Negative Review: Frannie and Tru by Karen Hattrup

Frannie and Tru by Karen Hattrup

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Received: Edelweiss
Publicatio Date: May 31st 2016
Publisher: HarperTeen
Point of View: 1st Person Feminine
Recommended Age: 13+
Genres &  Themes: Young Adult Contemporary, LGBT

BLURB:

When Frannie Little eavesdrops on her parents fighting she discovers that her cousin Truman is gay, and his parents are so upset they are sending him to live with her family for the summer. At least, that’s what she thinks the story is. . . When he arrives, shy Frannie befriends this older boy, who is everything that she’s not–rich, confident, cynical, sophisticated. Together, they embark on a magical summer marked by slowly unraveling secrets.

REVIEW:

This book should have been titled
Tru
and Frannie, not
Frannie
and Tru.

Because let’s face it, Tru is the real star here.

Frannie used to go to a Catholic school but, since her parents don’t have enough money to send their three children to a private school, Frannie drew the short straw.

But this is not what hurts her most. What terribly affects her is her losing her best friends. Now it’s summer time and she knows she’s going to spend it all alone…

That’s when Tru comes in. He’s gay. His parents need ‘‘time’’ to swallow the new info about their son, so they send him to his cousins’ house. From the moment he arrives, Frannie becomes his puppy.

Really.

She’s always around him, constantly thinks about him and how much she wants to become his friend and, even when they do become friends, it’s still Tru here and Tru there.

Now I did like Tru, but only because he was the only interesting character. He’s like Margo from Paper Town or Allie from Pretty Little Liars or even girl-whose-name-I-d-ont-care-to-rememeber from Looking for Alaska—oh, that’s right, Alaska.

He’s the type of guy who exteriorly looks like nothing can faze him, but you just know it’s all an act—a mask he puts on as a defence mechanism/to not show any weaknesses.

I know what Tru’s purpose in the story is. He’s there for Frannie. To help her see that different is good, make her quit her nest AKA her room to meet new people and to enhance the confidence that she’s recently lost. Definitely.

That’s fantastic. I genuinely think that this could be an eye-opening book for people in the same situation. That’s what the 50% I read told me.

But the truth is, it’s not an eventful story. There’s more happening in Frannie’s mind than in the plot. Since Frannie can’t go five pages without lowering herself in any possible way, I couldn’t bring myself to read further than 160 pages.

It’s like she’s stuck in a loop of uncertainty and doubt. Even her meeting Tru didn’t fully get her out of it (again, let’s remember that I stopped midway), though he is helpful to her. She barely even speaks, because she’s afraid she’ll say something stupid (and then she does and curses herself for it/wishes she had never opened her mouth.)

Plus I think Frannie and Tru needs a second POV—Tru’s. I craved for his POV the whole time I was reading it. He tells Frannie stories and relates events that I wished we could have witnessed by ourselves, such as his flirting-not-flirting with sweet Jeremy.

This could have been so much more.

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