The book by Kody Keplinger was an audible.com pickup because I was intrigued by the title, the more I listened, the more my mind wandered. I'm not in high school so obviously the world of teenaged boys doesn't interest me anymore, I'm not a cradle robber or a pedophile. However, the word DUFF and what it stood for now that did intrigue me. So what is a DUFF? To be exact it's the friend in a group of friends that just doesn't add up to the standards of the group that she is with or is the one that makes everyone look that much better. So maybe she's not as pretty as her friends or she's a little plumper or whatever but guys tend to agree who the DUFF of the group is. The main male character Wesley doesn't seem to mind using it anyway. Mostly this book had me cringing a bit going why couldn't I be like that in high school? I was no where near as confident and I don't care what people think about me as Bianca did. I wish.
Bianca Piper is the main character and the protagonist, she's a high school senior and for the most part is very cynical and a bit bitter about the things that have happened to her. She has two best friends, Casey and Jessica, a huge crush on a guy names Toby Tucker, a mother who is always gone doing self esteem seminars and talks, and a Dad who calls her bumblebee and hasn't drank since before she was born but was an angry drunk. Bianca isn't exactly like Casey and Jessica, she doesn't like dancing or being out, she would prefer to be home but she doesn't think too much of the whole situation until one night that she is sitting at the bar of The Nest. The Nest is a bar for high school students, they obviously do not serve any alcohol but she's enjoying a cherry coke. It's here that the resident manwhore Wesley Rush, takes a seat next to her and informs her that she is the DUFF of her friend group. He then tells her that friends of the DUFF love it when guys are sweet to her, it would make them fall into his arm and into his bed. The only thing that Wesley gets is a cherry coke into the face and Bianca walking away.
Things continue to go downhill from there for Bianca; she finds out that Toby has a girlfriend and has for a while now, her Mom sends her Dad divorce papers, Jessica's brother comes back into town and he is Bianca's ex. Jessica's brother who has some generic name that I cannot for the life of me remember had Bianca as the girl on the side and now he's back in town with his fiancee and Bianca feels like shit. She has too much stuff going on and then she's paired with Wesley Rush for an english project and things go completely down hill from there. "Working on an Essay"is just code for having sex with Wesley and she uses him for the escape, to get away from all that is going on. And it works, at least for a little while. Ok things aren't going so good with her friends, she's blowing them off but Dad has started drinking again and Bianca is struggling to deal with it. One night she has Wesley over and they are playing scrabble because they were doing something else but that's not the point. They go downstairs and it's here that we find out just how angry Bianca's Dad is when he's drunk, he calls her a whore and ends up slapping her. Wesley punches him in the face and they go back to his house where Wesley just listens. Bianca has learned something about Wesley in her time with him too, his parents are never home, his sister stays with his grandparents but he can't because his grandmother doesn't approve of his lifestyle. Earlier that day, they had dropped his sister off at his grandparents house and his grandmother told Wesley to stay away from Amy. Wesley was far from pleased and Bianca just felt like a slut or a whore. So twice in the one day!
The next morning, Bianca realizes that she can't use Wesley to escape anymore; she calls Casey who isn't really speaking to her to come and pick her up. She has an awkward conversation with Wesley about why she can't do this anymore and she leaves. The real reason is because she has feelings for him but Bianca can't admit that. She makes up with Casey and Jessica and starts to avoid and move on from Wesley, Before this drama with Wesley went down, Bianca was sorting Valentine's Day stuff with Toby Tucker and they talked and became friendly, she even found out that he didn't have a girlfriend anymore. And she was the one that he came to open his Harvard acceptence letter and then he hugged her. Which causes issues with Casey because Bianca was supposed to be talking to her. So soon after she cuts Wesley out, Bianca starts dating Toby and Casey is all for it because Toby includes them and she doesn't like Wesley at this point. Bianca and her Dad have talked and he has agreed to go back to AA and start talking to a sponsor again and she was supposed to thank Wesley for him but you know...avoidence is a thing. So one bright, sunny afternoon when Toby and Bianca are in her room, getting ready to knock boots; Wesley shows up knocking on her room door and flings it open. Awkward! They go downstairs and he admits that he has feelings for her and she tells him that it hurts her when he calls her the DUFF and shouts at him that he's afraid to tell his parents that he doesn't like to be alone and he wants them to come home. All stuff that is probably true but it hurts Wesley's feelings.He leaves, she goes back up to Toby, and they do homework and that's not code for anything.
Wesley doesn't give up that easily though and he starts leaving her notes and flowers telling her that he's in love with her. Bianca is stuck between a rock and a hard place; she really doesn't know what to do but she knows that she shouldn't go for Wesley. He does seem to be changing though, he's refusing girls and he's chasing her. Bianca's Mom comes back and they have a heart to heart, they go to the Nest, Toby tells Bianca that Wesley has been watching her all night and she has been watching him and that she needs to go to him if that's what she wants. Toby then admits that he's not over his ex and Bianca tells him to call her. Bianca walks over to Wesley, falls down in the process; ugh who hasn't been there and they have a heart to heart. He tells her that she was right and that he called his parents and they are making it better. She tells him about her Dad and they start making the rules for their relationship and he wont' call her the DUFF anymore. Although Casey has started using it.
My Thoughts
I liked this book! I liked it a lot. It had a lot of funny moments and generally it's about something that every girl thinks about and the point that is made that everyone feels like the DUFF. Every girl feels like she is the ugly one of her friend group at some point but that doesn't mean that someone else won't think that she's beautiful. Everyone has different tastes and what might be the DUFF for one guy will be someone else's princess. Now I'm not saying that you should constantly feel down one yourself and accept anyone that likes you because you're the DUFF. No matter who you are, you shouldn't settle for less than what you think you deserve. Beauty is only skin deep and if you've got a great personality then you've got it good. I'm a lot like Bianca, I'm cynical and sarcastic and a little bit pessimistic, I keep a lot of things to myself and sometimes, I'm the DUFF but that's ok. This book also has a lot of sex in it, it never really goes into a lot of details but we know that they are having sex and that they are safe. Which is a good thing; there is talk about an unplanned pregnancy but it's just people talking and it makes Bianca feel bad for judging a girl who sleeps around a lot. Sex doesn't make you a bad person but it doesn't make you a good or better one either. It's just sex; now don't go and sleep with everyone and their sister or brother but don't worry so much about it either. Oh god I'm preachy. Enough said! The DUFF is the kind of book that makes you think and if you're in high school, it's a good read. Hey! I thought it was good and I'm 26! 26 going on 12 most days though! I give this book 7.5 cherry cokes out of 10!
Also; this book is going to be a movie! It comes out February 20th at least in the US. I don't know much else about it.
Oh! And also this book was read by Ellen Grafton who did a really good job. She had the teenaged girl voice down pat!
No comments:
Post a Comment