Alyssa's Reviews > Shut Out

On one hand, Miss Keplinger’s youthful style and her exploration of sexuality is exactly what YA contemporary readers need to see. On the other hand, her books aren’t what would typically be considered “well-written”; while her stories provide valuable messages, they aren’t what would conventionally be considered smartly crafted. Personally I believed Shut Out to be a better read than The DUFF, Keplinger’s debut, but still it’s not a novel without its fault.

The students at Hamilton High are caught at war with each other – the footballers and soccer players hate one another, their rivalry so great it’s jumped out off the fields and into the players’ personal lives. The girlfriends of the players are fed up with being placed second to pranks and fights, so they decide to take a stand to end the rivalry. Lissa, the girlfriend of the quarterback Randy, is exhausted with being egged and mocked, so she initiates the Hook-up Strike, getting all the girlfriends to, basically, become abstinent.

Shut Out is about discovering one’s sexuality and what it means to be a powerful woman, and since those two topics are really central in a young woman’s life, you’d think that Lissa’s feelings and identity would be thoroughly looked at. Oddly enough, the opposite things happened - every time Lissa had to make a crucial decision, Keplinger would cut from her head and explain the whole situation in dialogue, just as every time you thought Lissa was going to go all physiological and really think to herself, she ran up and away. Books have main characters for a reason. While a cast of developed characters is important, they’re never as essential as the lead’s individuality. Unfortunately, in the case of Shut Out, there was way too much focus on all characters besides Lissa. The fact that I never knew how Lissa felt, and that I rarely saw inside her head, completely slowed down and ruined the message of the story.

That being said, though the cast of characters were annoying, stereotyped and boring, they were well written for their place in the story. I liked that the warm-hearted football players, “Virgin Marys” (literately) and “sluts” were defined and undefined. I didn’t exactly agree with a lot of what was written about because I feel like Keplinger threw too many ideas in, some that even opposed others, but I am very glad that Keplinger has continued to write about the views of feminism and sexuality.

I know that Keplinger is a young writer, but even if I hadn’t, I think I’d have been able to pick up on the fact just in reading Shut Out. Keplinger, though she has an advanced idea of feminism – even if it’s not always greatly portrayed – has a very standard writing style. While some authors are able to pull off a bland prose, little description and basic structure, Keplinger isn’t one of them because she has absolutely no unique style. I’d, in a second, be able to pick out a Dessen paragraph in a draw between hers, John Green’s and Deb Caletti's, but with Keplinger, there is no individual style to make her different from every other writer out there. There’s no pretty/gritty writing, there’s no witty/serious dialogue, there’s no real climax to anything she writes. And while I’d like to say that it’s refreshing to have an author who isn’t afraid to go without stylistic use, it really isn’t as such as all one bland sentence after another bland sentence makes is, well, a bland book. Another thing I noticed was the technique of info-dumping the thesis(s) into the dialogue; stepping onto the soap-box is basically what the characters did every time a new idea was established, thus giving me the feeling that I was being preached at. Like I said, Keplinger has great views on feminism, she just needs to work on how to write them across.

I’ll continue to read Keplinger’s work because I believe she’ll become an even stronger writer as she continues to publish, but truthfully, there were many problems with this book, from the conventions of it to the portrayal of sexuality. I’m not sure that Shut Out is the best choice if you’re looking for a great portrayal of feminism or writing, but it has some key messages worth looking in to.