The DUFF

Bianca Piper isn't peppy, cheery or flirty. She'd rather stay home on a Friday night binge watching old TV shows than being dragged to a crappy club and forced to dance to music that she hates.

But that is exactly where we find her at the beginning of the book. Sitting alone at the bar, nursing a Cherry Coke and watching the minutes tick by so agonizingly slow that she is almost tempted to go out on the dance floor. Almost.

Cue Wesley Rush.

Bianca is less than thrilled when he starts chatting with her, so much so that she doesn't even try to hide her distaste for him, but that doesn't stop Wesley. After all if he talks to her (The DUFF (designated ugly fat friend) of the group) that will make him more appealing in the eyes of her two show more hot friends.

After processing what Wesley said and what he called her all Bianca can do it throw her Cherry Coke in his face, find her friends and leave.

But Bianca can't get that four letter word out of her head, no matter how hard she tries she keeps thinking of herself as the DUFF.

When her home life gets to be too much and a blast from the past shows up the only thing Bianca can do to distract herself is... Well... Wesley.

Suddenly she finds herself addicted to him, needing him to keep her mind off of all the drama unfolding in her life.

It's nothing real, they aren't dating, it's simply a friends with benefits situation, minus the friends part.

But after a series of rather unfortunate events Bianca realizes that Wesley isn't as bad as she thought he was and that maybe, just maybe she's falling for him.

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I don't know why I'm so surprised that I loved this book as much as I did.

I think this is the first time ever that I watched the movie adaptation before reading the book so maybe that has something to do with it but let me just be clear- THE BOOK IS ALWAYS BETTER!

While the movie was all fun and games and centered mostly around the DUFF and what it meant, the book was so much deeper and felt much more real then it's counterpart.

I instantly felt a connection to Bianca, her snarky comments and constant cynicism spoke to my soul- or the lack there of.

I've never been a fan of 'insta-love' but after reading The DUFF I can say that I'm a HUGE fan of 'insta-hate'.

From the beginning Bianca despises Wesley and everything he stands for, he's a man-whore, nothing more.

But slowly she comes to realize that there is so much more to him than what she previously thought and that you can't judge a book by it's (seriously toned) cover.

One of my favorite parts is when Wesley tells Bianca "No matter where you go or what you do to distract yourself, reality catches up eventually."

I instantly had a flash back to Paul Varjack telling Holly Golightly that "No matter where you run you just end up running into yourself."

Distractions are just that, they don't make the problems go away, they don't make them any smaller or easier to deal with. Whether our problems center around being a DUFF, divorced parents or alcoholism.

Soon or later we have to face them head on.

For a man-whore Wesley had some pretty good advice. ;)

Simply put I adored this book.

I'm a little pissed at myself for having put off reading it for so long and I fully intend on making up for that with quite a few re-reads in the near future.

Until next time,
Ginger

In compliance with FTC guidelines I am disclosing that this book was given to me for free to review.

My review is my honest opinion. show less

Considering that I had absolutely nothing in common with any of the characters in this book, I found the first three quarters of it surprisingly enjoyable. But the ending.... Normally I am all about the happy ending, but after reading through the details of the characters' complicated lives and watching their utter failure to cope with any of that with anything approaching maturity, I just didn't buy that they could have a Happily Ever After. Not at this point in their lives, anyway.

Don't get me wrong: they made great strides toward maturity by the end of the book. And I'm sure there are couples out there who've worked through the kinds of unhealthy coping mechanisms exhibited by Bianca and Wesley. But The Duff's ending arrived too soon show more for me to trust that Bianca and Wesley would be one of those success stories. Their happy ending felt glib, insincere. A more equivocal, if still optimistic, conclusion would've been a better fit. show less

Bianca is horrified to realize that among her friends, she is the DUFF - the Designated Ugly Fat Friend. Casey is a modelesque (read: tall and thin), blonde cheerleader and Jessica is curvy and bouncy. Bianca, with her large hips, small boobs, and unmanageable hair, is definitely the DUFF. And when things start to fall apart with her parents, she finds herself swept up in a pseudo-relationship with the very guy who introduced her to the concept of the DUFF - Wesley. Wesley is a first class asshole and Bianca absolutely hates everything about him... except for the way his kisses help her escape the stress in her life. But when she finds herself thinking about him more and more, she'll have to decide - when is enough enough?

I found this show more book unexpectedly delightful! It's a strong debut by a teen author. Bianca felt like a very realistic character and her problems weren't simple. She turned to a somewhat destructive way of dealing with her stress, like some teens are wont to do. I love how Keplinger explores this without sounding message-y and still managing to give readers a satisfying conclusion. Keplinger's an author to watch. show less

When The DUFF came out, I didn’t really want to buy it. I’d heard mixed reviews and every time I thought about buying it, something else had just come out. Well, I finally bought it for my Kindle, and I am absolutely kicking myself for not reading it earlier.

I loved The DUFF. It was vulgar and sometimes graphic – sex was a big focal point of the story, but that’s kind of what made it. Kody Keplinger didn’t shy away from sex like a lot of authors do. It’s a very honest, contemporary book and I enjoyed reading it very much.

I loved Bianca as a protagonist. She was snarky, mean, and sarcastic, and was a very real character. There were parts where I was reading it and thinking, “Wow, this is me in high school!” Bianca went show more through a lot in this book, some I could really identify with (such as the jackass boyfriend in the 9th grade) and some things that I couldn’t (such as some of her family issues). But the way she dealt with these issues, along with school and her issues with her friends, were what made her so real to me.

Wesley? He’s made his way up into my Top 10 Male Literary Figures. I don’t know who he knocked off, but he’s up there. I’ve said it time and time again in my reviews – I love the bad guys in books. And he wasn’t even a bad guy, really! He was just snarky and mean, but oh so nice. I can’t even explain my love for him – you’ll just have to read it, honestly.

There were parts of the storyline that I felt were a little rushed, such as the resolving of Bianca’s family issues. But despite all that, I read this book in one sitting. I just could not get enough of it and when it ended, I wanted more. The DUFF is a fantastic debut from Kody Keplinger and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next. show less

So, I watched the movie, and decided I had to read the book. I did really love the movie, and well, let's just say the book is way different. Not just different b/c movie adaption, but they could almost be two different stories.
Anyway, I think that the movie sort of had a better way of explaining The DUFF concept, b/c I feel as if the DUFF concept wasn't really developed in the book. Like yeah, Wesley constantly calls Bianca a DUFF but really that's about it.

I think it was really interesting to try to add seriousness to it, but I think it was definitely hard pulling off Bianca's dad's alcoholism, it felt dramatic and over-the-top, but again Kody was just 19 and tbh, who gets published at 19? Shit, I'm twenty and still barely hanging.

The show more character of Bianca is interesting, and maybe one that's hard to swallow? She has a strong personality, almost reminds me of my best friend, and a lot of people might not find it pleasant. I don't necessarily like her? But I like her character if that makes sense. I also love the raw sexuality of Bianca, as you don't read much about girl's sexuality in YA books. The few things that brought it down was all the slut-shaming; I almost stopped reading, and yeah at the end it's like WOW LET'S NOT USE THE WORD SLUT? but after 200 pages of using words like slut, whore, tramp, flutzy, and all that shit, I had a hard time believing the sentiment. show less

"It was insulting and hurtful, and it was one of those titles that just fed off an inner fear every girl must have from time to time. Slut, bitch, prude, tease, ditz. They were all the same. Every girl felt like one of these sexist labels described her at some point."

Yes YES and a whole-hearted YES!!!! The message in this book - the growing up and coming-of-age, life is tough and the choices are tough and YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES!!! - is just perfect. Because you will, you will make mitakes. You will make the choices you never thought you would.

and just may have someone try to tie those titles above - those seixst horrible titles - to YOU.

"And it wasn't my place to judge. It was never my place to judge."

But this books is so right! A show more person who uses that title, who labels someone - it says more about them than you. And we never know what's going on in someone else's life and what drove them to make their choices - so why judge? why not try to understand. and if you're too angry to do that, try to help.

and if that message isn't enough to get you to read this book. The plot is great, Bianca is good fun because she is angry and angsty and - hey, she's going through some stuff and trying her best to make decisions on her own.
And she's got some great friends!

And every friendship should include at least one conversation that involves a variation of this comment:
"I totally disprove of murdering hotties, but if you need help burying the body, you know I'll bring the shovel." show less

I did not expect to like this book as much as I did. I'll be honest, I only picked this up because I saw the movie trailer and thought it looked funny. I know, not very bookwormy (shhh, this is totally a word!) of me... I still haven't seen the movie, but I have been very pleasantly surprised by this book! There was a lot more to this story than I initially thought, and I was amazed at how deeply some passages resonated with me even though I am (only slightly) older than the intended audience.

At the beginning, I didn't really like Bianca, the main character. I found her annoying and slightly arrogant, so fairly close to what teenagers are actually like. But I loved seeing her change and grow throughout the book! She started out thinking show more she was more mature than her friends and schoolmates, but ended up realising she was just like them, though in her own way. In other words, she ended up really maturing. Bianca felt very real to me, as she struggled with plenty of issues with her family and her friends and also with having to learn to accept herself for who she is, and not only for how others may see her. For me, this is a very powerful message to convey, particularly to all those teenage girls who may struggle with the same issues: love yourself for who you are and don't bother with what others may think of you. Those who truly love you will always stand by your side, no matter how pretty, or thin, or popular you are.

Overall, this was a very pleasant read. The writing flowed nicely, and the story kept going at a very good pace, with very few slow passages. The development of the main character was definitely the best thing about this book, even though some of the other characters suffered a bit from underdevelopment. I really liked how the author weaved in some discussion on serious issues affecting teenage girls everywhere, such as self-confidence and self-acceptance, teenage love, perception of your own body image, and the so-called "slut-shaming". They were all dealt with incredibly well, even for someone (like me) who has happily left her high-school days behind. Definitely recommended if you're looking for a teenage novel slightly different from the rest. show less