The DUFF

The DUFF is Kody Keplinger's 2010 debut novel, about high school senior Bianca Piper and the label that gives the book its title. Bianca isn't the prettiest of her friends, and Wesley Rush, the school's resident hookup artist, makes sure she knows it the moment they meet, needling her with the nickname "the Duff." Furious, Bianca throws a soda in his face and vows never to speak to him again.

But behind the tough front, Bianca's home life is unraveling: her parents are separating, and her father is fighting a relapse into alcoholism. Desperate for an escape, she ends up kissing Wesley, and worse, she likes it. What follows is a secret, enemies-with-benefits arrangement that neither of them is willing to call a relationship, even as Bianca juggles her two best friends, a budding romance with her longtime crush Toby Tucker, and a family falling apart around her. By the end, Bianca has to work out what the Duff label actually says about her, and it isn't what she thought.