Girlfriends Unite

Shut Out

Written by: Kody Keplinger

Released: September 5, 2011 by Poppy

Summary: 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.

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. And Lissa never sees her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling, coming.

Inspired by Aristophanes' play Lysistrata, critically acclaimed author of The Duff (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) Kody Keplinger adds her own trademark humor in this fresh take on modern teenage romance, rivalry and sexuality.

Kody Keplinger is an amazing writer and she has made a life-long fan out of me with this her second novel and it makes me so beyond excited that I was able to get a SIGNED copy while in NYC for BEA at the Teen Author Carnival and read this novel quite a while age (yeah, I’m beyond behind in my reviews).

To start, I loved the concept behind this novel because I can completely see it happening in real life. Plus, the fact that the main focus is sex is just so reflective of how things really are. You see so many YA novels that gloss over the over-sexed ways of today’s youth. Seriously, some of the stories that I could tell you from when I was in high school that would make your jaw fall off in disbelief. But Keplinger’s characters spanned the entire spectrum from the timid wait-until-marriage virgin to the well-known school slut.

Before it was mentioned in the novel I had no idea that the plot was based on a classic greek (right?) play and when I finally put two and two together (I have my slow moments) I was really impressed and wanted to read the source material even though that will never happen because my TBR is beyond huge. I would love, though, to compare the two and see just how much they match up.

I greatly enjoyed the characters in this novel. Lissa wasn’t what I thought that she would be – which is a great thing don’t get me wrong – and by the end I left a kinship with her character in many ways. I’ll admit that I loved The DUFF just a little bit more, but I fell in love more with her leading guy in this novel than that one. Seriously, Cash is the whole package in this book – he’s sweet, caring, and funny. Plus, he’s not a dick like Randy. Speaking of, Randy was a huge jerk and I was definitely rooting for Cash the entire time – he was just so swoony.

I’m definitely giving this novel a 9/10 and I seriously cannot wait for Keplinger’s next novel A Midsummer’s Nightmare which is due out next June.

Ps: Kody Keplinger is one of the nicest authors that I have ever met. I think it’s because she was so sweet when signing my book at TAC and she took the time to speak with everyone who came up to her in the line (even if they weren’t having a book signed).