Review: Shut Out-Kody Keplinger

Title: Shut Out

Author: Kody Keplinger

Release Date: September 2011

Publisher: Poppy

Genre: Young Adult

Rating: 4 Hoots

Reviewer: Angela

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

Then 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. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling... (Goodreads)

Review:

Shut Out is a great surprising read. It took a few chapters to get me hooked, but afterwards I couldn’t put it down.
Kody Keplinger’s topic in Shut Out is dead on! Sex, sex and more sex- or not… Usually you find two high schools are rivals but not here, it’s the football team vs. the soccer team and while the feud is going on, Lissa is Shut Out- and she’s tired of it! Lissa’s been humiliated enough and decides to form an alliance between each team’s girlfriends. Surely they’re tired of being left in the back seat of their boyfriend’s car so he can take revenge against some stupid prank!
Lissa finds she’s in the same boat as all the other girls and so the sex strike begins!
I found the langue quite shocking in the beginning but the further I read, the easier it was to take. I think the issue of sex is well written. When the girls form their group, you get a nice understanding of what ‘normal’ is. Some girls have never had sex, some don’t like having sex and some love it, but what was so amazing, is that each girl thought they were weird because of their feelings towards the issue and in the end they learn that ‘normal’ is just a word- not a standard to live by.
The sex strike isn’t the only variable here- there’s family issues, self-realization, trust and so much more. I was happy that Lissa and her football boyfriend, Randy, had broken up and she was able to find someone who appreciated her for her, Cash.
I find this book very difficult for me to review because all I want to do is write a play by play but what would be the fun of finding out what happens, right? So, here’s the sum up: Girls vs. guys- inner-school rivalries-sex strike-relationships fall apart and new ones begin… The End! I’ll definitely be on the lookout for Keplinger’s other novels!