Wow! This book was impressive.
This was 18 year old Kody Keplinger’s debut novel (although I think I read somewhere she was 17 when she wrote it). It has been called The Catcher in the Rye for this generation–and did you get the part that she is a teenager??
The Duff stands for Designated Ugly Fat Friend, and haven’t we all felt like that at some point? In fact, that is Kody’s whole point. This term, or a close variation, was around when I was in high school, too, and it’s just a reminder of how the more things change, the more things stay the same.
As a writer, I was able to appreciate how she created such a fun, snarky character like Bianca, but totally had us loving and rooting for her. She created a realistic boy character that was somehow believable when we was a complete womanizing jerk and also when he was a gushy romantic (not easy to do). The minor characters all had clear and strong personalities, too, and I could easily identify with them.
I loved how she showed dysfunctional parents and families BUT the core family relationship (Bianca and her father) in the book was one that was mostly stable and loving. Yeah it had a momentary set back, as is life, but you could always tell they loved each other. I’m tired of YA books that have parents completely sucking or being non-existent. While this is an unfortunate occurrence for some families, it is in no way the norm, and I appreciate good parenting in books!
Finally, as a writer of YA, I loved reading a real teen’s writing. It has been just over 10 years since I was officially in high school, and while I love doing research by watching all those fun teen shows, there’s no mistaking the fact that times have changed. Even reading other YA books written by authors my age and older might not always totally show the realistic teen experience for today because we aren’t there everyday anymore. You can’t say that about Kody! And I was pleased to find out that while there are some fun new expressions, really life isn’t that different. It just gave me more confidence in my writing, reading and seeing that a lot of what I’ve done in my current WIP fits in Kody’s world.
This is a good story with a good message and even if all that wasn’t true, it would be worth buying just to support an amazing young woman who was able to write such a thought-provoking, well-written debut novel, oh yeah and she happens to be a TEENAGER!
