Book Review- Bumped

by Megan McCafferty

Published by Balzer + Bray

Release Date: April 26, 2011

Source: Publisher

4 Stars- I enjoyed it a lot!

Synopsis (from HarperCollins Children's): When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society. Girls sport fake baby bumps and the school cafeteria stocks folic-acid-infused food.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and have never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Up to now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend, Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in Goodside, a religious community, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to convince Melody that pregging for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.

Bumped was really surprising to me, I don’t know why but all along while waiting for this novel I kept thinking it was going to be a very intense read. I think because it was a dystopian I always think of dystopian as sad and intense, but that wasn’t the case with Bumped.

Bumped was hilarious, in a weird twisted way because this world was crazy!! The way this girls acted and talked about their “breedy bits” and all the other slang they used to describe sex had me laughing out loud, I tried not to, because it was such a serious topic but I couldn't help it and the giggles just kept bubbling out. I do have to admit that it did take me a while to get used to the dialogue, I was a bit confused at the beginning. Some of the names of things they kept mentioning took me a little while to figure out what they were, and all the eye twitching that they were doing was confusing at first, but once I found out what it meant I was able to enjoy the story a lot more and found it fascinating.

I loved that we get see the story unfold from the point of view of both Harmony and Melody which seemed complete opposites of each other, but ended up having some similar qualities towards the end. They were both raised by different sets of parents and in pretty much two different worlds, they were raised to strongly believed that what they were doing and meant to do in their future was the right thing and that everyone else had it wrong. I loved their differences, Harmony had a good heart, was sweet and humble but very naive. Melody was stubborn and ambitious but also had a hidden feelings of doubt that she didn't show very often. The character development was so well done that we see them grow and become totally different by the ending.

What it's so scary is that this near future is not that unrealistic, humans not being able to have children because of a virus after they turn 18, so they have to have these girls have babies for them. It definitely seems like something that could happen, and even though the story and the way Megan McCafferty told it was quite hilarious, it also makes you think and leaves you thinking about it long after you finish it. It's a terrifying choice to make, it leaves you wondering what’s the right choice here? If this were to happen in our future, do we let population dwindle down because we don’t want young girls to have babies for us? Do we allow them to do this and pay them back with cars, scholarships and huge amounts of money? These girls feel that they are only important because they can still get pregnant and they are talked into believing that way about themselves since their little. How far is too far, and how do you stop it from getting that far? So thanks to Megan McCafferty for writing such a wonderful book that got me thinking, I'm looking forward to the next one.