When Frannie is desperate to get the attention of her crush, her fabulous (and gay) best friend Marcus suggests that Frannie chat with him online. Too bad Frannie’s terrified. She won’t type a word without Marcus’s help.
In the chat room, Marcus and Jeffrey hit it off. But the more Marcus writes, the more he’s convinced that Jeffrey is falling for him, not Frannie.
Whose romance is this anyway? Read this heartwarming comedy of errors to find out.
Bestselling author Lisa Papademetriou is the author of the 'Confectionately Yours' series, 'Middle School: Big, Fat Liar' and 'Homeroom Diaries' (both with James Patterson), and many other novels for middle grade and young adult readers. Her books have appeared on the Bank Street Best Books of the Year list, the NYPL Books for the Teen Age, and the Texas Lone Star Reading List, among others. A former editor, Lisa has worked for Scholastic, HarperCollins, and DisneyPress, and holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. HarperCollins will publish her next novel, 'A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic', in October 2015.
“It’s just . . . interesting that you can never really know what’s going on in someone else’s mind... If someone chooses not to tell you something, how would you ever know it? You’d think you could guess, but . . .”
M or F? or Marcus or Frannie was a very quick and light read, complete with all the drama, all the angst, and all the pining of miscommunicated romance that make up a typical YA read. Did I enjoy it?? Ahhhh, it was - I don't particularly enjoy when characters impersonate the other in order to charm someone else, only to fall for said person themselves. It's a messy plot - and it always has the potential for people to get hurt - in this case brain twins, best of friends, Marcus and Frannie.
Both characters were very well-fleshed out - but it doesn't mean I liked them. Frannie had her own issues of insecurity and inability to voice her opinions and affections for the object of their attraction, Jeffrey. Sometimes I feel that girls like the idea of having a boyfriend rather than the boyfriend, himself. At times, she really did act a bit callous and uncaring in her behavior, but I guess, that's what being a teenage girl is all about.
“I really hate it when you try to share something with someone and they just stare at you like you’re nuts. That was part of what I loved about Marcus. You could say something like, “The way the afternoon light is shining on that trash can is really beautiful,” and he would know what you were talking ...”
Their friendship, despite being so perfect, so very well-in tune with each other - even agreeing to be the third wheel in a relationship was a setup for disaster. I know she realized in the end how hurtful and difficult it must have been for her gay best friend to be the one making the ones on the boy that she claimed to be attracted to - luckily, it all worked out well for everyone - but it still didn't make the process any messier and heavier than it was. 😔
“Anytime someone can take a bunch of different elements that no one else would think of putting together and then make them work in some unexpected way, I’m interested. To me, that’s art. It’s surprising. It’s strange. It’s inspiring. It’s all of the above.”
I enjoyed Marcus as a character - I liked how confident he was in what he liked and who he liked - the times that he even felt guilty about pretending to be Frannie as he chatted oh not-so-innocently with Jeffrey made my heart ache, because it was inevitable that this was a recipe for disaster. All with his Southern boy flair, his wry sense of humor, love for Indian musicals (this was a treat! name-dropping of Bollywood films I grew up with like Sholay and Kal Ho Na Ho did bring a smile to my face 😊), and his penchant for caving in to Frannie's whims - he may not look like he's flailing emotionally, but inside he really was struggling to find a way to express himself openly.
But, fortunately life has a way of working out for the best for all parties involved. With the many side characters that each added their own flavor to the mix - from Frannie's parents who were on the path to re-introduce themselves to romance in their lives, to Marcus' grandmother Patricia, who may have never acknowledged her grandson as gay, but had always supported him unknowingly, to Jeffrey, a genuinely great guy who really did care for Frannie and got caught in the crossfires, and Glenn, the perfect balance to Marcus with his kindness and charm that made him all the more likable in the end. ❤️ ❤️
If honestly, this had only been the story of Marcus, caught in the limbo of a love triangle between his best friend, his supposed love interest and his potential love interest, I really think it would have had the potential of being a much better and more enjoyable read. Sad to say that it wasn't the case. Still, it had enough twists and sweet but uncomfortable moments that reminded me how awkward and socially challenging being 'sweet sixteen' really was. ✨✨
It was a bit of a long road for me to get this book. ^^'' The first time I saw it I was dying to read it because it just drew me in. Alas, I was broke and my dad refused to buy it, as we were only there to buy a gift for someone. The next time I went back I had money but it wasn't there. I found myself immersed in another book and simply put it in the back of my mind. A few weeks later I went back to said bookstore with money but was pleasantly suprised when I was looking for a different book when I found this one! It was so worth the seven dollars I paid and I am insanely happy I bought it. It was a great teen fiction book because it was the first book I'd read featuring a gay male character that was not stereotypically effeminate. Quirky Franny and loevable Marcus were a perfect team of POV-changing-by-chapter protaganists. Not to mention the twists (Glenn is gay? Didn't see that coming!) near the end were a great addition to an already fun book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
M or F is about two best best best friends. One film loving gay boy and the other an opinionated shy chick who gets all her clothes in a funky thrift shop. These two amazingly compatible teenagers are cheering for eachother to find 'the one'. Frannie (the girl) thinks she's found Mr. Right. Marcus knows she found Mr. Right, but winds up believing that maybe Frannies Mr. Right was actually his Mr. Right.
While reading this book I made a text-to-text connection between M or F and the book Boy Meets Boy. I thought both these books had a similar rhythm. Both books kind of held up the domono effect. They were both very well written and fast paced. Both books had very unexpected turning of events.
I gave this book four stars because it was very well written and the story really flowed together nicely. I liked how complicated yet simple the plot was and how developed the characters were, both with remarkably uncloneable personalities. I would recommend this book to anyone who's read any of David Levithan's books! They have the same wry humor and flowy dialog. Great book! Highly recommended!
M of F tells the story of Frannie and Marcus, she straight, he gay, who are best friends in high school. A modern reworking of Cyrano de Bergerac, the story was just too predictable for my tastes.
The book alternates between Marcus's voice and Frannie's with Ms. Papademetriou writing for Frannie and her friend, Christopher Tebbets writing the Marcus chapters. Big problem there is that Mr. Tebbets' chapters are so much stronger and more interesting. I wanted to just skip over Frannie entirely and read "The Story of Marcus."
To be honest, I wasn't positive I was going to like this book, but once I started reading it... I felt like I was being sucked into a black hole. That's how much I liked the book. I couldn't put it down! It's so relatable, humorous, full of drama, and...deep. The main characters are teenagers in high school, but I would recommend this book to anyone because it captures the emotions people go through when finding someone the like...even if it's more than friendship. This book is definitely one of my all time favorites and I recommend to guys and girls of all ages. Well... except younger children. It does have foul language and some adult-like jokes in it.
This book was suggested to me for our book club Kris Kringle. It's a YA book based around high school besties Frannie and Marcus. Frannie has a major crush on Jeffrey but is too shy to do anything about it. In steps her gay best friend Marcus to help her write messages to Jeffrey to win him over. It goes beyond that as Marcus starts developing feelings for him.
A large chunk of this book reminded me of the movie the truth about cats and dogs, which I absolutely love. Besides the twist at the end this felt like an inferior version of that movie.
This would be a great book for teens and young adults, especially ones who are around LGBTQIA+ people 😂 It has a strong lesson of communication and learning to jot judge books by their covers.
This was a fun, quick read (once I started reading it). The only reason my start and finish date aren't 3 days apart is because I started it right before I got another book I was excited for 😂
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Found this at my local thrift store & the title and cover intrigued me. A sweet little middle-grade story of two best friends coming of age. I wish I would have read this in 2005 when it was published & I was 12 and in the proper age range for the audience. But it was so sweet and a quick little pride read!
Personal Review I think it was a good book because it was about two friends thinking Frannie's crush, Jeffery, was gay. Also the reason I thought it was because it taught that you should not judge someone if they're gay or not.
Plot The book was about how Frannie likes Jeffrey, and Marcus tries to help her on the school website in a private group chat. After a while, they start to hit it off, and Frannie helped Jeffery with the school program. They start to like each other even more than online. Then Marcus started to be Frannie, and he started to like him more than Frannie did. Marcus and Frannie got into a fight. Marcus said that he was talking to Jeffrey more than Frannie was. They didn't talk for weeks after they fought, at the end Jeffery and Frannie started to be a real couple.
Recommendation I recommend this book to the ages of 14-24, because it might offend people that don't like guys being couple. I also recommend to people that like romantic and funny books. It was also easy too read for people that don't know big or hard words.
M or F? follows Fannie the quirky hopeless romantic, who has fallen for (the oh so hottest vegetarian activist) Jeffrey, but is too shy to express her feelings towards him. So Marcus the film junkie, aka her gay best friend decides to help make Jeffrey notice her. Though things don’t go as plan when Marcus secretly starts developing feelings for Jeffrey.
Last night I finished reading M or F? when I should have been doing my 4 page paper(I regret nothing). I was halfway through the book and I needed to know how everything was going to end. I’m so glad I decided to read this, after all the books I have been reading for school I needed a light read, and this book was it.
M or F? was short and a fun read, this book had me laughing and flipping through the pages non stop, I really enjoyed how this book ended, and I kind of want more. I’ll definitely check out more books also by the authors, I love their humor and writing. It was like I was watching a teen romantic comedy as I read.
And of-course this book couldn’t be amazing without these awesome character, I love Frannie and Marcus’s friendship, I want a friendship like theirs. Also a cool grandmother like Patricia who is comfortable being naked around her house. But I especially fell in love with Glenn, he is so adorable and hot >.<
But overall I highly recommend you pick this book up. I had this book like for a year and half I can’t believe I didn’t read it sooner.
This is a rather enjoyable adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac. Girl likes Boy. Girl sees Boy in the high school chat room as he's trying to recruit volunteers for a service project. Girl gets nervous and has Gay Best Friend do the typing in the chat room for her. Comedy and High School Drama ensue from there. There are some fun twists here and there leading up to the final resolution.
Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant about picking up the book at first because it has two authors who alternate chapters. This can be done well (Armageddon Summer) or it can be done quite poorly (Rob&Sara.com) as a copout for an author incapable of creating multiple characters to narrate through. I was pleased to see that it worked in this instance. Marcus and Frannie have distinct personalities and the story is nicely integrated and tied together. There were a few glitches here and there that should have been caught by a good editor or a decent copyeditor. Of course, maybe I'm just noticing those because I'm not giving enough attention and devotion to my own books.
Given the size of the book, figured I'd probably spend some time over two days (or maybe three if I read slowly) going through this.
I spent a couple of hours ripping through it and finished it the day I started. A little slow to initially start up, it really started to pick up some steam as we came to know (and love) Marcus and Frannie, the two protagonists (and best friends). With only one area where it slowed down, the book was what I'd call a rip-roaring good time, despite my hesitancy to even say that "rip-roaring" is even a realistic part of the English language. I say that it was a rip-roaring good time because I ripped through the book, and roared with excitement as I did so (well, it was probably more like giggling, but whatever).
Until the finale, though, I really had the feeling that it was kind of a less witty, less profane, more homosexual love child of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Cyrano de Bergerac, which was fine, because Nick and Norah is my favorite book of all time and Cyrano one of my favorite plays. But the ending to the book was so unexpected and so brilliant that it really launched itself from 4 stars to 5 stars. Absolutely incredible book.
The thing about this book is that the summary can be really misleading. I mean, the summary isn't very...accurate, that might not be the best word to use. It's true that the book makes you laugh, and it is fast paced, so I would definitly recommend this book to anyone who wants to laugh and, be a little surprised.
So here's MY summary of M orF?:
Frannie is a somewhat shy, fashionista, who follows her own trends. She falls for Jeffrey, a gorgeous, sensitive, and politically aware Sophmore, but she's way to shy to talk to him. So she turns to Marcus, her fabulous, gay, southern, best friend to help her. They find out that Jeffrey likes to hang out a lot on their school's chat room, so Marcus tells Frannie to talk to Jeffrey there. She's to shy so Marcus does it for her, posing as her. Marcus and Jeffrey hit it off,but Marcus after a while starts to think that Jeffrey likes him, not Frannie. So he winds up falling for Jeffrey too.
Long story short, everyone winds up falling in love with someone and romances are formed, but who ends up with who? (this is where I tell you the most used ending to a summary) If you want to know you have to read the book. There has to be a more original ending to a summary. Leave a comment, what do you think?
This was a pretty entertaining romantic comedy sort of book - Hera had told me to read it, but I only just got round to it. Light-hearted YA gay lit. I enjoyed the friendship between brain twins Frannie and Marcus and how they both fell for the same guy - and nice that neither of them actually ended up with him. They were pretty snarky characters. I liked best things like - Frannie line-dancing! Marcus's job at the ice cream parlour! But mostly line-dancing! It was plenty amusing, and if maybe everything tied together too nicely at the end, that only goes with the genre.
In a way, the romantic relationships were less interesting then the friendship itself - I am very big on strong platonic friendships at the moment, and this was a good one. The friendship wasn't secondary to the romance.
Ok the best thing about this book is like oh yea i can predict the unexpected twist but thEN ITS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU THOUGHT AND YOUR MIND LIKE EXPLODES! But overall this book was incredible and I loved it. The plot was unique, the characters were real, the imagery was vivid. The romance was beautiful, the story was phenomenal, i could not have been more pleased with this book. It's a must read, definitely go check it out <3
This book was really funny! I was literally laughing or giggling aloud in every chapter. It took me about a day to read, mostly because I wanted to see what over-the-top event would happen next. I did think the who-was-gay-and-who-was-not thing was a little unbelievable, but it made for a fun story so who cares. It was kind of like Cyrano de Bergerac crossed with a Shakespearean mix-up!
I LOVED this book. there were so many unexpected twists and i found myself blushing at the funny embarrassing parts. I also loved the ending. I would read this over and over again, and someday i'll get it myself from the bookstore.
It was a cute, fun read. I enjoyed getting to see both Frannie and Marcus' view points. They were both great characters with a wonderful friendship. The book wasn't super special but it was great and all of the characters were great! 3.5/5
I liked: -Marcus -Jeffrey (mostly) -Astrid -Other secondary characters like Frannie's family, Marcus's family, Marcus's coworkers. So sadly the likes are not enough to give it more than two stars.
I disliked (some even hated): -Frannie (sorry if I mispell her name) -How everyone treated Jenn -So much Girl vs Girl/putting girls against each other... or was it just Frannie against every girl? Even her own friends? Ugh. -SO MUCH GAY STEREOTYPES. OMG. WHAT DECADE IS THIS??? Wtf, Is this for real??* -Jeffrey being kind of put out by Glenn's joke about gay Thursdays at Line Them Up or whatever. Like, what was all that about? Was it just to confused us or what? -Frannie trying to drug Jeffrey with the Ginseng/chocolate???? Like????? Wtf -The twist at the end. I'm sorry but I didn't like it.**
*Frannie was such an LGBT ~~~ally~~~, saying she knew gays from the first moment, saying Marcus was just sooo gay and she knew since day 1 evEN THOUGH HER REASONS WERE NON GAY??? This girl confuses me so much. Ugh, sorry for caps but Frannie and her view on gay guys really got into my nerves. And like how she said that Jeffrey was gay because he was such a sensitive guy, ironed his shirts (even though Frannie didn't know if his parents or a maid ironed his shirts but whatever), liked writing/reading poetry, rented the movie Casablanca to watch with her, hated sports because oh no, obviously every straight boy love sports. But of course, according to Frannie every straight boy is into sports and hates poetry and can't be sweet kind or sensitive/sentimental, and obviously if your date thinks that you may like a romantic movie then he's obviously gay, yeah, of course. Uggghh. It just makes her kind of homophobic to have those views/those stereotypes on LGBTQ people especially gay guys.
**After that twist at the end was revealed, I thought it was obvious, yeah... but still would have preferred Jeff/Marcus and not Glenn who (like Marcus said) was straight for the whole book until the few last chapters. I get it, anyone can be gay, no stereotyping or anything, that's not what I'm complaining about. But we could have had more scenes of Glenn/Marcus or just as much of their scenes as we had Jeffrey/Marcus. That's why I didn't like the pairing at the end, because I couldn't see the chemistry, it felt like it came out of nowhere and they didn't have many scenes together, it was more "insta-love" than slow build (which I prefer) so... yeah.
I would have liked this way more if it was just Marcus's POV and if the Jeffrey/Glenn was better executed. But as it is like this right now, it's a HUGE disappointment. I expected so much of this book, and it was such a let down.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Wow, I happened upon this book at a local booksale and was pretty skeptical at first. "Ah," I thought, reading the summary. "some story about a girl and her ~sassy, gay friend~ fuuun..." But I kept picking it back up, flipping through it, rereading the summary. Something about it just caught my attention. Then I noticed there were two authors, and one of them was male. I think that was the tipping point that landed it in my "to buy" pile.
I couldn't get the book off my mind, and the moment I left the book fair, I was already reading it. I didn't have to get far before I knew I'd made the right decision. To start off, the humor in this is fantastic. Not a chapter went by that didn't make me laugh. Next, any and all fears I had about Marcus's portrayal were out the window. Sassy, gay friend-accessory WHO? Marcus was his own person and a wonderful one to read at that! Of course he fit some stereotypes (we all do in some way, don't we?), but he wasn't a walking stereotype. I just really enjoyed his humor and how... human he was, as if you could run into someone like him out on the street. Finally, I like how the story kept me on edge. There were these twists and turns I hadn't even expected.
This was just such a fun read that I literally couldn't put it down. (If not for the fact that 1 am "technically" counts as a new day, I would've finished it in one.) If you're having any doubts, I would wholly recommend it. It's worth the read & then some.
I picked this book up from my local small-town middle or nowhere library without reading the description, because the cover looked intellectual and everyone would assume I'm reading a smart person book. The ending of this book was, well to say the least INCREDIBLY UNEXPECTED. I was just, so caught by surprise, yet it made perfect and total sense. Reading this book my two critiques were 1. We don't even know Jeffery, he honestly doesn't have good chemistry with Marcus OR Frannie. And 2. This book barely focuses on Jeffery. And BOTH OF THOSE CONCERNS GOT SOLVED. Ok, I have more critiques than that, but those were all plot critiques. The epilogue though was just *chefs kiss*. It took place in the chat room where it all started *sighs dreamily*. It showed every happy couple, and honestly, they all have great chemistry. It was the kind of epilogue I wished all books had. I do however wish the chapters were a bit shorter. Whenever the chapters -and the pov-changed I had a confusion period of about 3 pages where I wasn't sure who was talking. I just got way too used to one pov. Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. While it's not a new favorite, I do wish more people knew about it. I think booktok would really like this book if they knew about it.
I picked this book up thinking it was going to be a queer version Cyrano de Bergerac... which is was not.
I was still trying to ball with the story however, because who doesn't like early 2000s chat rooms, and books that were published before Fall Out Boy's 2007 hit album Infinity on High.
This book still hits as disappointing as we are caught chapter by chapter by either Marcus who is sort of living in a delusion world where some presumably straight guy is falling in love with him, or Frannie who is honestly seems to not understand that the people around her are not NPCs but individuals with feelings and wishes.
I was surprised by the lack of blatant homophobia which was refreshing for a time when I know high schoolers were throwing around the f-slur like a crumpled up math test. Though this book ultimately lands flat as we try to straddle working between Frannie who will do anything to get a guy to like her except be herself and Marcus who ends up falling in love conveniently with the only other closeted gay guy who he previously called "the dumbest man alive".
In the book M or F, there are two best friends who are in high school, who both end up crushing on the same guy. One is Frannie, a girl who’s parents have quite a bit of money, and Marcus, a boy who’s family is little haphazard. Frannie crushes on a guy is her high school. The boy who wants to save the planet and is vegetarian. Of course, Marcus ends up crushing on him. This all started because Frannie couldn’t talk to her crush on her own, so she got Marcus to do it for her. I loved the way the authors kept the readers on their toes about what was going on, as well as some of the cute and funny scenes in the book that just make everything hilarious.
I would recommend this book to middle schoolers because of its simplistic storyline, but entertaining characters. One of the scenes might be slightly inappropriate, but the writing is very much simple, so a slightly younger reader wouldn’t have to worry. All in all, this book was very cute and pleasant to read. It was “straight”-forward and didn’t jump around in the plot. Each twist increased the joy of reading this book.
A bit of a strange book, I must say, but it was surprisingly realistic and I felt slight twinges of nostalgia for old high school shenanigans. I would have rated it higher except I don't feel like to ME it's a 4 star book, as there were some nit-picks I had with it and I probably won't re-read it anytime in the foreseeable future. I am quite happy I finally picked this up after it being on my shelf for over a year, the ending felt a bit forced and it employed quite a few minor irritating high school LGBT tropes (such as "the only gay character learns someone they hate is also gay and oops suddenly they like each other" and "I love him I love him I love him--oops he likes me back? Not interested")but aside from those if you are looking for a quick read with some LGBT themes that aren't terribly ham-fisted, then do pick this up!
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.
Frannie and Marcus have been best friends since they met on the first day of high school. When Frannie confesses to Marcus that she has a huge crush on Jeffrey, one of the boys at their school, Marcus encourages Frannie to go for it. Frannie is unsure what to say, so Marcus helps her chat with Jeffrey online. Eventually, Marcus starts chatting to Jeffrey as Frannie without her knowing, and he begins to wonder if Jeffrey is actually falling for Frannie or him.
This book was a funny, quick read. The story was as much about Frannie and Marcus’s friendship as it was about their crushes. If you like YA romantic comedies, you will love this book!
Read as part of the PopSugar Reading Challenge 2019, to fill 16) A book with a question in the title.
Honestly not really sure how I feel about this book, and no idea what I really want my star rating to be. I enjoyed it, I think? It's better than the garbage summary makes it sound, anyway. And holy shit is it full of misdirects. It was good, but there were a few morally and ethically questionable decisions which ended up being laughed off which I'm not super comfortable with . But I liked it more than I expected to.
Honestly, I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did. It's certainly not bad - it is what it says on the box, a high school romance full of miscommunication and weird/uncomfortable moments. I think my biggest issue is the ending. It's like they threw in all the sort-of plot twists they could think of at once, and none of them were entirely exciting to me. The characters were fairly unique and interesting, but something about the execution just didn't do it for me. And so many convenient/not so convenient misunderstandings. To be fair, I probably would've enjoyed this more in my early teens. Guess maybe I'm just not the target audience for this one lol
I kind of like the last plot twist but now that I think about it it doesn't make any sense. I liked Frannie character better than Marcus, Jeffrey was such a good guy and Glenn too both guys were too good for their MCs. I got annoyed at Frannie because she didn't even try to get to know Jeffrey and mad at Marcus for not apologizing to his Best friend after betraying her and going behind her back to talk with her future boyfriend and she is the one that apologized for that? Makes no sense to me.
This is one of My favorite tropes and this is the perfect example of how to do it wrong. Good job on that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.