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..

This book is not exactly what I thought it would be. Not that that’s a bad thing. But when I first saw the cover I thought it would be about a girl who plays sports. Then when I got the book from a friend and really read the cover, I found out I was wrong. Turns out, it’s about a girl who plays the players of these sports. Sort of.

So what does sports and sex have to do with a young adult novel? In this one, a lot.

Lissa grows sick and tired of the rivalry between her high school’s football and soccer team. That’s right, one school, two teams, at odds. Who ever heard of such craziness? And though Lissa knows the reason behind the war that began ten years ago, most of the guys on the teams couldn’t tell you what they fought over. Even if their life depended on it. So what’s the point of fighting? That’s what Lissa thinks and wants to put a stop to it once and for all. She’s been left high and dry by her boyfriend one too many times thanks to this rivalry and she won’t stand for it anymore. With the help of the other players’ girlfriends, she’s finding a way to stop it.

I know what you’re thinking. “What could a bunch of teenage girls do to get their boyfriends attention and get them to stop this war?” Get them where it counts, of course. Working together, the girls figured out what the best way to get what they want. So what is the best way to get a teenage boys attention besides food and fast cars? Sex. Or rather, a lack of it. That’s right, these girls form a hookup strike. No guy on either team will get any until this war is ended.

And this is how Shut Out brings different views on sex into account. Because not everyone is having it. You get insight from all aspects—girls who have sex and like it, girls who do and don’t like it, girls who aren’t and lie about it, and those who are just aren’t ready and aren’t afraid to admit it. You get it all. And I think it’s fantastic. It’s a great book for a young adult reader, girls and guy. For some girls, it’s hard to talk about this subject matter, and this book is perfect to get the conversation started. For guys it’s a great way to see how girls think.

Through the book we see the characters learn about themselves and each other. Why the girls put labels on one another like slut or prude. Why their afraid not to have sex with their boyfriends. And what they’re willing to give up in order to make themselves happy.

In the end, Shut Out is an incredible story about finding yourself and being around people you respect and that respect you. I can’t wait to read another book by Kody Keplinger.