The DUFF – Kody Keplinger
*Warning – may contain spoilers*
Author: Kody Keplinger
Publisher: Hodder
Children’s Books
First published: 2010
Edition: Paperback
with movie cover
Pages: 341
Blurb: Seventeen-year
old Bianca Piper may not be the prettiest girl at school, but she has a loyal
group of friends, biting wit, and a spot-on BS detector. She’s also too smart
to fall for the charms of man-slut Wesley. But when he casually refers to
Bianca as the Duff of her crew – the designated ugly fat friend – the gloves
are off!
But things aren’t so great at
home and Bianca, desperate for a distraction, ends up kissing Wesley. Worse,
she likes it, and before she knows it she’s in a secret enemies-with-benefits
relationship with him.
Until it all goes horribly wrong.
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.
History of my copy: I picked up The DUFF
at a charity book sale for only 50p. It’s not my usual sort of book, but I
received a copy of the film so I knew I had to read it before watching it…
I only took 5 days to read The DUFF, which is pretty good
going for me! With uni and work, I don’t have much time to read so I’m quite
impressed with how quick I read it.
Plot: The basic plot of this book is
that Bianca ends up secretly getting with Wesley, a complete douche who has
always been a bit mean to her. Lo-and-behold, then end up falling for each
other, since they used to be good friends when they were younger. It’s simply a
straight forward, generic story of a ‘complicated’ high school romance.
Setting: The book is set in America and
I don’t think there was anything particularly remarkable about it.
Characters: To be quite honest, none of
the characters really stood out. Bianca was okay as a character, had a bit of
depth, but her narrative got annoying quickly. All attempts to make Wesley a
little more 2D just seemed to make him even more cliché than before.
To read or not to
read: Don’t read. Whilst a small
part of me enjoyed the book as an easy-to-read, high-school romance, it was
certainly nothing special.
