The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart

Over the course of the summer between her freshman and sophomore years, Frankie Landau-Banks, grew several inches, and went from being a skinny, unassuming semi-geeky girl with frizzy hair to a curvy beauty with a sharp wit. The girl that hardly anyone remembered from the year before soon has a hot senior boyfriend, named Matthew Livingson, and is in tight with the popular crowd at her elite boarding school. Frankie discovers that Matthew is head of a secret society on campus – The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, that is known mostly for its pranks and for being an all male organization. But Frankie, not wanting to be excluded, schemes to infiltrate the Bassets, and secretly convince them to pull pranks of a decidedly higher caliber, and more political nature.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks appears at first glance to be a simple story about smart, privileged prep school students, and their relationship problems, but it becomes clear that the story, and characters are much more subtle and pointed than all that. Frankie will not take being excluded from the boys club sitting down, and her actions have far reaching repercussions. But it is not a simple girl power manifesto either. Frankie, although bright, witty, resourceful, and very likeable, acts out of anger at a system that she finds unjust, and does not foresee all that could result. The story is smart, and complex, and will have the reader contemplating it long after the last page is read.