Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 280
Published: September 7th 2010
Source: Borrowed from Library
Summary from Goodreads:
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.
My review:
Cover:
I love the cover. It's really interesting how that girl with the bubblegum kinda represents the Duff. The girl's eyeshadow colour also matches the bubblegum colour. The title of the book is set up in a really interesting way with big letters of D U F F and what each initial stands for.
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| 4 Forget-me-not flowers for the cover! |
I never read a book like this before. Never. A book about a girl and a guy with a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship? Nope. Well this book is mostly about Bianca and Wesley's relationship and also their personal lives as in families and friends. I found myself embarassed sometimes when there is a 'hot' scene between Bianca and Wesley, annoying scenes where I punched the book or sweet scenes where I flushed and closed the book for a while because I need to think about it deeply. The story plot is addictive and it ventures a lot of themes about families and friendship. Not only that, the idea of the word DUFF is also very interesting and realistic.
In fact, there maybe lots of people in the world who feels like they are the DUFF. This book develops the meaning of this word and how we do feels like this sometimes, like Bianca, who suddenly feels like she is ugly, unattractive because Wesley said that to him. Although, their enemies-with-benefits relationship turned into something more, and they both end up falling in love with each other as the time they spend together, getting to know each other, even their family secrets such as how Bianca's mom and dad are getting divorced, how Wesley's parents are never home and how his grandmother hates him. So it's not love at first sight at all. It's love that grows gradually as they spend time together. Wesley's and Bianca's relationship is also really well written and it becomes a major reason as to why I like the story too. Their relationship is not all about sex, they end up playing video games (which is cute), playing scrabbles, etc. The message this book carries is also very good!
Characters:
The characters were written very well. They both have completely opposite personalities and I can also understand how Bianca hated boys like Wesley but ended up liking him. Sometimes, Bianca can be stubborn and quite annoying but that's how a teenager can be. Wesley Rush is an amazing character. I did not expect a 'playboy' like him to be able to have this sad feeling of loneliness, and sweetness inside of him. His family is never home and he basically lives inside a big house alone. It's good that you're rich but where is the happiness in that when you're all alone? Wesley feels this way and when Bianca finds out about this, she even understands him more. I can relate to the characters, the way they behave and I like their relationship development. Bianca's hatred turns into love and Wesley also falls in love with her. Wesley himself is not particularly a bad guy, since he did not treat Bianca badly, and probably just calling her the DUFF which hurts Bianca's feelings (but he did not really mean it after getting to know her) and I still love him!
Overall:
A brilliant book with a theme you'll rarely find in other books! A must-read and recommended for 13+ for mature themes and scenes. Keplinger's writing weaves you into a story of 17 year old girl enemies-with-benefits relationship with a rich 'playboy' guy and their own troubles. The DUFF is a great debut and I look forward to read Keplinger's next novel!
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| 5 Forget-me-not flowers for The DUFF! |
I loved the idea behing the title too. Most of us think that we are "the duff" in our group of friends at some point.
ReplyDeleteSome people after reading this book concentrate only on the 'scandalous' relationship between the main characters (not my words) but like you I saw more into it. . I saw more into Bianca and her insecurities and the way she felt.
And truth being told the hot scenes were pretty damn hot and tasteful, and that was a big bonus too ;))
Happy midnight reading!