Book Review: The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) by Kody Keplinger

Synopsis from Goodreads

Title: The DUFF

Author: Kody Keplinger

Publication Date: September 7th, 2010

Publisher: Little Brown

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

The DUFF = the Designated Ugly Fat Friend is basically an ugly person in a group of friends. Wesley, a notorious bad boy, also known as a man-whore, gave that title to Bianca, a short and cynical girl. He tries approaching her one weekend at a club called the Nest in order to get close to her hot and cute friends, Jessica and Casey. Bianca hates his guts and is grossed out by his way of "lifestyle".

However, all of it will change once Bianca's life turns upside-down. She is overwhelmed by her family's problem and ex-boyfriend's issues. Instead of facing reality, she turns to something UNUSUAL for distraction; she sleeps with Wesley! the boy she detests. As her problems accumulate, she regularly goes to Wesley to run away from them. However, everything got complicated; and she needs to deal with the consequences.

Hence, the book teaches us one great lesson = Do not run away from reality as it will catch up to you eventually.

What I truly love about the book is Bianca's friendship with her two best friends. They are all very supportive and loyal. Of course, they do tend to have problems like anyone else which made it seem realistic. Bianca's and Wesley's relationship and chemistry was so intense, complicated, and sweet.

I had some issues, at the beginning, with Bianca's negativity and cynicism, but I got over it once I started to get to know her better throughout the story. It was interesting to read about her life and how she was able to overcome her life's obstacles.

I was amazed to find out that the author, Kody Keplinger, just recently graduated from High School. Which also made me understand the book a little bit more because most of the phrases were "teenagery" if u know what I mean :P.. There were also a lot of acronyms, such as: "OMG, WTF"... A lot of swears too :D.....These things made it realistic to me as the protagonist is a teenage girl afterall.

Overall, amazing book and a page turner. there were a lot of times where I laughed and squealed as it was sweet and cute! definitely a recommended book. This was a great debut by Keplinger!

4/5

Xoxo Meera