Review: Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Publisher: Poppy
Publishing Date: September 5th, 2011
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pages: 273 pgs
ISBN: 9780316175562

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:
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...

My Review: 
I read Keplinger's debut novel, The DUFF not too long ago and quite enjoyed it. I ended up going on my library's website and putting this book on hold and I was happy when it came in quite quickly. This novel is about a group of girls who go on a sex strike in order to stop a feud between the football team and the soccer team. I like Keplinger's writing style and I really grew to like to characters in this book. The one thing I found interesting is that while in the beginning everyone says they are having sex or even enjoying sex and in the end the girls learn so much more about themselves and about their peers. It makes me think back to high school. I grew up in a small town where there was a huge problem with teen pregnancies. I think that seeing that many girls at my school getting pregnant made me feel like the last virgin alive in high school. This is funny because now that I'm older, I know that most of my friends and most of the girls at my school were having similar feelings but no one really wanted to discuss them.
While Keplinger's books may be seen as a bit too racy for teens, I think that teens are full of hormones and they will inevitably be asking themselves or others these kinds of questions. I also think that it important to note that we are sexual beings and to ignore this is not helpful.
I quite enjoyed this book; it is fun and it is light while at the same time discussing a pretty heavy issue. Not only does it address sexuality but it also addresses hazing and bullying. I quite enjoy Keplinger's writing style and I will definitely be reading more from her. Overall I give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.