Review: Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Title: Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Released:  September 5, 2011 by Poppy

Pages: 273

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by: Carey

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

***

(Note: I was on vacation and read/wrote this review over a four day period and it was quite awkward.) 

The thing about this book is that I started it being really unsure about it. I had read maybe three chapters of The DUFF, also by Keplinger, and just couldn't get into it. But I loved the synopsis and everything, so when I went to the library and saw it, of course I picked it up. Contrary to The DUFF, I immediately got into this book. I'm not sure what it is, but something about I made me so obsessed with it so quickly. But I'm glad it did.

It starts off with the main character, Lissa, and her boyfriend Randy in the car making out. Then their car gets egged, some stuff happens, and Lissa gets pissed. Apparently this isn't the first time this has happened in their year and a half long relationship. Lissa goes into detail about the rivalry between the school's soccer and football team, which is the reason why Lissa, a few chapters later, recommends the sex strike to the other girlfriends of the football and soccer players.

You get introduced to Lissa's life very quickly. Her mother and father were in a car accident, leaving her father handicapped and her mother dead. She has an older brother, Logan, who she pretty much plays Mom for, even though he's ten years older than her. And then you meet Cash Sterling. Cash is one of the soccer players who she has a bit of a past with. He's perfect: attractive, athletic, smart, a master flirter, and a good kisser. And of course he gets a job with Lissa, which starts some drama right there.

When Lissa tells Randy about the strike, she says that he's supposed to be acting more mature, not putting soccer players into the hospital because of a stupid rivalry. But then Randy fires back that she also hasn't kept some promise that she made. Which makes you wonder: what is the promise? So, naturally, I got even more invested in the book.

And holy plot twist, Kody Keplinger! There are literally three plot twists in maybe four pages about the said promise. It's insane with how everything just picked up all of the sudden with those plot twists. I hated the fact that I was busy the entire time I was reading this book and I that I had to put it down so often because I wanted to continue reading so badly! It got sooooo good soooo quickly. And it was already so good, too! 

As I got farther and farther into the book, everything in Lissa's life started to change. Randy and Lissa broke up, which obviously opened some windows for her, even if it was bad break up (which it was). The Strike got even worse, even though the football and soccer players started to get along. As you may have expected, Lissa brought her personal feelings into the strike. 

Let me just say this: Randy is an asshole.  I can't say that enough. Cash is the perfect guy, which is how Keplinger, I think, wanted to get him across as. And Lissa is a brave, brilliant girl with a touch of OCD that makes everyone love her. I actually might go as far to say that she's one of my favorite characters in a book ever. And I've read a lot of books. So, props to Keplinger. 

Throughout all of the character developments, plot twists, minor plot/relationships, and a fun major plot in general, Shut Out recieves five stars. And, by the way, this would definitely make a kick-ass movie!