Book Review: Bumped

By Megan McCafferty

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.

Why I read it: As I’ve said so many times, I love dystopia. The premise of this one, ‘What if teens were encouraged to get pregnant?’ sounded like it could go very well or very poorly, so I was interested to see how McCafferty handled it.

What I liked: The scariest aspect of dystopia is that it’s supposed to present a chilling, but all too possible future. Bumped certainly does that. Having a virus make everyone over eighteen unfertile means that teens are now encouraged to get pregnant, which leads to all kinds of really bad things, like massSEX parties and girls ‘bumping’ (having sex) with specific guys to produce designer babies which they’ll sell to older couples for lots of money. While all this is just horrifying, I loved how it was such a realistic version of life. I can only hope that such a virus never happens…

I also enjoyed how this was told from two POVs, the twin sisters Melody and Harmony. McCafferty made a great choice in having these sisters so amazingly different but with some of the same characteristics. The choices they made felt realistic and their characters were well thought out. I enjoyed the character’s voices, as they really fit the book.

What I disliked: While I said earlier that I liked how McCafferty presents such a horrifying version of the world, I didn’t like how it didn’t really seem that bad. She seemed to be suggesting that it was wrong for teens to have sex just to have babies, but teens having sex just for fun was a great thing to do. There was also a lot of sexual content, more than was necessary. I would have loved to see more of the society, not just the teen pregnancy aspect. There were one or two little hints, but not much. All in all, this book seemed to be way too centered on sex and teen pregnancy, and I think it could have benefited from a side plot or two that was a little cleaner.

This is a smaller dislike, but I really don’t care for how the book starts. In the first chapter, Melody and Harmony have already met and are hanging out in the mall. This means that for the first hundred pages, McCafferty is constantly having to go back and explain how they met, why they met, what they felt while meeting, etc… There’s so much backstory in the first couple chapters that I think it would have made a lot more sense to start the book earlier, perhaps on the day they meet or even earlier.

From a Christian Perspective: As I said before, tons of sexual references, so I won’t list them all. Two of the characters have sex, though it isn’t described. There’s a bit of swearing. My biggest problem was that one of the MCs was extremely religious (it was basically a cult) so people are always misquoting the Bible or mocking her beliefs. I wasn’t sure what McCafferty was trying to say about religion, but it wasn’t completely flattering.

To buy or not to buy: I don’t think I’ll be buying this book. It was a thought-provoking read, but not something I want to read again. I think I’ll read the sequel, though. 

IMM: Week of Dystopia (again!)

Anyone who's been reading this blog for awhile will know that I love dystopia, so I was super excited to have a week of virtually all dystopia, as well as a random contemporary and a paranormal romance thrown in there for some variety. Like last week, I've actually already read most of these books but I'll do the IMM post anyways. :)

I really didn't know what to expect from this book, and even a week after finishing it I'm still not sure what I though about it. It was both disgusting and completely scary... I don't regret reading it, but I won't read it again.

I did a First Impression post on this awhile back, and after some though I've decided not to read it. I was never too keen on the paranormal romance aspect, and I really don't care for the writing. I don't have enough time to waste on a book I don't think I'll like. 

This book is almost like someone decided to write a combination of my favourite genres: dysopia, Sci-fi, mystery... I absolutely loved the plot. A new favourite. 

I read this virtually in one sitting since it's so short. It wasn't as good as I was expecting, but Gayle Foreman is certainly a good writer and I look forward to reading Where She Went.

After enjoying Incarceron I'm looking forward to reading this sequel. I've read the first fifty pages and I think the beginning is even better than the previous book. I just hope the plot twists hold up. 

So, there you  have it. None of these are absolute favourites, but Across the Universe was quite good and I have high hopes for Sapphique. Have you read any of these books? Do you want me to post a review for any of these soon?

First-Impression Friday: Bumped

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.

Title: From the little I know about the book ‘Bumped’ seems to refer to the ‘baby bump’ you get when you’re pregnant. If this is the case then that’s actually kind of clever. However, by itself it just seems a little strange. In short the title doesn’t really draw me in, but it doesn’t turn me away either.

Cover: After so many covers with a girl’s face on them this is a nice change, but I find that it’s a little boring. Just black, grey, and pink. The spine is also extremely plain (just white with ‘bumped’ in pink letters) and if that’s all I saw of it in a bookstore I don’t think I’d give it a second glance. I like how they’re trying to make it different from the normal commercial cover but it still doesn’t manage to keep my attention.

Pitch: I’m not sure exactly what I think about the idea of teen girls being encouraged to get pregnant. It’s a great idea, as the point of dystopia is to mirror our own civilization closely, which this idea certainly does. On the other hand, it could easily turn into a really sketchy sort of book. I do, however, like how she also weaves in the story with the twins. This will let us see two different sides of her dystopia and I love long-lost-twin stories.

First line: I’m Sixteen. Pregnant. And the most important person on the planet.

This is a great shocker first line. A MC being sixteen isn’t anything interesting. Them being pregnant adds a new dimension, but still, there are lots of pregnant sixteen year olds. Then, saying that she’s the most important person on the planet… That throws us for a loop. I couldn’t stop reading after this point.

First chapter: This introduces Melody, thinking about herself being pregnant and trying to convince herself to ‘own’ her pregnancy. I really liked her self-doubt in this short chapter. It shows that already she’s not buying into the mentality of her world.

Overall: Overall, this is a book I’m going to read. I can’t say I’m a fan of the cover or the title, but the stuff that actually matters has really intrigued me so far. 

Believability In Dystopias

Lately, a lot of dystopian fiction has been flooding into the market. I think this is a good thing; I’ve never liked Paranormal Romance, and I’ve always loved Dystopia (even years ago, before it became popular.) The dystopian genre is different from paranormal in that it is supposed to be realistic. Most dystopians are set in a futuristic world, often after a sort of apocalypse, that’s either defined by chaos or by a strict totalitarian government. Scientific advances often play a role, but most of the time this is just ‘fake science’ and has no real science behind it.

 

In short, dystopia is a sort of ‘What if?’ genre. What if love was considered to be a disease? (Delirium) What if kids had to fight to the death in an arena? (The Hunger Games) What if everything was decided by a Society, including the person you were supposed to marry? (Matched) What if a virus makes females die at twenty and males at twenty-five? (Wither) What if only teenagers could get pregnant? (Bumped) What if your entire life was defined by what faction you decided to join? (Divergent) Those are just several examples of the ‘What if?’ questions raised by recent dystopian releases.

 

Like any genre, dystopia gets its share of bad reviews. I’ve read negative reviews for all of these books, and most of them seemed to center not around the writing or characters, but on the believability of the story. Lots of people didn’t like Wither because it doesn’t make sense that a virus would kill all girls at exactly twenty years old. People thought The Hunger Games was unrealistic because there’s no way a society would enjoy watching children fight to the death. One of my biggest issues with Matched was that I never understood why the Society needed to control every aspect of life.

 

My question for you is… does it matter? Can you still enjoy Divergent even if you think there’s no way a society could ever evolve into five factions? Would you still buy Delirium even if the idea of ‘curing’ love by frying part of your brain seems just a little far-fetched?

For me, it all depends. I haven’t read Bumped or Wither but I don’t think I’ll mind either of them since they’re obviously ‘What if?’ books. The science behind them may be absolute baloney, but I like the idea. I think creating a world where the teens need to get pregnant is a cool (if somewhat sketchy) setting. In The Hunger Games I think the idea of the tributes having to fight the death is cool enough to make up for the minor lack of believability. However, I just finished Matched and I was annoyed because I never understood why the Society needed to control everything and why they were so lenient with some things but so strict on others.

What’s your take on believability in dystopias? Does it bug you whenever a book’s premise is a little unrealistic? Or do you think that a cool idea is even better if it couldn’t happen in real life? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this popular genre.