The Duff

Two words: Wesley Rush. I’m a sucker for a bad boy with charisma. And Bianca—my girl!—definitely gives Wesley a run for his money. I love her feistiness. Wesley dubs Bianca the “Designated Ugly Fat Friend” which is a huge no-no, but somehow he and Bianca began a steamy enemies with benefits fling and I lived for it. Naturally, their walls began to come down the closer they got, and there’s a line in the book (I will not spoil it) that took my breath away and made me fall completely in love with Wesley. Skip the movie, read the book!… show more.

My grandmother was notorious for labeling girls as “the pretty one,” “the musical one,” or “the smart one,” etc. It felt like she was saying if you weren’t first in line for beauty at least there were consolation prizes to be had. In The Duff, when the protagonist discovers she’s been dubbed such by a popular boy in school, she’s not going to take it. But her power recovery methods don’t involve remaking herself from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. Instead, she slowly brings her antagonist around to a different opinion of her. She also exacts her… show more.