The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend

By: Kody Keplinger

Narrated by: Ellen Grafton

Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff”, she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She 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.

©2010 Kody Keplinger (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

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The story, while entertaining, lacked sophistication. The parallels between the literature referenced and the story were transparent, and it felt as though the author was using the literature as a crutch.

Unfortunately, the narrator could be grating at times, and some of her pronunciations were downright distracting (switching between Bront-ee and Bront-ay for instance). Much of this may have been the fault of the director, but the narration lacked the authenticity of a teenager telling her story.

That said, this is a solid book for a teenager, or someone in the early years of college. It is entertaining and has a good message, even if the message is less-than-subtly presented.

Narrator was iffy

It took me a little bit to get into this book but I really loved it in the middle... honestly though the main character drove me insane with her stupid choices! I wanted to strangle her!

Also... narrator was ok but at times couldn’t stand the voices she was making.

Very fluffy, cute, romantic, & sexy~

How the narrator read some of the dialogues wasn't that accurate I feel like, but then again, certain things can't be how we'd imagine it. I really like that storyline and I wish the movie would've stuck to this storyline. I read this book way back when and it was so good! I thought the movie was gonna be the same way, but nope! The book version is 10x better!!! I think if the movie would go by the book, it would probably be rated R.

HILARIOUS!

I love the story ! It's so funny and enjoyable to listening while this quarentine. I'm learning english, so I feel good listening it. The text is easy to understand...

Not what you expect

Okay so I watched the movie first before I realized there was a book...the movie is NOTHING like the book. It really threw me off at first because it’s polar opposite. The only thing that was the same was the overall message it had. Give it a chance if you do start listening and it’s not what you expected.

loved it!

It was a very entertaining and fun! A good audio book. It kept me busy during work!

Fun

A little over the top, but that's high school for you. Good narrator, entertaining story. I hope the film version doesn't change too much.

Predictable

Story was pretty predictable. The end of the book felt rushed. The readers voice was nasally and kind of bothered me sometimes.

Terrible Narrator

Love the story, way different from the movie. I liked it more theen the film. The narrator was terrific, her voice made cringe!

A solid three star book for me

A genuinely enjoyable book with a pretty good message. At first, I was on the fence just because there's a lot of slut shaming and cutting other girls down, and I thought it really was undermining the message of the book. Thankfully, though, our main character ultimately learns how to think better of herself and others and the book is better for it.
Besides, I love a good enemies to lovers trope and this one did it pretty well. Has solid rereadability too which is always important to me when rating. Overall, it was a fun ride.