Review: SHUT OUT
Author Website: Kody Keplinger
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Poppy; 1 edition (September 5, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316175566
My Rating: ♥♥♥

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.

My Thoughts:
SHUT OUT is another entertaining read by Kody Keplinger. She has a unique talent for creating realistic dialogue that could be heard down the halls and across the fields of any high school today while creating some situations that will surely cause you to blush. Kody has tapped into a more sexual vein than most YA reads and while it is a bit frank it is never crude or over the top.

While most high school sports teams host rivalries with other schools, Hamilton High is the exception. It seems that their own Soccer and Football team are engaged in a civil war that has been going on for years. Everyone knows about but Lissa is beyond fed up and one day when she is pushed beyond her limits she comes up with an idea that will involve the power of the V. She enlists her BFF and several key players girlfriend's to host a sex strike against the players from both teams, the idea being that the boys will break down and stop fighting all together. One of the best parts from this exchange is the vow they all take on an issue of Cosmo

I hear by swear to abstain from all forms of sexual activity. This includes but is not limited to anything involving body parts below the belt. That’s either party’s belt. Oh, and second case is outlawed, too. Nothing, um, under the shirt…I’ll stand my ground, even in the toughest of times, and will resist temptation until the rivalry is put to an end.

I enjoyed this novel more so than her debut effort, The DUFF although I did find Bianca a more agreeable character than SHUT OUT's Lissa. What tipped the scale in this current novel's favor was the cast of characters that were engaging and memorable especially Lissa's BFF and her new love interest Cash. It was a quick and fun read while dancing on the racy side.