Book Review: The DUFF

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

I was really excited to read The Duff by Kody Keplinger. It's one of those books that I read a line or two of the premise and that's all I needed before I put it on my "to read" list. But it sat on my shelf for a while. I put it on my list of books that needed to be read in 2012.

Bianca is your typical cynical teenager. She lives at home with her dad while her mom tours. She's pretty much M.I.A. for much of Bianca's teen years. B has two best friends who are skinny and gorgeous, and B accompanies them to parties, much to her chagrin. Wesley, a boy from her school known for hooking up with a different girl every week, begins harassing her. More or less. He calls her "the duff". Designated. Ugly. Fat. Friend. Wesley continues to call her Duffy and get under her skin at every moment.

I'm sad to report that I didn't like it as much as I'd hoped. And I think if I'd read the synopsis, I wouldn't have been so disappointed. I wasn't expecting the "friends with benefits" thing to happen. And I pretty much despised Wesley throughout the entire book. He kept calling her Duffy, not realizing it hurt her, and that ticked me off. You call a girl fat and ugly as a nickname, why wouldn't she be insulted. B's cynical attitude was fun at first. She reminded me a lot of myself, actually, until it started to feel forced. When life starts going good, the cynicism needs to be taken down a notch, and I felt she was more bratty than anything by the end.

The book held my attention, and I didn't want to put it down. I laughed. I cried. And I did enjoy it. But as I stated above, I had some definite issues with it. I'm excited to read more by Kody Keplinger soon!