The DUFF by Kody Keplinger | Book Review

(Stand-Alone)

Published: June 7th 2011

Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper may not be the prettiest girl in her high school, but she has a loyal group of friends, a biting wit, and a spot-on BS detector. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush, who calls Bianca the Duff–the designated ugly fat friend–of her crew.

But things aren’t so great at home and Bianca, desperate for a distraction, 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.

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My Rating:  3.5/5 (Liked it)

Book Information

Publisher: Poppy

Genre(s): Young-adult romance, high school, chick-lit

Page Count: 280

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 0316084247

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Used for the Popsugar challenge: A book set in high school

Hi there! I just started and finished reading The DUFF by Kody Keplinger and while I really should finish up my other reviews for Stone Cold Touch and Pride and Prejudice, I decided to work on this one instead. So, for my rating, I want to clear up that this was a good book. 3.5 star rating may not seem like a particularly good rating, but it is. I really liked The DUFF and while I can’t pinpoint exactly why it’s a 3.5 and not 4 star rating, I just want to say it has a good rating.

Quick Summary

Bianca Piper’s always known she wasn’t the prettiest in her group of friends yet when a jerk names Wesley Rush tells her she’s the Duff (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) of the group, she’s pretty upset. Paired with complications at home, Bianca kisses Wesley, which leads to a secret physical-only relationship as a way for Bianca to be distracted from her troubles. When things go further than just physical, Bianca’s put in a sticky situation where she decides whether to run or confront face-to-face.

Plot

I will start of by saying that it was nice. I haven’t been in the mood lately for heavy, dramatic and action-type stuff, and this was perfect; teenage love problems, self-esteem issues, family, etc. were all present in the book but wasn’t overdone. It was a pretty simple story line, and was interesting to read about.

Characters

As for the characters, or more specifically Bianca Piper, I’m going to say I liked her. I know a lot of people who didn’t like her because she was a hypocrite, selfish, etc. but overall I thought she was a good protagonist. She was a hypocrite, and a lot of her actions were questionable and downright ridiculous at times, I’m not going to deny that. But what I liked about her was that she was aware of her being a hypocrite (which does not make it okay, but still gets points), as well as had a good sense of humor. Her personality is not the best I will say, but it was a pretty realistic depiction of a teenager. I will admit in the beginning I could not relate with her at all (and still can’t actually) and thought of her as an idiot for kissing Wesley against her better judgement (and then taking her anger at herself out on others) but after I finished the story I realized sometime in the book I warmed up to her. So, all in all, she was a pretty good protagonist.

I also liked the other characters like Wesley the love interest, Toby the other love interest, and Bianca’s best friends Casey & Jessica, etc. They were all enjoyable characters and contributed to the story nicely.

Writing Style

I really enjoyed Kody Keplinger’s writing style. It was simple, smooth, and flowed nicely in such a way that I flew across the words rapidly and finished the book in less than a day. The writing was light and fun, and complimented the book nicely.

Overall…

I recommend this book to anyone who’s simply looking for a light read. If hypocritical characters annoy you easily I don’t suggest reading this as you will have to put up with Bianca’s hypocrisy for most of the book. A fun read that approaches self-esteem (kind of), friendship and love, The DUFF is quite and enjoyable book.

A movie adaptation of this book was released February 12, 2015 (L.A, United States) starring Mae Whitman as Bianca, Robbie Amell as Wesley, Skyler Samuels as Jessica, and Bianca A. Santos as Casey. I haven’t seen it yet, sadly, but I hope to soon. From what I see from the trailers I’m kind of hesitant to watch it. Don’t get me wrong, it seems like it’s a good movie but I’m not sure about the book and movie differences… I get quite crticial about those sometimes. Anyway, check out the two trailers for it below (There are several other variations I think but I only put two)!

So what do you think? If you’ve watched the movie and read the book please let me know what you thought of it! And if you have only read the book, also let me know what you thought of it! 🙂 Case in point, comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

Are you hungry? I just ate, but go ahead and eat this if it seems tasty! Hopefully it won’t disappoint.

-A