Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Publisher: Poppy
Age Group: YA
Rating: 5/5
Source: Publisher

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.

I LOVE Kody Keplinger! When I first read THE DUFF, I fell in  love with her writing. The book instantly became one of my favorite books. When I found out another book by Kody was coming out, I couldn't wait to read it.

The moment the book arrived to me, I read it and finished it that day. There's something about Kody's writing that just sweeps you away. I never had heard of Lysistrata before, so when I heard that this book was going to be inspired by it, I was a little nervous. Usually, books that I've read that were inspired by classics, have turned out to be very bad, but this one was amazing. Kody knows how to take an idea and turn it into something so unique.

Lissa had a lot of peer pressure at school for being the quarterback's girlfriend. I thought Randy was plainly a jerk. As sweet and caring as Lissa was, she did not deserve a boyfriend like Randy who literally was hurting her feelings. When I first met Cash, I didn't like him either, but as the book progressed and Cash's character developed, I liked him a lot and how at the end of the story he stands up to Randy to leave Lissa alone.

Kody Keplinger has taken a subject that's very controversial in YA literature and made a story that makes you forget that you're even reading about it. This book is not just about hookups. It's seeing Lissa's character grow and see that Randy only wanted her for one thing. He never loved her for being herself.

I cannot wait to read more of Kody's future books because I know they're going to be just as good!