Book Review: The Duff (Kody Keplinger)

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.

The Duff is a witty, funny and endearing novel, full of lessons and with lots of growing up involved. Not to mention it's also honest, sarcastic and a hugely entertaining read indeed!

Bianca Piper is very cynical and very blunt, but is also very guarded. Never in a million years would she have thought she'd kiss, let alone sleep with Wesley Rush, resident womaniser and the same jerk you just referred to her as the Duff: Designated.Ugly.Fat.Friend. And yet, she ends up doing exactly just that. I find it amusing how she can make the most ridiculous of mistakes but is still standing strong enough, willing and ready to berate herself for her every action afterwards. She goes through a lot in this book, from being lowly called the Duff, and undergoing a family breakdown, but also takes a lot from it and learns to mature and face her problems. I'm not very sure I understand completely the rationale behind her actions and decisions and in fact at times I feel I disagree with her at all.

Having said that, I am completely in love with the solidarity of her friendship with best friends Jessica and Casey and their unwavering support for her. I love how her relationship with each of them differs from the other but all three are still unequivocally bonded to and love each other. Theirs is a friendship every girls should have - and if Kody ever decides to write about these three again, I will be first in the queue to get the book.

The romance in The Duff is slightly overridden by Bianca's development as a character, but they are both so closely intwined and are integral to the plot. Wesley and Bianca's relationship (or lack thereof) is interesting, to say the least. The Duff narrates a few of their rendezvous and does not become too graphic, although it is a few words shy of being quite explicit for younger teens.

I have a few major complaints about the way the narrative is handled. I kept looking forward to understand Wesley more and to the development of his character, but The Duff falls short of that. There were not enough scenes, let alone enough dialogue from Wesley to fully understand his character and how and why Bianca falls for him. If I am not mistaken I think majority of Wesley's scenes involved sex and there was not much words to convey the depth of his character there, apart his constant question of "are you okay?" or "what's wrong?". Perhaps this affected the second flaw I noticed, which is that this book is too short for my liking. There were much emphasis on scenes I would have rather not read too much of and less on those I really would have wanted to read.

I had fun with The Duff and I'm sure will too, but I caution younger teens from reading this book just yet. Maybe wait until they're little older?

Three Stars.