Book Review: The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger

Title: The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend

Author: Kody Keplinger

Publisher: Poppy

Pages: 296

Format: E-book

Published: September, 2010

Price: $4.74 -> Rp61.549 (Amazon)

Rating: 3 / 5 stars

Date started: March 10, 2016 - Date finished: March 12, 2016

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 "Duffy," she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren't so great at home right now. Desperate for a distraction, Bianca ends up kissing Wesley. And likes it. Eager for escape, she throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out that 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.

Review:
DUFF stands for Designated Ugly Fat Friend, it's a term used for someone who is in his or her group of friends is the least attractive one, the one who is approachable by everyone. A duff is approached by people to snake out information about said duff's friends, which are usually the ones people find attractive. Bianca Piper is a duff, at least she think she is because the school's man-whore said she is and when she thought of it, she actually believed she is a duff.

Bianca Piper is a cynic surrounded by two best friends who are much much more attractive than her. Casey is a cheerleader, she's also very tall meanwhile Jessica is a pretty blond girl who is always positive, a glass half full kind of girl, a daily ray of sunshine. The three of them like to hang out at the Nest, a hangout spot for teens in Hamilton. Bianca always hated going to the Nest, so whenever her best friends dragged her there she always sat on the bar with a cherry coke in hand accompanied by the bartender Joey. One night he was approached by Wesley Rush, the school's man-whore, the hottest guy in Hamilton and the only person that Bianca loathe the most. Out of nowhere Wesley came up to her with the hopes of getting close to Bianca's best friends, when Bianca refused Wesley said that it was her job as a duff to be the one that puts in a good word for a guy to her friends. This of course made Bianca furious.

At home, things weren't so great for Bianca. Her parents are in a rough patch since her mother who is a self-help speaker and author constantly goes out of town leaving Bianca and her father all alone. Bianca always suspects that her parents marriage is going downhill but she and her father both don't want to face the worst possible outcome, a divorce. With self-confidence issues ever since being called a duff and her problem at home she found an escape in the most unlikely person, Wesley Rush. It all began when she kissed him one day. After that one thing led to another and they hooked up. Bianca justifies her act as purely physical as she would never fall for the guy he despises the most in the world. Alas, as she got to know him she started having feelings for him. The problem is can someone as popular and as attractive as Wesley fall in love with a duff?

Problems start piling up as Bianca kept her "thing" with Wesley a secret from her best friends. She was buried in her lies, at one point her friends started getting suspicious of Bianca's weird attitude, there's a chance that she could lose her best friends. On top of that, she has to deal with her situation at home and now out of all the time in the world Toby starts noticing her, Toby who is the one guy Bianca's always attracted to but he also kind of like Wesley, which makes her life even more complicated.

“I was the Duff. And that was a good thing. Because anyone who didn't feel like the Duff must not have friends. Every girl feels unattractive sometimes. Why had it taken me so long to figure that out? Why had I been stressing over that dumb word for so long when it was so simple? I should be proud to be the Duff. Proud to have great friends who, in their minds, were my Duffs.”

I started reading this book after I re-watched the movie a few days before. I've actually planned to read this book after the first time I watched the movie, because I actually do really liked the movie but other more interesting books came up on my radar and I put aside this book. This time, I finally read it and my thoughts? This book is TOTALLY DIFFERENT from the movie. When I read this book, from the beginning to the middle it was totally different from the movie and of course the ending was different from the movie.

I know since this is a book review I should focus solely on the book and not compare it to the movie but I can't help it so I'm going to discuss a little bit about the difference between the book and the movie. Anyways, before I get into that let's discuss the book first.

One of the things I like about this book is its characters. It's not surprising for people who've read this loved Bianca since her humor, cynical views, sarcasm and every part of her attitude is my cup of tea. I can relate to Bianca because at times I am her (not as a girl just our similarities in humor and sarcasm). Other than that we get to know more deeply about the characters that we don't get to in the movies. Like Casey and Jessica that are not much known about in the movie but also about Wesley who as it turns out has much more in him than just a womanizing douchebag.

“He wasn't perfect, or even remotely close, for that matter, but, hey, neither was I. We were both pretty fucked up. Somehow, though, that made everything more exciting. Yeah, it was sick and twisted, but that's reality, right? Escape is impossible, so why not embrace it?”

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

Next up, the author's writing. Thumbs up for Kody Keplinger on this book because she totally gets teenagers to the point where I couldn't believe this book wasn't written by a teenager. The writing was clear, simple not at all difficult to understand.

So I promised I'd highlight some differences between the movie and the book. The first thing is that the whole storyline of the book and the movie are two different thing. There are characters that didn't exist in the book but is in the movie and vice versa. In addition to that there is also a character whose name is different between the book and the movie. Other differences? Just read the book and watch the movie to find out.

In conclusion I think that when it comes to the DUFF I think it's better to either watch the movie only or read the book only but don't do them both because you'll get mixed feelings about it and end up not really enjoying either the book or the movie (in my case its the book since I've watched the movie first).

That's all for now!