Young Adult Literature
With a fifteen-year-old protagonist who's navigating the ins and outs of boarding school life, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks definitely falls into the young adult category. After all, Frankie's life resembles that of many other teenage girls in that she has a huge crush on a popular boy, wants to be accepted by the cooler kids, and is excited to be known as something other than Zada's little sister. There's also a smattering of drama mixed in, and a fair heaping of teenage rebellion.
Adventure
Frankie may be a typical teenage girl in some ways, but she's got an adventurous, rebellious streak that just won't quit. With the discovery of The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, Frankie embarks on a one-woman adventure to make all those dogs bark and sit when she tells them to. She hides her real identity and operates via email and through cryptic messages instead, like many other adventurous masked heroes of yore. In her very own adventure story, Frankie crawls through abandoned tunnels, steals keys, and impersonates people in positions of power, all on her quest to take down the patriarchy and challenge the status quo.
Coming-of-Age
In The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, little Miss Frankie goes from being a slightly awkward, fourteen-year-old "Bunny Rabbit" (the most mature of pet names) to a devious fifteen-year-old wreaking havoc and challenging the norms at her prestigious boarding school. The fact of the matter is, this is a story about a girl who is growing up, and all the messy, painful, funny bits that come along with it. She's learning how to navigate the dangerous social waters of high school while finding her own identity at the same time.