The Duff

The DUFF is a 2010 young adult novel by American author Kody Keplinger. Keplinger was 17 when she wrote the novel, which was released on September 7, 2010. A film based on the novel, also entitled The DUFF, was released on February 20, 2015. A companion novel, Lying Out Loud, was released on April 28, 2015, and is set in the same universe as The DUFF. Plot High school student Bianca Piper, along with her friends Casey Blithe and Jessica Gaither, frequent a teen lounge called the Nest. One January night as Casey and Jessica are dancing, another student named Wesley Rush, who has a reputation as a womanizer, approaches Bianca. He explains that he wants people to see him talking with her, because she is the DUFF, the Designated Ugly Fat Friend, and a connection with her will bring other, more attractive women to him. Disgusted, Bianca finds her friends and leaves. A few nights later, however, Wesley approaches Bianca at the club again after Bianca had a particularly bad day, and Bianca spontaneously kisses Wesley in order to distract herself from her problems. Bianca's mother Gina, a self-help lecturer, has been disappearing for longer and longer periods of time on her business trips, and one day she sends Bianca's father, Mike, divorce papers. This drives Mike Piper to start drinking again and to demolish the living room, and when Wesley plans to come to Bianca's house to work on an English paper together on the novel The Scarlet Letter, Bianca suggests going to Wesley's house instead so that no one discovers about her parents' divorce. In Wesley's room, Bianca kisses him again and ends up sleeping with him. She insists, however, that she hates him, and he continues to address her as "Duffy". Bianca does not tell Casey or Jessica about sleeping with Wesley, or about her parents' divorce. At school, Jessica says that her older brother Jake is coming to visit, and Bianca remembers an ill-fated affair she once had with Jake. The stirring of this memory prompts her to approach Wesley again for distraction, and soon she starts a casual relationship with him, sleeping with him every few days. She tells him about Jake Gaither, but refuses to tell Jessica or Casey anything and begins to avoid them, though she eventually talks about her parents' divorce. On Valentine's Day, Bianca's longtime crush Toby Tucker begins to pay attention to her, and Gina Piper comes to discuss the divorce with Bianca's father. This causes Mike to relapse into alcoholism.