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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 5/5
Started: 21 November
Finished: 23 November
Summary:
Frankie Landau-Banks hates the fact that her mother calls her Bunny, that she can't be a part of the secret society, the Prestigious Order of the Basset Hound, at her prestigious high school that her father was a member of, and that everyone — everyone— underestimates her. But after a summer of getting boobs and building up her determination, she finds a way in: first she starts dating Matthew, popular senior and leader of the Prestigious Order of the Basset Hound. But that still isn't enough. And so, using a fake email address, she begins to create elaborate pranks for the Order to pull off, with each member pulling off one perfect piece to create a grand masterpiece. But even then, Frankie isn't satisfied. She wants to be one of them. One of the boys, with their endless camaraderie and easiness. But she isn't sure if that's possible.
Thoughts:
This book was very odd. It went a super different direction from where I thought it was going at the start, and then again had an ending that was super different from the middle. Aside from the ending, which I didn't really like, this book was genius. I loved the unstable and possibly psychopathic genius main character because she seemed both human and ambitiously and endlessly capable. Love a good morally grey character. The pranks were super clever and Frankie was super cool, if emotionally cold and calculating.
But my favorite things were the educational tangents and sustained metaphors used in the book. They made it feel like an essay, but a story, and absolutely brilliant all over. The two that I really liked were the idea of the neglected positive (gruntled, meaning happy and together, from disgruntled) and the concept of the panopticon. I now want to include as many neglected positives into my language as possible now (and possibly re-try to read Wodehouse, because apparently that's his thing and it feels cool to me now). Also, I kind of want to write a paper about the panopticon. Maybe I can talk about it and God for my paper about the Scarlet Letter because the idea seems to fascinating to just not think about again. In terms of the sustained metaphors, the narrator constantly brought up the way that people's actions were dictated by the possibility of someone watching, regardless of whether or not anyone actually was.
A quote I liked: "She wasn't a person who needed to be liked so much as she was a person who liked to be notorious."
I told Ada about this book before I read the (kind of meh) ending, but if she reads it, I'll definitely have more ideas. This book had more of an impact in terms of the ideas it introduced rather than character or plot, but I'm okay with it. I hope to keep using the ideas of the panopticon and the neglected positive as much as possible in the future.
Words:
Impugn (v) dispute the truth, validity, or honesty of a statement or motive; call into question
Nepotism (n) the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs
Armature (n) a metal framework on which a sculpture is molded with clay or similar material
Hung Jury (n) a judicial jury that cannot agree upon a verdict after extended deliberation and is unable to reach the required unanimity or supermajority, and usually results in the case being tried again.
Panopticon (n) a type of institutional building and system of control designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham; a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed, but could never know when or if they were being observed. 
Neglected Positive (not a real term, per se, but a real concept) the positive opposite when the negative prefix is removed from a word. For example, Insane and Sane, or Immaculate and Maculate.
Schadenfreude (n) a pleasure derived from another person's misfortune
Truisms (n) a statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting
Maculate (adj, neglected pos of immaculate) spotted or stained
Gruntled (adj, neglected pos of disgruntled) pleased, satisfied, and contented
Advertent (adj, neglected pos of inadvertent) attentive, heedful
Engendered (v) cause or give rise too a feeling, situation, or condition
Proposition (v, informal) make a suggestion of sex to someone with whom one is not sexually involved, especially in an unsubtle or offensive way
Parage (not real, v, neglected positive of disparage) encourage
Noblesse Oblige (phrase) the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility towards those less privileged
Docent (n) a member of the teaching staff in a university who is immediately below professorial rank
Nocuous (adj, neglected pos of innocuous) noxious, harmful, or poisonous
Quadrangle (n) in architecture, a rectangular space or courtyard, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building
Esoteric (adj) intended for or only likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest
Capitulate (v) cease to resist an opponent or unwelcome demand; surrender
Vitriolic (adj) filled with a bitter criticism or malice
Insular (adj) ignorant of or uninterested in cultures, ideas, or people's outside one's own experience