Earth Day aka "Green Love" 2008

The Duff by Kody Keplinger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Summary: 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.

Favorite Quotes:
“Spanish, huh?" he said, glancing down at the scattered papers as he grabbed them. "Can you say anything interesting?" 
"El tono de tu voz hace que queria estrangularme." I stood up and waited for him to hand over my papers. 
"That sounds sexy," he said, getting to his feet and handing me the stack of Spanish work he'd swept together. "What's it mean?" 
"The sound of your voice makes me want to strangle myself." 
"Kinky.”

“I wanted to make sure you were fine...and that he was okay, too. You didn't, like, stab the boy, did you? I mean, I totally disapprove of murdering hotties, but if you need help burying the body, you know I'll bring the shovel.”

“I'm perfectly fine with being used. But I would like to know for what I'm being used." 
"Distraction."
"That much I gathered. What am I supposed to be distracting you from? There's a chance that if I knew, I could do my job more effectively.”

My Thoughts: I generally avoid novels set in modern high school environments.  I always fear I’ll end up reading what amounts to an episode of Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars and at the very least end up with wardrobe envy.  Every once in a while though, a book comes along that makes me curious enough to risk it.  The Duff is one of those books.

All in all, I’m glad I picked it up.  While stylistically it can be a bit repetitive at times, it’s a good read: fast and compelling.  The drama that is present is lacking a lot of the usual overdrawn teenage angst and settles around the major disturbances in Bianca’s, the main character’s, life.  I know there are those who won’t appreciate her cynicism, or her heightened sense of responsibility toward her friends and family, but I loved them both, particularly the cynicism since I do have a soft spot for it.  The issues within the book are universal and independent of the age group (and intended audience) which I think is spectacular as it provides a lot of brain fodder: how would the story be different if Bianca were a college student, if her parents were older and so on.  My biggest nitpick is the simplicity of the writing style, which I can’t say was that unexpected.  While I won’t be picking up The Duff for a reread any time soon, I would happily check out other books by the same Keplinger.