Book Review: Shut Out

By: Kody Keplinger

Published by: Poppy/Little Brown

Released on: September 5th, 2011

Source: ARC/Book from publisher to review

3 stars- It's A Good Read

Purchase from: Amazon| Barnes & Noble

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. -quoted from Goodreads

I was surprised at how much I liked this book. I wasn't a fan of The Duff, at all. I don't enjoy reading books that are full of sex, but I was really curious to see what Kody had done with her sophomore book, and I'm glad I did. I was really intrigued by Shut Out's premise and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that while Shut Out deals with the topic of sex, it's surprisingly a book with no sex scenes in it. What Kody does with Shut Out is send a powerful message to her readers about sex and the empowerment girls have by staying in control of who they are.

Shut Out doesn't hold back on it's "say how it is" conversations with relationships, friendships, sex, standing firm and being proud of who you are, choices, letting your guard down, double standards and sex education/advice. I liked this story covers a lot of realistic situations and I enjoyed the enduring friendships the girls have, and how open they were able to eventually be with each other. I really appreciated the fact that they were able to be so blunt in their conversations together about sex, double standards, wanting advice about sex and the pros and cons of teens having sex. What I admired the most with this book was the empowerment girls feel when they're in control of themselves, and they don't need to be having sex to have that control.

Kody tackled some tough issues that teens deal with and I loved that she created characters who through out the course of this book started to become honest with each other and themselves. I was shocked to learn that many of the girls in the story were indeed virgins. It made me want to yell FINALLY, there's a book with a main character and other supporting characters who don't feel the need to go all the way. Don't get me wrong, there's scenes of heavy petting and and fooling around, but I admired that some of these girls don't take it all the way even though in the beginning they act like they do.

Another thing I liked about this book was Lissa. Her voice was enduring, feisty and she kept me reading the book. She's a character who grows a lot through out the story. She learns to let go a little bit and not be so uptight about things she can't control, and at the same time she learns to be honest with herself. I totally admired her strength after a horrid event happens at her prom and I loved how her friends rallied around her after that. And Cash... I adored his character! He made the book for me and I loved how prescient and patient he was. His respect towards Lissa spoke volumes to me. My biggest compliant with the story was how often the f-bomb is dropped. I felt it was totally unnecessary to be used as much as it did and for me, it didn't fit the character who uses it so often. I liked the way Kody tackles real teen issues with regards to sex, friendships and not being embarrassed to admit you're a virgin. There's language in the book, a lot of talk about sex, and some mild sensual scenes, making this a book I'd recommend to mature YA readers.