After Reading

By: Meradeth Houston on 7:15 AM

The Duff by Kody Keplinger

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 "Duffy," she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren't so great at home right now. Desperate for a distraction, Bianca ends up kissing Wesley. And likes it. Eager for escape, she throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out that 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 went into this book after reading so many positive plugs that I was really eager to get my hands on it. Now, I'm not going to say that I was disappointed, but there were things about this book that kind of irked me. Yes, I really enjoyed the relationship that Bianca had with her friends--that came across as seriously genuine and heart-warming. Her issues with her parents were also complex and felt very real. I honestly think her reactions were spot-on. There were other things, however, that kind of bugged me: her plugs for liberalism felt off and left me rather annoyed (even being a liberal myself!), and I kind of had a hard time swallowing her headless plunge into so much sex. Yeah, there was rampant sexuality in high school when I was there (not that long ago, and I went to a big school in CA), but parts of things felt over the top. Even for a man-whore (lol, I laughed so hard at this term!), I just didn't see them happening between two seventeen year old's. Also, some of the dialogue came across as straight out of an episode of Buffy--not real life. I am around a LOT of eighteen year old's and none of them speak like Bianca, even the smart sarcastic ones. Anyhow, it was a good read and I found it interesting. I think it may have been built up a bit much, but I look forward to reading more of Keplinger's work in the future!