Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Bumped - Megan McCafferty

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents are forced to pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and had never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Until 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 religious Goodside, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to bring Melody back to Goodside and convince her 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. 

Megan Mccafferty's Bumped has been a long awaited book, by me and many others and it marks her first official YA novel. When I found out that it was available for request on NetGalley I was one of many who immediately went to the website to try and get my grubby little hands on this sucker. If you didn't know, this was one of two big books that just became available and practically shut down NetGalley's website. I seriously could not log in until the next day and stalked my email until the golden goose delivered a beautiful, glowing (seriously, doesn't the title look like it's glowing? LOVE IT) egg to my inbox.

The verdict? I only liked it when I wanted to love it. I liked the names of Harmony and Melody because they related to each other without being match-y and I really liked how it alternated between POV. I didn't, however, connect with either of them as much as I would have liked.

Melody: I definitely liked her best. Her relationship with Zen reminded me a bit of one of my relationships at sixteen and it was probably the biggest thing that made me feel connected to either of the girls. I did find it a bit ironic that the girl who dreamed of getting an awesome bump through contract was quite prudish.

Harmony: I felt sorry for her at first but the more into the story I got, the less I liked her. The whole mistaken identity thing was totally her fault and and that whole situation just really irked me about her. I even had a "well, that's what you get" moment when I probably should have been feeling sorry for her (again).

As for the lingo I find myself middle of the road on it. On one hand, I loved that it was stuff that could totally be the norm for future generations. I did feel that some of it was over-used and some of it even took me out of the story and I had to remember that it was being used in a different context than what we use it as. It also felt like it ended too quickly and that emotions changed too fast.

It probably sounds like I disliked Bumped more than I liked it but keep in mind that things you find bothersome or don't like are always more memorable than things you do. That's usually the case for me anyway. 

In all honesty, I devoured this book and it was definitely different. Megan's writing was great and even though there was no dread-locked-Backstreet Boys-T Shirt-wearing-hottie, I DO recommend reading it and I look forward to reading the next book because I have some questions I'd like answered and I really hope they're addressed.

I know I've said it before, but here I am saying it again: I was way too hyped up over this book and expected something that could only be delivered if Megan resided in my head. Will you be reading Bumped when it comes out in a few weeks?


An eGalley of Bumped was provided by NetGalley 

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