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High school senior Bianca Piper has a great group a friends, is very witty, and has an excellent BS detector. There's no way she'd fall for the charms of Wesley Rush, the school man-slut, especially after he calls her the DUFF of her friend group - the Designated Ugly Fat Friend, that is. However, she wants and needs a distraction from her home life and she ends up kissing him, and she likes it. She finds herself in a secret enemies with benefits relationship with him. Then, things begin to go wrong as she realizes she's actually beginning to fall for him.
Kody Keplinger's The DUFF is my fifth and final book for YALSA's Backlist Bingo Reading Challenge and it fulfills the Quick Pick from the last five years category. I had a general idea of what to expect of this novel, as I had already seen the movie before reading the book. I also had heard that the two are quite different, and they really are. I really enjoyed the movie - Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell have great chemistry and comedic timing - and, even though the two are so different, I surprised myself that I enjoyed the novel as much. (Although, personally, I think I prefer the movie adaptation.) That being said, the book still has some real laugh out loud moments and some great moments between Bianca, her friends, and Wesley. Keplinger really excels at creating characters you can't look away from, even I did find them irritating at times. I particularly liked Bianca's main goal isn't to un-DUFF herself, she's comes to own herself and her actions.
Overall, if you're looking for a fast and funny YA contemporary, you should definitely try The DUFF by Kody Keplinger. If you haven't seen the movie adaptation yet, you should also watch that to see what you make of the differences - or just enjoy the fantastic performances. I will definitely be looking into other books by this author.
I read this novel on November 6, 2016 and my review is also on Goodreads.
BINGO!
CHALLENGE COMPLETE!
You can check out my other Backlist Bingo reviews here:
B1 - Read An Alex Award Winner (Any Year): Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
I1 - Read A Printz Honor Book (Any Year): Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
N1 - Listen To An Amazing Audiobook (Any Year): The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith
G1 - Read A Top Ten BFYA From The Last 5 Years: Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
This doesn't sound like my kind of book, but the thing that bothered me about the movie is, that actress is nowhere near fat. Not even considered chubby.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but for some reason I got the impression that in the book that that's more like how she's compared to her friends. Either way, the actress is still a good one. :)
DeleteCongratulations on the bingo!! I read this book a while ago and I have to say, I liked the movie much better than the book, like you. I do love the hilarious moments though! That's one of my favorite things about contemporary romances: they have such potential when it comes to being witty!
ReplyDeleteLaura @BlueEyeBooks
Thanks, Laura! Very true, they can be quite funny. :D
DeleteI read this book when I was still in high school (does this make me old or young?? Hahaha) and I remember loving that it was so sex positive. There weren't a lot of books like it at the time.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the bingo! :)
Thanks!
DeleteWell, younger than me! :D