Book Review: The Duff by Kody Keplinger
Jul 12
I have been the Duff. You have been the Duff. But no one has to stay the Duff forever, according to Kody Keplinger’s The Duff. In fact, Bianca Piper didn’t know she was the Designated Ugly Fat Friend until man-whore Wesley Rush with the perfect “Greek god body” informs her while her best friends, Casey and Jessica, “shake their asses like dancers in a rap video” at The Nest. Apparently, talking to her makes him seem more approachable and gets him better access to her “hot” friends, thus increasing his chances of getting laid. Wesley Rush does not chase girls. Girls chase Wesley Rush. Bianca absolutely cannot imagine being with Wesley for any reason until everything on her mind needed to be not on her mind. Her ex, Jake, who also happens to be Jessica’s big brother, is coming back in town with his fiancé and her mom sucker-punching a divorce on her once alcoholic dad right before dropping by for a visit after being away for months giving speeches on her self- help book are just a couple of the things on her mind. Not to mention there’s her crush, Toby Tucker, whom she’s liked forever and just found out he’s already taken. Maybe it was all the Cherry Cokes she was drinking that clouded her judgment, but she ends up using the exact man-whore she absolutely despises for sex as an escape from all her problems. Wesley, of course, is cool with this arrangement, that is, until the escape causes a brand new problem of its own, one Bianca could never have predicted and threatens Wesley to break the only rule he follows. I like that this book dives in head-first onto the topic of labels. The main character, Bianca, learns at the end that there is no point in labelling anyone because she doesn’t really know each person that well to label them one thing in the first place. There are so many sides to a person it’s wrong to judge them on one thing. I like that this book introduces a label I had never heard of before, but now that I have, I know I can relate to it and have been that label...
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