A review by readermeetsbook
The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger
3.0
I'm not quite sure what to make of The DUFF. On one hand, it is an amazingly authentic YA book. On the other hand, I spent most of the story annoyed at Bianca and frustrated by the plot.
Bianca comes off as jaded, sarcastic, cynical. She judgmental of the world and self-absorbed. I couldn't stand the negativity. Right at the start of the book, Bianca is at a teen club watching from the sidelines and she jumps right in to judging people who were enjoying themselves dancing. Even her actions toward Wesley seem sort of extreme. When she kisses him in the beginning, she stopped herself and proceed to yell at and hit him. Violent much? Even her treatment of her friends, who were amazingly loyal and awesome, grated on my nerves. And her decision to sleep with Welsey… argh, I wanted to shake her. How was this empowering to women - sleeping with the guy that called you the ugly friend. It's a horrible lesson on self-esteem.
But, I was ranting to my friend about this character and she pointed out that the character is acting like a teenager. And she was right - Bianca portrays a typical teenager that many people can relate to. As a teenager, when haven't we made stupid decisions or fallen for the bad boy. Okay, so maybe I can't relate to the bad boy thing, but I made plenty of dumb decisions as a teen. Nothing as serious as sleeping with a boy, but still dumb choices. And I think that what's appealing about this book is that Bianca is not a flawless heroine and that she is easily relatable. When haven't we compared ourselves to our friends and felt inadequate. I know that sometimes I still feel like the DUFF when I'm with my friends. But as this novel points out, everyone feels like the DUFF sometimes.
I had some problems with the plotting. There were some issues, like Bianca's father battle with alcohol, that I felt she took shortcuts with. But overall, I didn't regret reading this book. I enjoyed the character development and Bianca improved in the end.
Bianca comes off as jaded, sarcastic, cynical. She judgmental of the world and self-absorbed. I couldn't stand the negativity. Right at the start of the book, Bianca is at a teen club watching from the sidelines and she jumps right in to judging people who were enjoying themselves dancing. Even her actions toward Wesley seem sort of extreme. When she kisses him in the beginning, she stopped herself and proceed to yell at and hit him. Violent much? Even her treatment of her friends, who were amazingly loyal and awesome, grated on my nerves. And her decision to sleep with Welsey… argh, I wanted to shake her. How was this empowering to women - sleeping with the guy that called you the ugly friend. It's a horrible lesson on self-esteem.
But, I was ranting to my friend about this character and she pointed out that the character is acting like a teenager. And she was right - Bianca portrays a typical teenager that many people can relate to. As a teenager, when haven't we made stupid decisions or fallen for the bad boy. Okay, so maybe I can't relate to the bad boy thing, but I made plenty of dumb decisions as a teen. Nothing as serious as sleeping with a boy, but still dumb choices. And I think that what's appealing about this book is that Bianca is not a flawless heroine and that she is easily relatable. When haven't we compared ourselves to our friends and felt inadequate. I know that sometimes I still feel like the DUFF when I'm with my friends. But as this novel points out, everyone feels like the DUFF sometimes.
I had some problems with the plotting. There were some issues, like Bianca's father battle with alcohol, that I felt she took shortcuts with. But overall, I didn't regret reading this book. I enjoyed the character development and Bianca improved in the end.