77/100
Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper may not be the prettiest girl in her high school, but she has a loyal group of friends, a biting wit, and a spot-on BS detector. She's also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. But things aren't so great at home and Bianca, desperate for a distraction, ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out 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.
+2 Cover Design
For some reason, when a book is made into a movie, publishers have this need to change the cover of the book to the movie poster or something very similar to the movie poster. More times than not it doesn't work, but unfortunately for this book both the original cover and the movie cover were pretty bad. Though I have to say the hot guy on this cover makes it a lot better
+3 Writing Style
This book was definitely not written badly, but it was very simple writing. It was easy to follow, but very teenager-esque. I understand that was the point of the book, but I didn't necessarily love it.
+3 Plot Development
I've been reading a lot of fantasy and adventure lately and so there's always been a defined plot. I forgot that in many contemporary coming of age novels, there is no defined plot. It's more of a stream of consciousness that leads to a revelation rather than a series of actions that come to a resolution. Again it was strange to come across a novel with a not-as-defined plot line and after the book I definitely felt as though I missed the purpose of many individual things. A lot of dialogue and events felt unnecessary and didn't help progress the book. There were also a lot of side plots that didn't seem relevant. The book was called the DUFF but I felt like that issue wasn't as focused on.
+2 Character Relations
I'm a huge fan of hatred to love relationships but I have to say that this book didn't showcase it all that well. I didn't understand Bianca's relationship with anyone. Bianca's family had deep and serious issues that seemed patched up overnight. It all seemed unrealistic and unbelievable.
+4 Character Development
Out of everything, I would say that this might be the best aspect of this book. Since we were inside Bianca's mind, we really saw her mature and grow. While there were so many subplots between her family and Wesley, I think the whole idea of DUFF was the biggest issue and I think she learned a lot about herself and how people see her.
+2 Likability of Protagonist
If I'm being completely honest, I kind of hated Bianca. She kept secrets, lied, was impulsive, whiny and all around irritating. I understand that's what the normal teenager is like, but it was a bit too much. My biggest issue is the fact that Bianca (and most teenagers) aren't straightforward. At one point in the book Wesley asked her "Does the term DUFF bother you?" I understand that she was trying to save face, but a simple answer would have been "Yes." And that would have ended it. But of course she denies it and then brings it up later in the book, blaming him for making her feel bad when he called her "duffy."
+2 Necessity of Minor Characters
The minor characters dropped in every once in a while to stir up some drama but I wouldn't say they were essential to the plot by any means.
+3 Setting Description
I had no problems with the setting description. It had a good balance between being descriptive and not overly descriptive.
+4 Interesting Storyline
The general idea of the story was good, though I think the romance overshadowed the real coming of age portion of it though.
+2 Predictability
There was no part of the book I didn't see coming. Boy and Girl hate each other. Boy is a player with everyone except Girl. Girl refuses to admit it. It's all very generic and cliche.
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