The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend

The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend

A novel by Kody Keplinger

Waktu edar : 7 September 2010

Waktu menonton : November 2010

Media membaca : ebook di Stanza for iPhone

Hal paling berkesan : The adorable bad boy, Wesley Rush :)

The DUFF. Designated Ugly Fat Friend.

Do you ever feel like you’re the ugly one among your friends? It’s not that you’re ugly or fat, it’s just that your UGLIER and FATTER than all your BFFs. A lot of people have days like that. Days when you feel like crap and just felt ugly. I’m sure most girls have days like that. Your thigh are as big as a cow, you have a zit in your face, or you look just plain ugly. I’m sure that no matter how beautiful you are, at least once in your life, you’ve had days like that. Days when you feel like crap.

Bianca had days like that too. Her friends are all skinnier and prettier than her. She’s not unactractive, but let’s just say she’s not gonna attract attention when she’s with her friends.

One night when she’s out with her oh-so-gorgeous friends, the notorious womanizer Wesley Rush came to her and explain that to him, she’s a DUFF. Designated Ugly Fat Friend. The one that every group of friends had. The one who’s uglier and fatter than any of them. And she replied with pouring her coke on his face.

And that’s what’s good about this book.

Okay, let’s rewind.

This is a YA book, or Young Adult book. It’s one of my guilty pleasure to read YA book, but I mostly read fantasy or supernatural. Only a couple books and a couple of authors that I read and enjoyed in the contemporary genre. And this book, I enjoyed. Very much so.

This book, at first glance, is just a typical book. The bad boy who’s so irresistibly handsome. The girl who made him change. It all sounds like a premise of your typical romance book. Oh, but it’s so much more.

For starter, Bianca is not your typical heroine. She’s smart, cynical, snarky, and she doesn’t let anyone treat her like crap. She stands up for herself. And maybe more conventional reader will argue with the choices she made, but I understand perfectly. Sometimes life just gets unbearably hard, and you just got to run away for a while.

And next, the friends. The oh-so-gorgeous friends. They’re not bitchy, they’re not shallow. They’re nice. They love Bianca. And they’re genuinely good friends. Really good friends. When I read it, it reminds me of my friends. My true friends, the one that knew my deepest darkest secret and still love me for it anyway.

And here comes the love interest. Wesley Rush. WOW. He’s everything you wanted in a bad boy. Reading this, I realize once again why a lot of girls fall for bad boy. They’re just so.. irresistible. It’s like a car crash. A car crash is messy and dangerous, but when you encounter car crash on the road, you just can’t resist to look. And this bad boy turned good.. WOW. I think I may be falling in love a bit with a character from a book. It reminds me of bad boys in my past. Bad boys is dangerous… but they’re exciting as hell.

Probably the most controversial one, is the level of sex and profanity in here. It’s a YA book, but it’s for older YA. There’s a lot of sex scene in here. And I’m saying A LOT. People who took offense in that kind of thing would surely be put off by this book. A lot of reviews I read said that the depiction of teenage sex in this book is really realistic. Maybe it is in America, but it sure as hell not in Indonesia. And the constant swearing. Fuck. Damn. Shit. Personally, I didn’t took offense about this in the book, mostly because I think that it is appropriately placed. But it’s just me.

This book really spoke to me in a lot of way. When I think about it, we are all DUFFs. This book never really said literally that Bianca is fat and ugly. This book only said that she FEELS fat and ugly. And God knows how many times I feel fat and ugly beside my friends. My friends that, doesn’t matter how gorgeous and prettier and skinnier they are, is my best friends. The one who stood by me no matter what I told them, or what I’ve done. They’re just there for me, no questions asked.

And a lot of us knew what it’s like to fall in love with a bad boy. A boy who treats you all wrong, but there’s something. Something that draws us near. We hoped that we’re the girl who’s gonna change this bad boy, but what we got is a broken heart. Okay maybe it’s getting too personal for me, but what I’m saying is, in a way, a lot of girls feel that they’re DUFFs.

And actually, how can you not melt when a cute bad boy says

Wesley Rush doesn’t chase girls, but I’m chasing you.