Title: Shut Out
Author: Kody Keplinger
Genre: Young Adult – Contemporary
Release Date: June, 2014
Published by: Hodder Children’s Books
I received this from Hodder Children’s Books in exchange for an honest review. As always, my reviews are fair and non-bias.
The girls of Hamilton High School are going on strike.
Sick of the rivalry between their boyfriends’ American football and soccer teams, Lissa and her friends are determined that the boys won’t see any action from them until they put an end to their immature pranks.
But Lissa hasn’t counted on a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first …
Sick of the rivalry between their boyfriends’ American football and soccer teams, Lissa and her friends are determined that the boys won’t see any action from them until they put an end to their immature pranks.
But Lissa hasn’t counted on a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first …
I heard about Kody’s books way back when she wrote The Duff, but as of today, it’s still unread on my shelf. I have no idea why I haven’t picked it up because CLEARLY, Kody’s novels are extremely popular. The Duff is getting made into a movie. And as soon as I saw the synopsis for Shut Out, it pulled me right in and looked far from your ordinary high-school book.
Lissa likes things in order and most importantly, to be in control of things, ever since her Mom died. She’s dating Randy, who’s on the football team. Sure, he’s not perfect, but Lissa loves him and he loves her. Except she get’s pretty annoyed with him when he takes the rivalry between Hamilton High’s football and soccer teams more seriously than her. So when he chases after someone who eggs Randy’s car when they’re both inside, leaving her alone and neglected, she pretty much decides enough is enough.
She ropes together the girlfriends of the both teams, including her best friend Chloe and ex-best friend Ellen. They kind of broke apart when their boyfriends were on different teams and slowly grew apart, but Lissa was hoping this might bring them together a little. Lissa brings up the subject of a sex-strike to the girlfriends of the teams, to get control over the situation and try to end this once and for all. They are unsure to start with that the plan would work and things like; what if the boyfriends just get new girlfriends? But when they start to see results, Lissa feels like she might just have changed things for good.
But it’s never quite that easy, and things start to go awry when Lissa starts to stray from Randy and give into Cash’s advances. Cash is on the soccer team, and when he starts to work at the Library after school like Lissa, she starts to see a different side to him other than the one she thought she knew from a past she wanted to never have existed.
But when the boys try to get even, and the girl’s can’t resist, things start to get bad fast. Not only does Randy turn out to be a jerk, but Lissa is finding maybe her way wasn’t the best and that the advice Cash was giving turns out to be what she was looking for all along.
Full of hilarious one-liners (Chloe, definitely!), drama and wisdom, Shut Out is a high-school rom-com you don’t want to miss. You’ll root for Lissa, cheer for the girls and get hooked to the excitement and dramatics. Kody hit the mark on this one, and the inventiveness of Shut Out blows the book competition out of the water. Five star ++!
I always say the endings of books are my favourite and although Shut Out’s ending was perfect, I think my favourite would be a quote from the book. One that should inspire all of us, and that I personally believe is very true.
“It’s never too late.”
For fans of Katie McGarry, Miranda Kenneally and Jennifer Echols! And if you’ve read The Duff, then Shut Out has to be your next read!
Have you read Shut Out?
Tell me in the comments or on twitter!
happy reading!
