Shut Out

Given that Keplinger (The DUFF) is using Lysistrata as the basis for her sophomore novel, it should come as little surprise that sex is at the heart of it. Her modernization of Aristophanes’s play, in which women withheld sex from their husbands to persuade them to end the Peloponnesian War, has high school girls using the same tactic on their boyfriends, who are involved in an escalating rivalry between the football and soccer teams. Lissa, who is dating stereotypically oafish football player Randy, gets the other players’ girlfriends to agree to the plan, and the girls bond over their experiences with the sex strike while relationships are put to the test. Keplinger has picked a hefty topic, but her characters lack the complexity to pull off a real triumph of girl power. There are some honest, sensitive, and surprising conversations about sex and relationships, and the overall crassness (both in terms of sex and casual profanity) creates a realistic high-school environment. But there isn’t much more insight to be had than in your average teen sex (or in this case no-sex) comedy. Ages 15–up. (Sept.)■