Love Frankie by Jacqueline Wilson - Book Review ⋆ Wonderfully Bookish

Genre: YA/MG Contemporary
Date Published: September 17, 2020
Rating: ★★★½

GROWING UP. FALLING IN LOVE. COMING OUT.

Frankie is nearly fourteen and teenage life certainly comes with its ups and downs. Her mum is seriously ill with MS and Frankie can feel herself growing up quickly, no thanks to Sally and her gang of bullies at school.

When Sally turns out to be not-so-mean after all, they strike up a friendship and are suddenly spending all of their time together. But Frankie starts to wonder whether these feelings she has for Sally are stronger than her other friendships. Might she really be in love?

Frankie doesn’t want Sally to just be her friend. She wants her to be her girlfriend. But does Sally feel the same?

Title: Love Frankie
Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Publisher: Doubleday Children’s
Date Published: September 17, 2020
Genre: YA/MG Contemporary, LGBTQ+

Date Read: January 16, 2020
Format: Hardback

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Love Frankie by Jacqueline Wilson – Review

I’ve been a fan of Jacqueline Wilson for as long as I can remember. I have a small collection of her books that I’ve had since I was a kid, and some of them are still some of my favourite books today. So recently, when Jacqueline Wilson publicly came out as gay and announced she was writing her first novel with a gay main character, I was so excited!

What is Love Frankie about?

Love Frankie follows almost-14-year-old Frankie as she navigates early teen life with her two sisters, her chronically ill mum, and a hot-and-cold relationship with her dad. She used to be friends with Sally, but over the years, they drifted apart and became enemies. But what happens when Frankie starts feeling things for Sally that she hasn’t felt in any of her friendships before?

The Story & Writing Style

This is a fun story with all of the things that usually come with a Jacqueline Wilson novel: a broken home, family issues, and children that talk like they’re stuck in the 1940s.

A broken home is something that recurs in so many of Wilson’s novels, but this one was a little more positive than other father-child relationships in previous books (like in my favourite, Lola Rose, in which the dad is abusive and awful). Frankie’s mum and dad split up after Frankie’s mum got ill, and Frankie hates him for leaving them at the worst time. But Frankie’s mum keeps trying to reassure her that it was a mutual decision, and her dad really does try his best.

In terms of the language and writing style, I always find a similar style in the Wilson’s books: all of the characters speak with a slightly old-fashioned tone, using language that children don’t really use today. I even had to Google what a few words meant (for example: “she’s a right little whirling dervish!”).

Pretty much all of Jacqueline Wilson’s books have been aimed at children or young teens, and this one feels like it has a good middle-ground: it’s great for a slightly older audience compared to a lot of her other books, with some mature themes and references (for example, there’s a mention of teenagers watching porn), but the story and the writing still feels like it’s intended for younger teens rather than the older end of the market.

Frankie & Sally

I wasn’t a big fan of Frankie – she seems very controlling and wants everyone to act and behave exactly the way she wants them to, She also has this weird thing where I feel like she keeps trying to convince her mum that she can’t do anything because of her illness? She’ll be like, “Mum, no, you shouldn’t be looking after us, you should be in bed because you’re ill!” I think she’s just worried about her, but it felt kind of annoying to me that she kept trying to force her back into bed.

I’m also not sure how ~healthy~ the relationship is between Frankie and Sally. A lot of the time, their relationship didn’t really make sense to me. Like, I’m all for the “enemies to lovers” trope, but I’m not convinced they were completely compatible. And as I said above, Frankie seems to want everything to be EXACTLY how she wants it and (minor spoiler ahead) even goes as far as outing Sally when she’s clearly not comfortable with it yet. She’s very impatient, and I didn’t really think this was resolved?

Exploration of Sexuality

As much as I wasn’t a big fan of Frankie’s character, the exploration of her identity and her trying to figure out her sexuality was great. I think it might be able to help young people realise that it’s okay to be gay, and you don’t have to fall in love by the time you’re 14! I could tell that some of Frankie’s feelings were coming straight from the heart of Jacqueline Wilson, and I think it was sweet how excited Frankie was to call Sally her girlfriend.

Like, as I said, I’m not sure how compatible Frankie and Sally are in the long-term, but considering they’re both only almost 14 years old, maybe this doesn’t matter. They’re helping each other figure out their identity, and sometimes stepping stone relationships like that can be the most important in terms of personal growth and development.

Summary

Generally, Love Frankie has a fun, enjoyable story that explores sexuality as well as a parent with a chronic illness. I’m very appreciative of the fact that there’s a queer story for young people written by such a high profile author who is gay herself!

(Not to mention the fact that the cover is stunning, especially the rainbow hardback and the little stars cut out of the dust jacket so the rainbow colour shows through!)

I’d recommend Love Frankie for younger teens or maybe older children who are used to reading books with slightly more mature themes.

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