The DUFF - Kody Keplinger

The DUFF – Kody Keplinger

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley, in exchange for an honest review.

With the release of The Duff movie being this month in cinemas, I was intrigued to read the book and see what it was all about, before committing to watching the movie. I always have a policy of reading the book first, and watching the movie second, just because I know the book is the original, in its full glory, details and story before it is altered, cut down and moviefied (yes I made that word up)

From seeing the movie trailers and having now read the book I can already tell it is going to be somewhat different. However this will not deter me from watching the film, as I loved the book and cannot wait to see its characters brought to life. First let’s look at the 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.

Keplinger’s writing in this novel is brilliant. The whole story is told with humour and it is completely engaging how the main protagonist Bianca’s voice is portrayed, which really helps to draw you into the story.

The story follows Bianca and her life. We see she has two friends Casey and Jessica, she lives with her dad, and her mum spends a large percentage of her time away from home. Travelling and conducting speeches on her book.  Bianca already knows things are not right, and things are slowly heading down a slippery slope. This is made even worse, when Wesley Rush, town ‘Manwhore’ in her words, reveals that she is her group of friends DUFF. Designated Ugly Fat Friend. Safe to say this sounds like a horrible term and Bianca has every right to throw her Cherry Coke straight over Wesley’s smug and arrogant self. The story from there follows Bianca’s acceptance of the term DUFF, wearing it like a continual weight, slowly dragging her down a dark path, dealing with family problems at home, the return of an ex, just everything builds up and her only escapes draws her to the one person she hate’s most in the world. Yet all is not as it seems.

When reading this book, the more I learnt about the DUFF title, the more I started looking at my high school experience, and whether that label truly did apply, obviously I immediately managed to link it to myself. All my friends were fashion forward, tall, skinny and quite frankly stunning and I was the polar opposite. Because of that I really felt I went along the journey in this book with Bianca, it almost felt like one of self-discovery, and self-confidence with her. Bianca was labelled a DUFF and yet she never let it stop her from being herself, which I thought was a great testament to her character, making her completely relatable from a reader’s perspective.

The character Wesley was brilliant; you end up loving the guy you are supposed to hate. Everyone has that one guy, who they detest due to their ‘lifestyle’ choices. Or due to their arrogance or smug nature when it comes to women, yet the more we learn of Wesley, the more we see there is more too him, and there really is more than what is seen. Immediately I loved Wesley’s character, he was witty and funny, and the banter and connection between him and Bianca was brilliant, there truly couldn’t be a better sparring pair.

Bianca’s friends were amazing, and I truly wish I had two friends like her, they were loyal caring and sweet, and they completely got her and knew instantly when something wasn’t right. For Bianca to have such close friends as Casey and Jessica is almost a proof to how great Bianca’s character is to have them, she always felt like she was lucky to have them, but really they were all lucky to have each other, as they all brought something great to the mix and I really enjoyed the writing around their friendships, the up’s and the downs that came with it.

Overall this is a great, light hearted and humorous read which I thoroughly enjoyed. To which I cannot wait to see the movie of when I get the chance. I would highly recommend this book to anybody looking for an easy and yet juicy read. It covers so many topics that I feel are really great and somewhat motivational at times, and yet still makes you smile and laugh when reading. It has produced some of my favourite quotes and in some ways I sort of wish this book had been around when I was slightly younger, as it really would have given me a better outlook on the way I saw myself when at school.

I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

One of my favourite quotes from the book:

‘I’m probably going to be a bitch most of the time, I guarantee I’ll find a reason to yell at you almost every day, and don’t be surprised if a few drinks get dumped on you from time to time. That’s just me, and you’re going to have to deal with it. Because I’m not changing for you or anyone else.’