Alpha returns, he continues to pretend that he was the mastermind behind all the plots (so as to not lose face).

Everything culminates in the final scheme, when Alpha gets caught in the tunnels beneath the school and is fingered as the culprit behind all the devious pranks that have come before. Frankie confesses to Matthew that she was actually the mastermind behind them and he tells her that she's sick… and then goes to rat her out.

So Frankie loses her hot boyfriend and gains some notoriety around school. She's sad about it, but not too sad. If Matthew can't accept her independent spirit, then she shouldn't be with him anyway. Way to have your own back, Frankie. You go, girl.