Description: 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.
My Thoughts: This is the book I chose when I started to get tired of fantasy stories. Fantasy is one of my favorite genres, but every now and then I need a break from werewolves and vampires (no offense). This was a good contemporary novel to read since I wanted to indulge myself in a more realistic world.
My favorite part about this book was Bianca. I love a lot of Bianca’s qualities. She's independent, funny, and pushes through her weaknesses. With the exception of what she did with Wesley, (*blushes*) Bianca resisted the temptation to submit to society’s whims. Even when she thought she was the Duff, she fought to remain herself, which I loved.
I really liked her two best friends. They’re both popular, and one is a cheerleader, but they didn’t fall under the stereotypical popular girl image. They were kind and empathetic.
As far as Wesley, I was surprised that I liked him as much as I did. Sure, I wanted him to hurt him every time something negative happened as a result of him calling Bianca a Duffy, but I still like him. Another reason this is surprising is because I didn’t get to know him as well as I thought I should have by the end of the book. My only explanation is that the author is good at creating sympathetic characters very quickly.
One thing that I was for lack of a better term, shocked about was all the cussing and sex.... That sentence makes it sound worse than it actually is... I wasn’t used to so much of the two in a young adult novel. I was wondered about this until I remembered how old the author is. She’s my age, give or take a year (or months). That’s when I got into the book, because I realized that her version of a teenager’s life nowadays is very close to real life, which sucks. Not that the author or this books sucks, just that fact that the amount of the two aspects are nothing compared to the amount in a teenager’s actual life.
Although I don’t really relate to cussing and sex personally, it was nice to have a more realistic story. It’s relatable, because of course every girl has felt like a Duff, at one point (or many) in time. And also, at least in my school, just because you were seen as a cheerleader , or a jock, it didn’t mean that was the only thing you could be. I like that The Duff didn’t have any one-dimensional characters. Overall, this is a very impressive start for 18 year old author Kody Keplinger. I look forward to reading many more of her (future) books.
