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.