Book Review - The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

OMG.

I'm not usually one for contemporary YA, I lean more paranormal. Here's why: contemporary YA never gets it right. I can really enjoy paranormal YA because it doesn't matter if it's totally right, because dude, vampires aren't real anyway. When you're trying to reflect REALITY, it has to ring true, and I hadn't found a contemporary YA that did.

Note the word hadn't.

The DUFF, by Kody Keplinger, is incredible. Here's the thing. I'm a grown up. I went to high school kind of a long time ago. But when I read The DUFF, it was like I was Right. Back. There. When Bianca runs out to her car after school, I don't picture her running out to her Saturn. I picture myself and my friends piling into my '77 Dodge Dart Supersport. I am *transported* back to my own 17 year old self, and it's an amazing feeling.

I know Wesley. I swear to god. When Bianca hooks up with him, as I eagerly devour the words on the page my mind is filled with memories of myself bumping into him in an elevator at the Best Western of all freaking places, and, well...if you'd like to know more, Aerosmith wrote a whole song about it.

In The DUFF, 17 year old Bianca Piper is going through a lot of turmoil. Family, boys, everything. To silence the deafening roar, she turns to the person she hates most, Wesley Rush, total male slut. You know the type, don't you? Certainly you do. There's one at every school. But it turns out, Wesley isn't everything Bianca supposes him to be. Is he really just good for a 'no care, no strings' mental escape, or will she get in too deep?

Ahhhh. I absolutely love this book.

It's not officially supposed to be out until September 7th, but there are apparently copies "in the wild" which is how I came across mine. I'd had some very brief interaction with Kody on Absolute Write, and she was so super sweet and encouraging that I wanted to get her book, to be supportive, even though I didn't really like contemporary YA.

If I can find more contemporary YA like this, consider my opinion changed.

Buy this book. Really. And let me know what you think!