Love Frankie is a Middle Grade/Young Adult coming of age story written by Jacqueline Wilson and published in 2020.
Frankie is a 13 year old girl who lives with her single mother and two sisters. While Frankie has an overall positive relationship with her family, along with a best friend in the form of Sammy next door, who she has been friends with since childhood, life is not so easy for Frankie. Firstly, her mother is suffering Multiple Sclerosis, with her and her older sister having to act as her main support network, as well as having had their dad leave their mother for another woman, and also receives no end of harassment from the bullies at school.
However, the main problem that Frankie finds herself experiencing throughout the book is discovering and coming to terms with her sexuality, as she suddenly finds herself falling for the girl who formerly bullied her, Sally, which only becomes more painful for her the closer she gets to her, as she is never sure where she stands with her. Frankie finds herself falling more and more in love with Sally to the point things only get more and more complicated for her. All she ever longs for is for Sally to be her girlfriend, feeling she is her one true love. Can Sally ever become her girlfriend, or is there more she has to learn about love and relationships?
This book provides examples of:
- A Girl and Her X: Frankie has a very close and loving companionship and bond with her dog Bear, appearing to be the closest to him out of all their family, and seems to be specifically hers, with her parents having gotten him for her as a birthday present when she was younger. She also insists on taking her with him practically everywhere she goes, including all the way to stay with her grandmother, despite her grandmother finding it hard to accommodate to Bear and finding him an inconvenience.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Appears to be the case between Frankie and Sammy, who is heavily implied to want more than a friendship with Frankie, while Frankie of course does not reciprocate these feelings due to her newfound sexuality.
- Alpha Bitch: Sally is initially this, only to move on to being a Lovable Alpha Bitch. Likewise, despite Sally appearing to be the leader of her Girl Posse, Scarlet easily seems to be the most spiteful out of all of them, being very hostile and unpleasant to Frankie at Sally's New Years Eve party, whereas Georgia has Took a Level in Kindness, whereas while Marnie is still hostile towards Frankie she at least is a more sympathetic character with a somewhat Freudian Excuse.
- Ambiguous Ending: The book ends with Sally asking Frankie if all romance is over between them, to which Frankie responds "I don't know", after which they walk their separate ways, making it very unclear what exactly what is going to happen between them, whether they are going to be together or move on.
- Attention Whore: Sally does seem to revel in getting loads of attention.
- {{Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other}}: While Frankie and her sister Zara appear to have some Sibling Rivalry between them, they are shown to really care about each other many times throughout the book, and stick together when the situation calls for it.
- Berserk Button: Don't make fun of Frankie's mum, calling her an alcoholic, as she is shown to slap Sally for doing this and lash out on Scarlet for also doing this.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Sally gives one of these to Frankie at the very end of the book, to make a point of how serious she is about her feelings for Frankie, and that she is not afraid to let the world know. Although this is not the first time they kiss, it is the easily the kiss that makes an official statement of their romance, with it being the first on they do in public
- Big Sister Instinct: Zara shows this towards Frankie when she shows a strong dislike towards Sally for having made fun of Frankie because of their mum and then for having hurt Frankie.
- {{Bitch in Sheep's Clothing}}: Frankie claims Helen to be this, saying how she always acts all "nicey-nicey".
- Bi-Wildered: This appears to be the case with Sally, who appears to be Bisexual, given that she appears to have romantic interactions and encouters with boys, but also claims and appears to have romantic feelings for Frankie too.
- Big Sister Worship: Unusually Rowena shows this a lot towards Sally rather than her own actual, biological big sisters, Frankie and Zara, though still has a close relationship with them. Rowena even claims Sally to be her "best adult friend" and goes on a lot and tells her about how amazing and kind she is and how much she loves her etc.
- Book Smart: Ivneet is extremely intelligent, although perhaps partly due to her Education Mama background.
- Chick Magnet: Sam is very much shown to be this when Sally and her Girl Posse comment on how good looking he is, especially later on when Marnie, Georgia and Scarlet show clear signs of attraction towards him, deliberately downing their drinks just so he can get drinks for them, commenting again on how gorgeous he is and Scarlet even being very friendly with him and making him dance with her despite having been hostile to Frankie. Gary Masters is also lampshaded as being this too.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Frankie and Sammy, even though any possibility of there ever being an actual romance between them is almost ruled out as Frankie discovers her sexuality.
- Coming Of Age Queer Romance: The primary theme of the story, with Frankie discovering that she is queer at the age of 13.
- Coming-Out Story: Frankie gradually does this throughout the book, first revealing her lesbianism to her sister, then her father, stepmother and grandmother, then her mother and godmother, then her best friend, then to various people at school.
- Cool Aunt: Coral is like this to Frankie and her sisters, though is their godmother and mum's best friend as opposed to actual aunt.
- Cool Teacher: Mr White, the librarian, although not exactly a teacher, is very warm-hearted and easygoing, being particularly amicable with Frankie and Ivneet, and easily Frankie's favourite member of staff at her school, being the only one she gives a christmas present to, and claims to adore him.
- Deadpan Snarker: Frankie shows quite a lot of this, especially with her father and stepmother.
- Everybody Hates Mathematics: Frankie is shown to be hopeless when it comes to Maths, needing Sam to help her (or rather do her homework for her) all the time, and being unable to answer most Maths problems she is given in detention.
- Everybody Loves Blondes: The blonde Sally is the most popular girl in the school.
- Forced Out of the Closet: Frankie does this to Sally at school in front of their classmates.
- Girl Posse: Sally and her best friends Marnie, Scarlet and Georgia.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Downplayed with Ivneet, who is not very popular because she is extremely intelligent and swotty, though is not actually isolated since she seems to be friends with the other swotty, geeky characters.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Frankie and Ivneet have this with Mr White, the school librarian.
- {{It's All About Me}}: Frankie's dad psychoanalyses Frankie's attraction for another girl as being based on her anger towards him, claiming that she has gone off guys due to being so angry at her dad for walking out on them.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Frankie's dad may be a Jerkass who walked out on his wife and kids for another woman, and does not give enough support for them with their mum having MS, he is right when he says that Frankie is too young to be falling in love with anyone, regardless of their sex.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Frankie's dad appears to be a Jerkass,he is shown to care for Frankie in the end, asking how her first day at school went with the whole Sally situation.
- The Lad-ette: Frankie lampshades herself as being this several times, as she mentions how she was "one of the lads", having always hung out with them and played sports with them, with her dad also having considered her his "favourite son".
- Life of the Party: Sally is shown to be this at her own party and at the Gold Star nightclub.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Sally turns out to very much be this, as she goes from being a regular Alpha Bitch to this once she starts to befriend Frankie.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Frankie is only one of the many protagonists of Jacqueline Wilson's stories that is an aspiring writer.
- Mouthy Kid: Frankie is this to a T, especially with her father, stepmother and grandmother.
- Only Friend: Sammie appears to be this to Frankie until she befriends Sally, and later Ivneet.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Frankie and Sammie.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Sally appears to show a lot of this, which Frankie eventually realises herself, as she is always blowing hot and cold with her, and her other friends too.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Frankie is the Tomboy to Zara's Girly Girl, as well as Sally's.
- Tomboyish Name: Frankie has predominantly been a boys name (though is increasingly becoming a unisex name, with Frankie usually being short for Francesca, Francine or Frances), with this being very fitting for her tomboyish character.
- The Un-Favourite: Frankie claims she is this to her grandmother out of all her grandchildren.
- Wicked Stepmother: Downplayed with Helen, as while wicked would definitely be a stretch, she is certainly hostile and unpleasant to Frankie, actually saying she deserves a slap, and Frankie refers to her regularly as "Horrible Helen". She does also appear to be very self-centered.
