Book Review - The DUFF

The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
Author: Kody Keplinger
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 7th September 2010
Publishers: Little Brown
No. Pages: 277
Source: Borrowed
Rating:

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.

While I would love nothing more than to tell you my reasons for finally picking up The Duff were pure, sadly they weren't. Yes I will admit to being one of those people who can not stand the thought of watching a film without first reading the book, regardless of it being a book I might actually enjoy. So because The Duff is going to be a film, I decided to finally give it a go. It's a contemporary book that almost everyone loves, what could go wrong? Thankfully not much as I ended up reading it in a few hours and giving it a 4.5 stars.

I think my absolute favourite thing about this book was how I felt like I could have been or was at one point Bianca. She's the DUFF or Designated Ugly Fat Friend, and this basically means that guys will only make nice with her to impress her hotter friends. It doesn't mater that she's a smart and funny girl who has a bursting personality, everyone will always see her as the odd one out. When I was in high school, though my friends never made me feel like it, I was the odd one out who was less pretty than the rest, I spoke my mind and I didn't care much about boys, as far as I was concerned I was just one of them. But just like Bianca I found myself in situations where I started to care what I wore and how I acted around boys, I wanted to change my image and finally have people consider me instead of just brushing me off. Although I never had a womaniser like Wesley to take my.. frustration out on shall we say.

So why is Wesley a womaniser I hear you ask? Well if you haven't already guessed it's because he likes to acquaintance himself with as many girls as he can without a single thought for what it could be doing for their reputation (I am fully aware that it takes two to tango and that's why e's only partly to blame for it). He's cocky, he self confident and he was the one who gave Bianca her new title. Bianca isn't attracted to him, she's one of the only girls who isn't and even goes as far as pouring her glass of cherry coke over him. He isn't flawless as he likes to think, and as the story goes on he transforms from the person who gave her the nick name to the person who helps her see that everyone is a DUFF and that it really isn't as bad as she first thought.

Overall I really did enjoy this book, far more than I thought I would. It's a gritty, raw and honest take on how it is to be in high school. The characters are well developed, the situations they are dealing with aren't over done for the sake of dramatic effect, they are just normal people going through normal things and dealing with it in a semi normal way. It was such a good first book and I find it remarkable that Kody Keplinger is so young and love that this story was inspired by a friend of a friend being called a DUFF.

I'm so gad that I got around to reading this, and though I can tell there is going to be a few changes to the story line just by watching the trailer, I am really looking forward to seeing the film (to the point where I'll probably have to go alone why my partner is in work and my daughter is in school haha). If you are on the fence about reading this, give it a go, you'll like it or you wont :)