E Lockhart Books in Order
This page gathers all E Lockhart books in order, with brief summaries, series overviews, and simple guidance on where to start reading her work.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
14 books
The Boyfriend List
by E Lockhart
2005
After ten disastrous days leave her friendless, boyfriendless, and labeled a drama queen, fifteen year old Ruby Oliver starts therapy and, at her shrink's urging, makes a list of every boy she has ever liked, uncovering how her own choices helped create the mess.
Fly on the Wall
by E Lockhart
2006
Gretchen Yee feels invisible at her New York City arts high school until a wish turns her into a literal fly on the wall of the boys' locker room, giving her an unfiltered, often hilarious look at how the guys she obsesses over actually talk and feel.
The Boy Book
by E Lockhart
2006
During her junior year at Tate Prep, Ruby Oliver turns again to an old notebook of rules about boys as she learns to drive, rebuilds shaky friendships, and tests whether the advice she once wrote still holds up in real life.
Dramarama
by E Lockhart
2007
Outspoken Sadye and her best friend Demi leave their Ohio hometown for an intense summer theater camp, where fierce competition, new friendships, and first love force Sadye to question her talent, her jealousy, and what it really means to belong onstage.
How to Be Bad
by E Lockhart
2008
Three Florida girls, Jesse, Vicks, and Mel, hit the road for a weekend escape to Miami, hoping to outrun family problems, silent boyfriends, and secret fears, and instead find themselves tested by hurricanes, hitchhikers, and hard conversations about who they want to be.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
by E Lockhart
2008
At a prestigious New England boarding school, sophomore Frankie Landau Banks secretly takes control of an all male secret society and orchestrates elaborate pranks, testing how far she can push against the unspoken rules that sideline smart, ambitious girls.
The Treasure Map of Boys
by E Lockhart
2009
Ruby has sworn off dating, yet she is still juggling confusing signals from several boys, a bake sale, panic attacks, and a zoo job, slowly realizing that her therapist's treasure map exercise is really about finding confidence and friendship, not just romance.
Real Live Boyfriends
by E Lockhart
2010
In her senior year, Ruby Oliver finally has a real live boyfriend in Noel, but distance, family upheaval, and his sudden withdrawal push her back into anxiety as she makes a documentary on love and tries to learn what a healthy relationship really looks like.
We Were Liars
by E Lockhart
2014
On her family's private island, wealthy teen Cadence Sinclair struggles with migraines and missing memories after a mysterious summer accident, piecing together what happened with the cousins and boy she once thought she knew best.
Genuine Fraud
by E Lockhart
2017
Genuine Fraud follows Jule, a chameleon like young woman on the run, as the story moves backward through glamorous resorts and seedy cities to reveal her intense friendship with heiress Imogen and the dangerous lies that rewrote both of their lives.
Again Again
by E Lockhart
2020
At elite Alabaster Preparatory Academy, Adelaide Buchwald spends the summer walking dogs, mending her family, and falling for a boy, while the novel shows multiple possible timelines where her choices shift their relationship in small but powerful ways.
Whistle
by E Lockhart
2021
In Gotham City, teen activist Willow Zimmerman takes a shady job to pay for her mother's medical care, only to gain dog linked superpowers after a violent run in with Killer Croc, forcing her to choose between loyalty to her benefactor and protecting her neighborhood as Whistle.
Family of Liars
by E Lockhart
2022
Set in 1987 on Beechwood Island, Family of Liars follows Carrie Sinclair through her first summer after her younger sister's drowning, when visiting boys, addiction, and a ghostly presence expose how far the family will go to hide its secrets.
We Fell Apart
by E Lockhart
2025
When eighteen year old Matilda accepts an invitation to spend the summer at the seaside home of the famous artist father she has never met, she instead finds a queer half brother, two troubled housemates, and a decaying mansion full of secrets tied to the Liars universe.
Where should I start?
If you want twisty island family drama: We Were Liars → Family of Liars → We Fell Apart.
If you like funny, anxious contemporary romance: The Boyfriend List → The Boy Book → The Treasure Map of Boys → Real Live Boyfriends.
If you prefer sharp, feminist boarding school stories: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks → Again Again.
If you enjoy performance, road trips, or superheroes: Dramarama → How to Be Bad → Fly on the Wall → Whistle.
Author bio
E. Lockhart is the pen name of writer Emily Jenkins, who has spent years crafting sharp, emotionally honest stories for children and teens.
She was born in New York City in 1967 and grew up first in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then in Seattle, Washington, with a preschool teacher mother and a playwright father. Those two worlds, one full of picture books and one full of theater rehearsals, gave her an early education in how stories work.
As a teenager she attended Lakeside School in Seattle and spent summers at drama programs at Northwestern University and the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. Later she studied English at Vassar College, where she wrote a thesis on illustrated books, then earned a doctorate in English literature from Columbia University.
Before writing full time, Jenkins worked with young children in classrooms, which kept her close to the way kids talk and think. Under her own name she built a career in picture books and chapter books, publishing titles such as Five Creatures, Toys Go Out, and Lemonade in Winter, often in collaboration with well known illustrators.
She turned to young adult fiction under the name E. Lockhart, taking the surname from her maternal grandmother. Her first book as Lockhart, The Boyfriend List, launched the Ruby Oliver quartet, following an anxious, list making Seattle teen as she navigates panic attacks, crushes, and therapy sessions.
Lockhart's breakout standalone, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, is set at an elite New England boarding school and follows a girl who secretly takes over an all male prank society. The novel was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and received a Michael L. Printz Honor for its sharp look at privilege and power.
She reached an even wider audience with the Liars novels, beginning with We Were Liars, in which wealthy cousins gather on a private island off Massachusetts and a teenager with memory loss tries to uncover the truth about a terrible summer. That book, along with the prequel Family of Liars and the companion We Fell Apart, spins a beachy gothic web of family mythology, romance, and guilt and has been adapted for television.
Across these books she returns to ambitious, observant heroines who are trying to see the systems around them clearly, whether those systems are boarding school traditions, wealthy clans, or superhero filled cities.
Other novels like Genuine Fraud, Again Again, Dramarama, and Fly on the Wall show her love of unusual structures, from backwards timelines to alternate universes and sudden metamorphoses, while still keeping the focus on messy human relationships. She has also written Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero, introducing a Jewish teen superhero who uses new powers to defend her neighborhood.
She currently lives and writes in Brooklyn, New York, continuing to publish under both Emily Jenkins and E. Lockhart and to visit schools and festivals to talk with readers.
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