Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Summary:
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.

From New York Times bestselling author Megan McCafferty comes a strikingly original look at friendship, love, and sisterhood—in a future that is eerily believable. (from GoodReads)

Review:
I've been looking forward to reading Bumped since it's been released and now I've finally got a chance to get it from my library. While not my favorite futuristic novel, I thought Bumped was pretty good.

What I liked about Bumped the character of Melody. I felt like I really connected with her and I liked the direction of her storyline. I especially liked her best friend/love interest Zen. I enjoyed reading about their relationship and those were my favorite parts. I had to stop myself from skipping ahead to read scenes between them. It's a bad habit of mine.

I also liked the infertitlity aspect and how it was handled. I feel like if all women over 18 were infertile, what occurs in Bumped would occur in real life. Since we're so consumeristic, I can see corporations trying to profit off teen pregnancy like they do in Bumped. There are so many things promoting pregnancy in Bumped's world: music, clothing, food. While other countries might force teenagers to get pregnant to keep the population stable, I could definitely see the United States using consumerism and materalism to get girls to do the same thing.

What I didn't like that much was the new slang that everyone uses. I could mostly figure out what they were saying but it did get a little obnoxious. If people in real life ever started speaking like that, I'd have a real problem. I also was not a fan of Harmony's point-of-view. She's not a bad character, but the heavy religious narration was not my cup of tea. She was raised pretty much like the Amish and Mennonites, and the way she thinks is just really annoying to me, as someone who is not religious. I much prefered reading about Melody.

Overall, I did enjoy Bumped. It wasn't amazing, but still pretty good. After finishing this, though, I am looking forward to reading Thumped. I really want to see how everything plays out.

Rating: 7 out of 10.
FTC: borrowed from library.

2011/HarperCollins/323 pages.