Review: Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Bumped by 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.

Review:

I had yet to read anything by Megan McCafferty, but I had heard nothing but praise for her Jessica Darling series, so was eager for an excuse to read something by her as soon as possible. Luckily, that chance came with Bumped. With her official YA debut, McCafferty both surprised and enraptured me, and left me eager to read the next installment in the series.

The novel alternates between the perspectives of Melody and Harmony, twins separated at birth, and reunited when Harmony tracks her sister down and appears on her doorstep. Harmony was raised incredibly religious and is determined to take her modernized, ready-to-preg twin back home with her to Goodside. But Melody has other plans. Watching the twins get to know and understand each other was a fantastic aspect of the story. While they at first seemed so different, Melody and Harmony actually had a lot more in common than first met the eye.

At first I was a bit bothered by Harmony's constant preaching about God and her community; but I soon grew used to it and it made Harmony's character that much more complex. I originally thought Harmony was an open book, but the more I read the more I saw that there was much more to her than met the eye. She was caught up in her own tangled past and soon her present life becomes even more confusing when she is mistaken for Melody. Her life will be forever changed when flawless Jondoe swoops her off her feet, ready to "bump" who he actually thinks is Melody. I liked Melody, even though she thought her life was perfect and set in stone, she had a lot to learn and mysteries to untangle.

This may seem like a crazy and jumbled story, and it is. But it is presented in such a wonderful and articulate way that I couldn't help but love it. I enjoyed watching the twins begin to better understand each other and the world they lived in and to see that what they always believed may not be the truth.

Bumped's plot was incredibly different from anything I've read before and presented teen pregnancy in a whole new light. McCafferty put her own spin on things and made the story very realistic- it is plausible that something like this could happen in the future. The plot twists were very unique and kept me on my toes throughout. The short, personal chapters kept me eagerly flipping pages and I was finished with the book quite fast.

Overall, I enjoyed Bumped, even if the beginning and some of the lingo was a tad confusing. I'm eager to see where McCafferty takes the characters in the sequel!

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

April 26, 2011/Balzer + Bray/336 Pages/Young Adult/Book One

Source: Netgalley

Other books by this author: The Jessica Darling series