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 really loved and appreciated The DUFF. In a sea of Young Adult Literature it really comes off as authentic and real to me. I loved the storyline, a girl falling for the guy she she cannot stand, I mean how does that happen and once it does what do you do!
I adored Bianca she's a rather average and normal girl but she's not boring or someone that fades into the background, she's a real person with real problems and I loved seeing her story unfold on the page. And Wesley, who doesn't know someone that comes off slimy like that! All the characters in the book were great!
I know a lot of people have commented on the language and the sex in this book. This is my take on it, the language didn't bother me one bit, I actually liked that it was written that way, it made the dialogue seem a hell of a lot more real that way. And the sex, while there was a lot, it didn't happen without explanation and I found the book to really flesh out and explain everything, nothing was meaningless.
Overall this was a breath of fresh air and I can't wait to read more from this author!
The DUFF was released on September 7th 2010
Genre: Young Adult
4.5/5 Stars
Picked up at BEA
I CANNOT wait to read this! I have to get my hands on a copy somehow.
ReplyDeleteWhat a enjoyable review!
ReplyDeleteThis book does sound like the type that sallies forth and says read me now!
Mad Scientist
madsteampunkery.blogspot.com
I enjoyed this to a point. I wondered why Bianca was always so angry. It's not like she was grossly mistreated before she was called the Duff. She has friends. She just seems to hate everything.
ReplyDeleteAn Inquiring Mind- I got her attitude, I can be like that sometimes, I totally TOTALLY understood her attitude about going out and dancing wit her friends too, it really sucks when you don't like doing the same things as your friends but want to do it anyways to hang out with them! Now I just say well you go do that and we'll get together another time!
ReplyDeleteThis does sound realistic! I love the title too! I'm glad to see it's so good.
ReplyDeleteAwesome review! I agree with you about the language - a teenager who DOESN'T have a potty mouth these days is pretty rare.
ReplyDeleteGreat review - I thought the same as you. So real!
ReplyDeleteFantastic review! I loved this one as well.
ReplyDeleteWonderful review. I loved the DUFF as well and Bianca and I could totally be friends. I hope we get the chance to read more from Keplinger sooner than later :)
ReplyDeleteI started this book ready to be disappointed. There's been so much hype, and not all of it good, that I didn't think The Duff could possibly live up to it. Then I opened it and found a pessimistic, foul-mouthed main character that I didn't think I'd grow to care about. I brought an extra book with me to read on my commute so that i could put this one down as soon as I'd read the obligatory 50 pages (this is my personal rule for books sent to me for review). Next thing I know, I'd almost missed my train stop because I was so sucked in.
ReplyDelete