Most high school 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 player's 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: and 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.
It didn't take long for me to realise that
Shut Out is a modern day adaptation of Aristophanes comedy
Lysistrata. Lissa (clever little twist on Lysistrata) starts a sex strike, causing all out war between the boys and girls of Hamilton High. I love that Kody Keplinger used the famous Greek comedy as the basis for her novel, it's a play I love (and studied to death in A2 drama!) So I was really happy to see it used in the Young Adult world.
Shut Out isn't just loosely based on Lysistrata, oh no. There's a sex strike and an oath, Lissa even becomes single (just like Lysistrata) while leading the strike. Keplinger even references the play in her novel, with heartthrob and perpetual tease Cash Sterling giving Lissa the play to read.
And oh boy, Cash Sterling. Why Lissa was ever with Randy I don't know. Cash is in the soccer team, and throughout the novel he's trying to subtlety show Lissa that he likes her, although his plans never seem to quite work out. As soon as Cash graced the pages of Shut Out it was very clear that he was the perfect choice for Lissa. Kody Keplinger built up their relationship really well, Cash even becomes the leader of the boys, which creates even more tension between him and Lissa.
Great. He was a hottie, a good kisser and a literature buff. God really must have had a sense of humour, because if I had to name my biggest turn-on, it was literature. And he had just recommended a book that I didn't know, that wasn't taught in school. If I were single, there would be no better pick-up line.
I'd never heard of Kody Keplinger before I stumbled upon a blog post featuring
Shut Out, I liked the synopsis and downloaded it onto my Kindle immediately. I was hooked straight away, I really liked Lissa, although at times she needed to have more of a backbone when dealing with Randy. She looks after her paraplegic father and her older brother while dating the star quarter back. She's an all round nice girl with a few obsessive tendencies. Lissa is a really enjoyable character, Kody Keplinger created some really good characters within the novel, and I'll definitely be reading more of her work!
I really enjoyed
Shut Out and I'll be on the look out for more books by Kody Keplinger! Have you read
Shut Out? Let me know what you thought in the comments! If you're new to the blog then I'd love you to follow me on
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'Shut Out' by Kody Keplinger
5 Stars
Labels: 5 Stars, Aristophanes, Book, Comedy, Kody Keplinger, Lysistrata, Published 2012, Review, Shut Out, YA, Young Adult
