The DUFF

It just came out last week, but several of the book bloggers I read had really enjoyed this book. I was looking for an audio book and thought this would be a good one. (I love non-fiction, but it's too hard to follow on my ipod. I like YA, chick-lit, etc for audio books.)

Like the other bloggers, I really enjoyed it. The DUFF is pretty racy for YA (some of those book banners might have a heart attack if they read it), so it seemed a little unrealistic for being in high school. It was a fun coming of age story, even if the lesson of the book was a bit over-emphasized. Some people have commented that the main character was hard to like, but I felt like our personalities were somewhat similar. I actually liked her a lot, though there were a couple points when I wanted to yell at her. So I have some of these minor negative comments, but I really enjoyed the story. I'm such a sucker for love/hate relationships and YA love.

As I mentioned, I listened to the audio version. I can tell a book is great when I can't stop listening-- I sit in my car after I've gotten where I was going or I decide to do a few more chores. I listened to this book (7.5 hours) in 2 days. I definitely wanted to keep listening to know what was going to happen.

However, I was not thrilled at all with the narrator. I thought she had a lisp and didn't like her voices. I went on to audible to see other books she's narrated and saw several more similar comments about her narration (both on this and other books.)

While I can't say I'd recommend the audio version, I definitely recommend the book. And, the author was 17 when she wrote it!

Oh- and there's a very short section when Bianca has a dig at all the YA novels with vampires. I laughed out loud. I really enjoyed Twilight, but ugg, there's just so many vampire books now.