SHUT OUT by Kody Keplinger

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 273
Published: September 5, 2011
Publisher: Poppy
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance

Description:
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.


Review:
SHUT OUT was a loose retelling of Aristophanes' play Lysistrata, which was absolutely phenomenal! Kody Keplinger tells the story in a way that is really thought provoking yet fun.

Main characher Lissa is getting fed up with being shoved aside by her boyfriend Randy, who is always putting the school's football/soccer teams' rivalry before their relationship. This seems to be affecting all of the girlfriends of players on both teams. One day after a boy is seriously hurt by a rivalry prank, she comes up with an idea that seems to be the best way to end the rivalry for good. Lissa rallies the girls together and they decide to go on strike. A sex strike. They think depriving the boys of one of the things they love most will be enough to get them to put an end to the rivalry.

Lissa is soon tangled up in a group of girls exploring their feelings on sex, boyfriends reacting to the strike, and her new feelings for a boy that is not her boyfriend.

Kody Keplinger did a fantastic job writing about a subject that is never touched on in books, especially in the young adult genre: sex and how it is understood by girls. Keplinger explores how girls relate to what is considered "normal" and why standards are different for boys and girls when it comes to sex.

It was such a multi-layered story in that it held the basic plot of the rivalry, but it explored friendship, relationships, and teenage sexuality. Bravo to Kody Keplinger for writing such a wonderful novel that will appeal to the YA audience as well as adults, since those same standards and questions apply to both age groups.

The story was extremely entertaining and the characters were well-developed and likeable. This was an incredibly easy read because it was next to impossible to put down!



Rate: 5/5


PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket


5 comments :

  1. Great review. :) really want this book.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my gosh, you will LOVE it! I read it in less than two days and it would have been faster than that if I hadn't had things to do in between!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This sounds interesting... I worry about young people reading too much about sex but this sounds like it touches on more then just the act itself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have heard only good things about this book. I will for sure check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It actually talks about having sex in HS, it being normal NOT to have sex and to wait, and what if you don't like it. Its definitely geared for the older YA market, but still something teens could benefit from. The main character's mom passed away before she began dating so she is learning all of this on her own. It is a wonderful look at a girl's discovery of sex - and the standard of girls who like it are "sluts" and boys who like it are "popular".

    ReplyDelete

// This Pinterest Hover Button is brought to you by bloggersentral.com. // Feel free to use and share, but please keep this notice intact.