Hey everyone! Hope your weekends were fantastic and are happy this week is almost halfway done :) Have the rest of this current List's reviews on the chopping block tonight. Hope y'all enjoy them, and away we go!
Shut Out is the sophomore novel from Kody Keplinger. I'm trying to come up with my own description, but I think the Goodreads one is better (xD) so here it is:
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.
I'll admit, for about half of the book I was going back and forth on how I felt about it. I wasn't really feeling this book, but I didn't want to quit it because it had some great parts. I'm glad I didn't quit reading Shut Out, because it ended up being amazing. There was a great plot, some wonderful character development, and laugh out loud moments mixed with some really sweet romance. Plus I loved the self-awareness that was going on with Lysistrata, the Greek play this book is loosely based off of. That was done so well, tying into the plot while being ironically self-aware. :)
Ok, I'm not gonna lie, Lissa flat out annoyed me for a while. I thought she was selfish, had a superior "I am better than you in every way" attitude, a deep control freak, all of which as I said deeply annoyed me. But, as the story went on, her layers were stripped away, and what annoyed me about her became tied in with her development, all of it being explained in a realistic way. You start to root for Lissa, feel for her. She becomes so much more realistic. I think my favorite character though is Chloe, Lissa's best friend. Chloe could have easily become the token slutty chick and heinously slut-shamed. That never happened though. She had great character development, embracing who she is and not caring what others thought of her. She was fully formed and also very real. Plus she was hilarious and snarky, which is always always appreciated :). I wanted to slap the hell out of Lissa's boyfriend, Randy. My god, he was such s bleeping a^^hole. The things he said and did just angered me to no end. Then there's Cash. *Swoon* Oh Cash. You have made me fall in love with your sexy self. The chemistry he and Lissa had was palpable, and he is just so sweet and smart and, oh god he's just wonderful.
Kudos to Ms. Keplinger. She made me hate her for a while with this book, but she brought me back in and gripped my emotions hard. She raised great ideas/questions, wrote a great book and great characters. If there were ever a sequel to this, I'd read it in a heartbeat.
WARNING!!! For those with children or siblings/cousins, I don't think they should read this, as it does have strong sexual content. Just a warning.
I'll next be reviewing Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty.
Until next time, viva la literature!
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