[4] High school student Bianca Piper, along with her friends Casey Blithe and Jessica Gaither, frequent a teen lounge called the Nest.

One January night as Casey and Jessica are dancing, another student named Wesley Rush, who has a reputation as a womanizer, approaches Bianca.

He explains that he wants people to see him talking with her, because she is the DUFF, the Designated Ugly Fat Friend, and a connection with her will bring other, more attractive women to him.

This drives Mike Piper to start drinking again and to demolish the living room, and when Wesley plans to come to Bianca's house to work on an English paper together on the novel The Scarlet Letter, Bianca suggests going to Wesley's house instead so that no one discovers about her parents' divorce.

The stirring of this memory prompts her to approach Wesley again for distraction, and soon she starts a casual relationship with him, sleeping with him every few days.

Bianca also realizes that her status as a DUFF is illusory and unimportant, since other people sometimes act as the odd one in a group and later become popular or successful.

[5] Keplinger also said in a webcast: "I started writing the book, because I thought I was the DUFF of my group of friends.

But the more I wrote, and the more I began talking to my friends about what I was writing, I realized that every girl has felt like the DUFF at some point or another.

"[6] Andrea Simakis of The Plain Dealer wrote that the novel "gives off a whiff of promise, like a pleasing sample scent you spray on your wrist at Sephora.

She felt that it has "some dead-on dialogue, deft writing and entertaining snark", but concluded that "the only true longing in this novel will be from the reader, pining for the clever innocence of Clueless.

"[8] The Guardian gave it a positive review: "Although The DUFF contains steamy scenes and a love triangle sure to keep the pages turning, Keplinger addresses more serious themes, too: body image, alcoholism and the sacrifices of friendship.

"[1] A film adaptation of The DUFF, starring Mae Whitman as Bianca and Robbie Amell as Wesley and directed by Ari Sandel, was released on February 20, 2015.