The Duff (Designated Ugly Fat Friend)

Author: Kody Keplinger

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit.

Publisher: Little Brown

Year: 2010

Ranking: 3/ 5

 

 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.

The Author

Kody Keplinger was born and raised in rural Kentucky, U.S. She began writing at age 11 and ended The Duff during the last year of high school. She currently lives in New York and is dedicated full time to writing. Love books, Converse sneakers and Thai food.

About her inspiration for writing The Duff she said: “I always felt like the ugly girl in high school, so when I was introduced to the word during my senior year, I knew I was the Duff. The idea of writing a book with Duff as the title started as a joke, but when I realized that my friends felt like Duffs too, I knew I had to write this story!”

Personal Experience with This Book

I read this book in one sitting. I have to say that the whole idea of writing about a Duff is pretty unique for me. I am not familiar with the term so I considered very interesting.

About the plot, I imagined it different. I don’t know I was expecting something more about being the Duff and not about what actually happens in the book.

I have read many other books about this type of relationships and also, I have watched a lot of movies with the same topic as well. It was a good combination but not maybe because of my expectations I was kind of disappointed. I felt like the title and the story, like the main story line, did not have anything related.

The characters were ok. I mean I liked Bianca and her relationship with her friends but I did not love her as much as I have loved other female characters. For Wesley, He was at first that kind of guy you don’t like but then, when he realized he loves her he becomes kind of cute and I actually liked him more than any other character.

What I liked the most about the book. It was that even having sexual context. I was not as explicit as other books so I appreciated that from the author.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. It was a fun and light reading for just one day and forget about it. It does not gives you that feeling of wanting more like other standalones and It was good. I did not love it but I had fun while reading so I would say it as an ok reading for me.