Jessica Lawrence

First published in 2010, The Duff is the story of a girl named Bianca Piper, a senior in high school at Hamilton High.  Living with her dad, Bianca’s mother is hardly ever in her life and only appears in a handful of chapters through the entirety of the book.  Bianca relies on her two best friends, Casey and Jessica, to always be there for her even when she’s not there for them.

Seeing trailers for the movie of The Duff, my original thought was that this book was going to be hilarious, that I’d have to stifle my laughs in the middle of study hall because it was going to be so funny.  That’s not how it was.  Don’t let the movie trailers fool you: other than one or two parts, this book is not funny and it was a huge let down.  I’d read reviews of it before actually reading the book itself and they all made it seem like it would be a fantastic novel, one I’d want to read over and over again for years to come; I will not be partaking in the rereading of this book at any point in my life.

I do have to give points to Kody Keplinger, though.  She wrote this her senior year in high school and it’s been adapted into a motion picture; her first novel she’s ever written and it’s a movie four years later.  That’s an achievement, right there.

Overall, The Duff was not at all what I expected, and I was extremely disappointed with it.  The writing of it screamed amateur and childish, and not just because of the unnecessary and excessive exclamation points.  The use of the word “ugh” was irritating after the first few chapters and the irritation of it continued throughout all 27 chapters.  It might be worthwhile to spend nine dollars to watch this movie, but it’s definitely not worthwhile to spend ten dollars to read this book.