Abducted by The Duff

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE St. Patrick's Day!!! I think it is because I really only have one friend who loves St. Patrick's Day (and all things Irish) as much, if not more then I do. And she moved away a few years ago, so every St. Patrick's Day always feels like my very own holiday. Of course I know lots of people that enjoy St. Patrick's Day and like to go out and celebrate or whatever. But they don't go nuts like I go NUTS! Last year I put so many decorations up at my office that they would set off the motion detectors at night and I would have to drive all the way back into the city (45 min. drive) just to turn the alarm off!

Two words: Worth It!

This year since I'm at my new office I didn't put up ALL my decorations but I put up plenty! And today I have on lots of green. I love St. Patrick's Day because it celebrates short little Irish red heads! And guess what, I'm pretty short, and I've got a little Irish in me, and my hair....well, I think I've dyed it so much over the years that it has finally surrendered to a nice dark strawberry blond, so What Up!







Any way, I should really move on to my Post #2 in my week long marathon of posting!

Today I'm going to review The Duff because I left my notes for Dash and Lily at home, so I'll do that book tomorrow.



The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger.

This was yet, another book I listened to on audio from the library (yeah that is right I finally got that all important library card!) As far as the audio version goes, the girl who did the narration did a perfect job for being the voice of "the Duff" Bianca, and she wasn't bad at doing the voice for the main male character of Wesley, but for the other characters it was awful! Bianca has two best friends in the novel, Jessica and Kacey. And Jessica sounded like she was 12 and Kacey sounded like she was 40! Plus she would deliver some of the lines completely dead pan, with no emotion at all. Which was really only a problem for the lines like;

"What. is. up. bianca." jessica. said. excitedly.

Also, Bianca has a crush on this boy Toby Tucker, and the reader made him sound way to much like a boy off a 1950's television show, "Gee Golly, Sir". The more I thought about it, I realized that if I had been reading this on my own, I would have seen Toby as James Marsden in The Notebook.

Now as far as the actual novel goes...

There was A LOT of sexual content, and if I ever took a minute to think about how this was a YA novel and being read by really young girls, I might have been a little disturbed by that fact. But for the most part, I didn't really notice it and wasn't bothered by it. There was also quiet a few curse words, but it didn't bother me at all. The cursing in Nick and Norah bothered me because it was in moments where it wasn't needed and it would be a long stream of curse words. I mean it would just be pages of "fudge fudge fudge fudge shite" and it felt like it was for shock value, although I don't think it was intended that way. But in The Duff, the cursing felt natural and added because that is how people would talk, at least if I was in that situation I know that is how I would talk.

In The Duff, Bianca is a senior in high school who is going through, well, A LOT. Problems at home, with her parents getting a divorce, an absent mother, an ex-boyfriend who is back in town with his fiance, and a classmate "playboy" named Wesley, who has just informed her that when it comes to her and the group of her friends, she is The Duff. She is the one in the group that is uglier compared to her friends and the one guys will talk to in hopes of scoring points with the hotties of the group. And how does Bianca deal with all this stress? By distracting herself with sex, and sex with Wesley none the less. But, by distracting herself with sex, Bianca is actually just running away from her problems instead of dealing with them. And in the process begins to alienate herself from Jessica and Kacey and quickly becomes someone she does not recognize.

I really liked the dynamic between Kacey, Jessica, and Bianca. I really liked the friction and tension between Wesley and Bianca. I also really liked the little bit about female empowerment at the end. Trust me, this isn't giving anything away, but Bianca spends the whole book being haunted by Wesley calling her The Duff, and in the end the girls decide to lay claim to the word themselves and find power by stripping the word of it's power.

I would say my only complaint of this book was that Bianca would justify her actions and yet continue to judge and be disgusted by Wesley's actions. But as I said in my last post, that is reality. We often condemn people for their flaws while justifying our own.

Okay, that is all for now, I'm going to go make some coffee and have a bagel! I will see you tomorrow with my blog hop and review for Dash and Lily!

Stay safe and have a great St. Patrick's Day!