The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

Publication Date:  September 7, 2010
Publisher:  Little Brown/Poppy
Pages:  280
Series:  Stand Alone
Genre:  Contemporary
Synopsis:  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.


Review:  I never once thought I would pick up this book, but it was there, and I was there, and the next thing I knew, I had checked it out and found myself reading it.  

Immature writing--that's the first thing I noticed.  Not the optimal first impression, but I continued on in despite of this.  It is a lot of telling rather than showing, evidently written by someone quite young (Kody Keplinger was a senior in high school when she wrote this, apparently).  The transitions from plot development to plot development tend to be sudden and didn't flow smoothly into one another.  This is, perhaps, in part due to the predictability of the plot.  

No matter where you go or what you do to distract yourself, reality catches up with you eventually.

The message of this novel is corny, but well intended.  However, I did not like the way feminism is portrayed.  It sticks to stereotypes and clearly doesn't have a grasp on what the root of feminism actually is.  For such a supposedly liberal and progressive book, this was disappointing.

As a high school student, it can be tedious to read such unrealistic depiction of high school and teenagers: the partying, the flings, the focus on romance over the vast amounts of schoolwork that is the reality of being in AP classes.

Yet, on the other hand, the characters deal with serious issues other than gossip, which was unexpected certainly a plus.  Divorce, alcoholism, abandonment--these are not what I foresaw going into this book, but I do think that dose of reality grounds the story.   

Yeah, it was sick and twisted, but

that’s reality, right? Escape is impossible, so why not

embrace it?

Bianca is a hypocrite and she is a snarky, cynical bitch.  The judgement and hypocrisy are not positives, but I consider the cynical bitchiness to be.  Bianca does not change for anyone and she isn't ashamed to be herself, which is quite refreshing.

As for Wesley, well, I don't know whether to love him or hate him.  Yes, he's a tool and has an utter disregard for politeness, yet, at the end of the day, he turned out all right. 

The Duff is a mine field of melodramatic problems and eye rolls, yet I reluctantly like it. It's not perfect by any measure, but it's fun, and everyone needs a bit of that in their life.