Shut Out

Title: Shut Out
Author: Kody Keplinger
Year Published: 2011
Pages: 273
Publisher: Poppy
Price: USD 8.99

Hamilton High School's soccer and football team had been in unhealthy rivalry since a decade ago. And now, nobody even remembered the reason that had started it all. All the boys did were playing pranks and hurt  each other. Lissa was fed up with all the feud because her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, several times left her while they were making out because of this rivalry thing. Lissa then gathered her fellow soccer and football team members' girlfriends and planned a sex strike to push the boys to end the feud.

So many unexpected things happened while the strike was run as postponing sex seemed like not only troubled the boys but also the girls. Would Lissa be able to succeed in ending the feud?



I like this book so much! Reading this reminds me a lot of those nineties teenage movies, especially 10 Things I Hate about You. The story actually offers nothing new. I mean... rivalry, sex, cliques, so cliche right? But I don't know, it just works for me. If this were a movie, maybe I would watch it again and again and again. I think the way Kody Keplinger told the story was the key of my likeness to this book. The way she wrote it was so effortless and really brought teenage ambiance. Her characters were so unique, the storyline was so easy to follow, the conversations were so realistic, and the details were well developed.

The main character, Lissa.. Well, she's so imperfect. Her mother died because of accident and her father was on wheelchair now. She had to take care of her family so that she became so control freak. Everything must be in order and worked just like she wanted it to. That's why she hated so much when Randy left her for the fight with soccer team. She was a popular girl in school and wanted to maintain it so that she lied and kinda denied herself that somehow she was a geek at heart too. There were some times when I hated her so much because of her attitude, but in the end, I love how determined and smart she was and I am so happy that finally she deserved her happiness.

The other girls also succeeded in owning my heart, especially Chloe. She was a total bitch and totally opposite to Lissa but however, their friendship worked. And Kelsey... How I love every fight she and Chloe had. They were so funny to read. The boys, on the other hand, well, actually I was hoping to find more conflict about them and the strike but... in the end, since I love Cash so much, it's forgiven. Hehe. Wait, wait, who is Cash? Well, I don't want to spoil any further. All I can say is that this guy is so sweet. You have to read the book by yourself to find out about him.

There are actually so many more praises I can give for this book since I enjoyed reading it so much, but I think I have to end this review here to let you give this book a try by yourself. I hope you will enjoy this as much as I do. Totally recommend this for all young adult readers who are looking for quick and entertaining reads and also for 90s teenage movie lovers out there.

And as a closure, I'm giving you this nice quote from the book:

"You can't control everything," Dad said. "Sometimes you just need to relax and have faith that things will work out. Let go a little and let life happen. You don't want to miss out on the best parts of life just because you were afraid of getting hurt.."