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I have been doing some thinking and I've come to the conclusion that I need to take a temporary break from book blogging. NOTE: Any tour stops that I've committed to will be honored. I have decided that I want to combine my love of books, blogging, knitting, movies digital photography and life in general into 1 blog so that I don't feel so overwhelmed. Right now I feel like my book blogging is a job, I already have one of those. My plan is to come back in the near future with a new blog and a new plan.

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Saturday, January 1, 2011

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

Title: The DUFF
Author: Kody Keplinger
Series: 
Genre: YA, YA Romance
Publisher: Little Brown/Poppy Books
Release Date: 2010, September 7
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Source: Public Library
Rating: 4/5
Synopsis:
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 “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face.  
But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She 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.

Review:

I started this book really early this morning (for those who are new here I work third shift so when your up I'm sleeping and vice versa) and I could NOT put it down. It was one of those that I really liked but at the same time it annoyed me.  It's difficult to explain really.

When I picked up this book at the library I thought that the premise was interesting. Life at home is rough for Bianca so she goes looking for an escape....and finds it in her enemy Wesley Rush.  I guess what annoyed me about there relationship is that from the beginning it pretty much entirely sexual. Which I didn't find out until I started reading.  That's what started it...Oh, but there's more.

I really liked the characters a lot (with a few annoyances thrown in).  I think that the author did a pretty good job of depicting a marriage that's not so great, as well as being a child of divorced parents.  I do think that at times the main characters were written in a negative manner....I don't know if it was because the author was trying to write from the mindset of a teenager or what, but there were times that Wesley came off as pretty much 100% teenage man whore and Bianca came off as pretty selfish and, in my opinion, needy at times.

Overall, I thought that the premise and writing as a whole were really pretty great for a debut author.  If you've seen what I've rated this book above (4/5) you might be asking yourself...What the heck?!  There's a fair amount of negativity in this review how did it score so high?  But like I said above...I REALLY liked this book even though it annoyed the heck out of me at times.

6 comments:

Jezzy said...

Sounds interesting think it can go on my wish list

T.B. said...

Thanks for your review, as it really put things into perspective. I didn't realize certain aspects about this book, but you revealed and clarified them for me. Thanks, as now I'll debate on whether I would like to read it or not!

Adrianne said...

I agree with a lot of what you said about this book. In a weird way, I found myself enjoying it against my will. The character of Wesley was fabulous, but extremely unrealistic, in my opinion. There probably isn't a teenage boy on the planet that could withstand the verbal lashings Bianca rained down on him and still be interested in her. I found that part unrealistic and... perhaps setting a bad example...?... But yes, I got sucked in and found it hard to put it down. The heck with setting an example. ;O)

Jen said...

I felt the same way. I was annoyed, but in the end I liked it. I thought the relationships were depicted well. For the most part I thought Bianca was a smart girl, but I was also disturbed with her.

25kati said...

I totally agree with you on this book.

Sunshine said...

I have been debating about whether or not to add this one to my TBR list. This was a good review and though I'm still thinking about it I'm leaning toward adding this one to the list. Thanks.