Review- Bumped

Title: Bumped
Author: Megan McCafferty
Series: Bumped #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: Purchased eBook

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.

My thoughts:

I am a huge, huge fan of Megan McCafferty! She is literally one of my favorite authors. I absolutely adore the Jessica Darling series, so when I discovered that she had written a young adult book I knew I had to read it!

Bumped is definitely one of the most unusual books I have ever read. But I immediately grasped on to the concept of the oversexed, baby crazy community and right then I knew that it is a satire. And I love satire! Ever since college when I had to read Jonathan Swift and other writers who wrote satires and completely embarrassed their family members, I knew I loved satire. I most relate it to dry or sarcastic humor that sometimes doesn’t translate well to the page. But once I was able to put myself in that mindset, I found it absolutely hilarious!

I love how absolutely over the top Bumped is. In this futuristic world where men and women are both affected by a virus that causes them to be infertile by their twenties, society is completely obsessed with teenagers having sex and making babies. Everything they do, say, wear and aspire to revolves around it.

Melody, one of the main characters, is a reproductive professional and her parents have worked long and hard to secure her a very high paying contract with a rich couple she is supposed to have a baby for. But of course everything goes wrong when her identical twin sister shows up and tries to get her “see the light” and the error of her ways.

The only thing I didn’t really like about this book was that Melody and Harmony were both sort of annoying and bratty. They were both very selfish and had a hard time seeing outside the scope of their world view. Melody definitely grew more as a character than Harmony. By the end, Melody was beginning to question whether or not she was making the right decisions by being a reproductive professional.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book! I give Bumped 4 hearts because I know it must have taken some serious wit to write it!