The Story is About   +  peace

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Release Date: September 5, 2011
Publisher: Poppy
Age Group: Young Adult
Shelfability: Acquire
Pages: 273
Format: Advance Reader Copy
Source: BEA
Interest: Author
Challenge: None
Buy the Book: Amazon

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part,Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention

Then Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling...

Keplinger is such a talented writer. She absolutely blows me away every time. (If you haven’t read her debut novel DUFF... you should get on that!)

Keplinger does an excellent job capturing the teen voice, and perhaps it’s because she herself was a teen a short while ago!

Shut Out wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. The synopsis didn’t grab me, it interested me, but it wasn’t enough to make me read it RIGHT NOW! Obviously since the book came out in September and I’m just now getting around to reading it. I wish I would have read it sooner.

The thing that I enjoyed the most was all the sex talk. Hear me out.

There are girls in this novel that have sex and there are girls in this novel that do not have sex. It’s not condoning or condemning teenage sex. It gives a realistic portrayal of teen girls questioning sex, addressing the double standards of sex, seeking advice about sex, talking about it and not just doing it. Keplinger tackled some serious issues and she did it in a tactful way. I know as an adult I appreciated it, and I think that teen readers will to. This was one of those books I would have had to read as a 15 and 16 year old!

The characterization in this novel is excellent. I think readers will really be able to relate to Lissa, I know I did. She’s not perfect by any means and she makes some mistakes along the way, but I think that is what makes her such a great character. And Cash... how cute was he! Not just in the looks department, he was nice and respectful, he READS! Everything that a girl could want and more. There are guys like that out there and it’s nice to read about them!

I can’t WAIT for Kody’s next book! She rocks!