The Duff by Kody Keplinger

Hey everyone,

Today I’m reviewing an audiobook, it feels like ages since I’ve listened to a book, so my holiday in Spain felt like the perfect time to start The Duff. Now I’ll be honest I mainly brought this book because I wanted to watch the movie, that and I had a bunch of credits left on Audible.

The book:

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper may not be the prettiest girl in her high school, but she has a loyal group of friends, a biting wit, and a spot-on BS detector. She's also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush, who calls Bianca the Duff—the designated ugly fat friend—of her crew.

But things aren't so great at home and Bianca, desperate for a distraction, 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. 

My thoughts:

I found The Duff an interesting if at times irritating read. The reason for this conflict was mainly down to the main character, Bianca Piper. In many ways I loved her independence, her loyalty to her friends and family and her honesty. She wasn’t afraid to be different than those around her, to form her own opinion rather than trusting the word of others.

“I shook my head. "Don’t bother making excuses," I said. "Don’t waste your time because, the fact is, I am the Duff. But so is everyone else in the world. We’re all fucking Duffs.”

Unfortunately at times being inside her head was also an incredibly painful process. The amount of thinking and over-analysing meant I became disinterested in certain parts, particularly as there was a lot of repetition in her thought process. I know this is meant to show Bianca’s internal struggle over her feeling for Wesley, being the Duff, her relationship with her friends and so forth, but I would argue it could have been done in a more engaging way.

“No matter where you go or what you do to distract yourself, reality catches up with you eventually.” 

Wesley was another character that I really liked. Once you looked past his play-boy persona he was caring, thoughtful, funny and kind of wonderful. Like Bianca he refused to apologise for who he was, he was protective of those he loved and valued honesty both all things. Although on the surface Bianca and Wesley have nothing in common, deep down they were remarkably similar.

“Your sense of humor needs some work, then,' Wesley suggested. 'Most girls find my jokes charming.'

'Those girls must have IQs low enough to trip over.” 

Yet for me to have truly loved The Duff I needed more depth from the novel as a whole. Certain major issues felt brushed over and ignored, perhaps because Bianca was unwilling to face these issues. Also for a feminist she was fairly happy to judge all the women around her based on their attractiveness to and for men. Just saying it would have been nice if some off the secondary characters her age had been defined by someone other than the boys they were attracted to or dating.

“No other girl can keep me on my toes the way you can. No one else makes me WANT to embarrass myself by writing sappy letters like this one.

Only you.” 

Overall this was a solid three star read for me. I can understand why this is such a popular book because the relationship between Bianca and Wesley was wonderful. It had some great dialogue between Wesley and Bianca, but the writing style and some of Bianca’s thought processes let it down for me.

My rating:

Happy reading everyone and see you next time!