So, Melody and Harmony are our two main characters. And guess what - they're twins! Naw....really?!

Not that they are bad names, but twins named Melody and Harmony?! Cliche much?

The similar names also made it very difficult to keep straight on who was who. The perspective jumps back and forth between the two of them just about every couple pages or so. The breakneck speed of the switches makes it difficult to develop a connection to the characters or keep track of what in the heehaw is goin' on. More...

Wha-wha-WHAAT? What just happened there?

Okay, let’s start at the beginning. Bumped is a ‘dystopian’ novel set in 2035 where a virus has wiped out the ability of every person over the age of eighteen to reproduce. (Why eighteen? How eighteen? Does the virus come built-in with an age-o-meter that tells it when to strike?) The population is rapidly declining, leaving only one section of the planet capable of procreating. The teenagers. At the point at which this novel starts, it is already establi More...

I suspect that for some, the amount of enjoyment and/or engagement they experience while reading Bumped will be directly proportional to the manner in which they approach it.

It’s just a theory, and I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I do think that an analysis of Bumped needs to take into account the angle a person has chosen to read it from. Taken at face value, there is content and style to the story that some readers may find problematic or even objectionable. Read as a satirical take o More...

2.5
I did another video review for this one (and if you want to watch it, you can here.) But if you're not into video reviews, here's a brief written review, in the language of Bumped:

It was like, rilly rilly all about young girls pregging for money. Like, for seriously young. But it was okay, 'cause they were being, like, patriotic, and all the hot girls go Pro anyway, and it's just a delivery, so who cares? And if creepy old guy agents are making you major bank on that pregg, and your creepy pa More...

BUMPED is the first book in a long while that has lived up to my expectations, I read it in it's entirety over a weekend which is very unusual for me. It's a captivating book set 35 years in the future where teenagers are idolized due to a virus that causes infertility in anyone over the age of eighteen. The chapters are split between Harmony and Melody, identical twins who are meeting for the very first time having grown up in very different worlds - Harmony in a religious sect that has a boar More...

This is a CD cover for one of Korn's albums. I'm putting it up here because it adequately describes the feelings this book brought up for me.

Disclaimer: I love Megan McCafferty's books. This review may be biased.

You have been warned.

I won't deny it - I've been waiting to get my hands on this piece for ages. I've been reading about it for months now, the good and the bad, (more of the former, less of the latter for obvious reasons) and knew perfectly well what to expect. Made up language. Weird t More...

Talk about going in with preconceived notions of a book’s quality. 40 pages deep, and I was completely ready to pan Bumped.

Megan McCafferty’s long-awaited follow-up to the Sloppy Firsts series is a tongue-in-cheek satire about a future where only teenagers are capable of reproduction. At the outset, the science fiction is hammy and laid on thick, full of FutureWords™ and sketchy world building. As I neared the end of the first part, I already had the bulk of my review worked out in my head.

I'd t More...

"I was matched with the Jaydens, who put in a very strong bid: full college tuition, a Volkswagen Plug, and a postpartum tummy trim. […] It’s hard to believe now, but this was a pretty radical decision at the time. Though popular in major cities on the coasts, going pro was still kind of a down-market thing to do in the suburbs, and at my school in particular. All preggers at Princeton Day Academy were amateurs, most of whom put deliveries up for nonprofit adoptions."
Bumped has been unexpected f More...

Interesting concept, but I couldn't make it through the first part (ie. the first fifty pages). Only a scant few sentences manage to squeak by unscathed by slang that is both over the top and unconvincing. It's obvious that all of these words have been dreamed up by one person instead of a massive, fertility-crazed society. What's more, if this book is supposed to take place a mere twenty years in the future, I have a hard time believing the word "bump" is going to suddenly become so important i More...

Megan McCafferty is the author of the Jessica Darling books, hands-down my all-time favorite contemporary series. The dystopian novel BUMPED is a huge departure from her legacy, but if you tone down your instinctual desire to compare it to the Jessica Darling books, it is a fantastically complex story that will provide fodder for thought for multiple rereads.

BUMPED is an example of a dystopian society that is so fully realized and self-sustaining that it becomes very difficult for us outsiders t More...

Original post at One More Page

When I first heard that Megan McCafferty of Jessica Darling fame is coming up with a YA dystopia novel, I kind of squee-d. I wasn't sure if I was squee-ing because it's a dystopia novel, or because it was written by Megan McCafferty -- probably both, so it was one of my highly anticipated reads for 2011.

It was the year 2036, and teen girls are the most important people in the world. Girls under the age of 18 and are fertile, that is, after a virus has spread that r More...

What happens when adults become infertile. When sex-ed is taught in schools to encourage kids to have unprotected sex. When giving birth in middle-school increases your chances of getting into the right college. When being 16 and pregnant makes you the most important person in the world.

This is the America—in the not so distant future—where identical twins Melody and Harmony grow up. Separated at birth, Melody is taken in by a wealthy New Jersey family while Harmony is raised in a Pennsylvania c More...

This book was crazy good. The writing is just stunning at times. BUMPED is the story of twins-separated at birth, Melody and Harmony, in a near-future where a sterility virus makes it impossible to get pregnant past 18 years of age. Most of the novel hinges on a single day of mistaken identity, a day that changes both twins' lives. A premise like that sounds unmanageable. But everything was so well-written, so perfectly plotted and paced that I just found myself saying YES! That is exactly what More...

Bumped / 978-0-061-96274-5

In a futuristic dystopia that seems strangely similar to our own modern-day culture, an under-class of underprivileged women are compelled by society to be the breeders for an upper-class that has been ravaged with infertility. In this culture, sex is not about love, but rather about pregnancy, and fertile women are expected to put their own feelings aside for the 'good of humanity' and the survival of the human race.

If it sounds like I'm describing Margaret Atwood's c More...

This one so took me by surprise! This is most definitely a unique take in the dystopian world. Normally, when I read Dystopian I expect darkness, end time feeling and such, not that I want it, but this is how nearly all dystopian novels I read lately are.

Bumped is so different!!

In Bumped Teens are the most valued people on earth because they are the only ones that can still have kids. A virus that most people catch around 18-20 makes them all infertile so Teens are the only ones that can deliv More...

2.5 stars

UPDATE:
Ok, I finished it. I have to say, I found the majority of the book either irritating (the never ending slang etc. that other reviewers mentioned) or meh. It did finally pick up close to the end which is why I've given it 2.5 stars. It's a shame it took so long to actually engage my interest. As other reviewers have noted, it's difficult to classify the audience, all the slang etc. marks it as young, young adult but the sexual content doesn't fit that audience. Odd, very odd. Will More...

I read this for Zoey. The review for Thumped, the sequel out soon, will be posted in one or two weeks.

There were a lot of things I liked about this book - but there were things I really hated, too. Let's begin with the dislikes.

First: The dialogue. I hated the dialogue with a passion. It felt so incredibly fake. McCafferty practically put every other word in CAPS. (Alright, so it wasn't that bad. Still, there were a lot of CAPS and that was really annoying.)

Second: The characters. I couldn't rea More...

Bumped is an interesting tale of a future society when people become infertile after their teenage years, and so teenagers are encouraged, and paid, to have children for older couples. It is told through the eyes of two teenagers, Melody and Harmony, who were separated at birth and adopted by two separate families. When they turned 16 they opened their birth records and found eachother. One is a contractual birth-mother waiting for a "male contributor" before having her first pregnancy, and the More...

In A Nutshell:
If I had to put my thoughts about Bumped into a single word, that word would be under-whelmed. There was not a lot about this book that I liked. I thought the characters were superficial and annoying who only gained any depth or interest in the last 20 pages of the book. I had misgivings about the concept from the beginning, but the cheery, happy tone of the book felt out of place in a dystopian novel and heightened my misgivings even more.

Review:
In Bumped, a virus renders adults More...

I'll be honest. I've been DREADING writing this review.

I was SO looking forward to this book. I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I loved McCafferty's Jessica Darling series and I couldn't wait to read her first attempt at Dystopian fic, one of my favorite genres. Imagine my absolute delight when I received an Advanced Review Copy of this bad boy.

::sigh::

As you've probably guessed by now, this book was a huge disappointment. McCafferty's writing is still there. Funny, sparkly, witty, a More...

I knew as soon as I finished this book I would need some time to think about how to review it. And I found myself kinda speechless. And I was really glad to find that I was not alone! But here we go: My first impressions while reading where shock, disgust, humor, and sad. I think the thing is this is a dystopian novel, although the world where your selling your body as a surrogate is not completely unknown to us but the immense inhumanity that came through the way it was handled disturbed me. Ot More...

I have mixed feelings about this book. When I read the description, I thought it had the potential to be quite eerie. I enjoyed the storyline, and the characters. What dragged me down was the goofy, over-the-top slang the author created for the characters & the society as a whole. It was too 'punny' and very distracting to me. I think it hurt more than helped her overall story, and could have been toned down immensely. Also, it reminded me a bit of Scott Westerfeld's "bubbly" speak from his More...

Really 3.5, and I reserve the right to go up to 4, but I want to think through the underlying statements about sex and choice. I get the idea, but not sure the premise always works on the satiric level I think it's meant to hit. Also, Melody and Harmony were both a bit lacking in depth. Mostly, it's not Sloppy Firsts. Which is unfair. So-- interesting premise, skillfully delivered, but perhaps a bit surface. Wondering if there will be another volume since so much is left unfinished at the end in More...

While I found the idea of a futuristic society where everyone over 18 is infertile so young teens become prized for their reproductive abilities to the point that some are professionally employed breeders interesting, Bumped just fell flat. The characters Zen and Melody seemed somewhat well rounded and for a bit I was genuinely interested to see what would happen between them, but in the end their counterparts in Harmony and the awful Jondoe were so one dimensional and unrealistic that I couldn' More...

I loved Jessica Darling. I was excited to read Megan's first "offical" young adult book, but I hate, hate, hate made up slang. It was one of my big problems getting into Feed...I don't know if I can handle this. So far I've read two chapters, and I'm just annoyed..

Is it worth seeing through?

Also, I just realized that the title says Bumped #1...which means there's going to be sequels..why can't anyone just write a book anymore?? More...

I liked the premise of this book as a 'lighter' dystopian, but ultimately this was one of those books that made it crystal clear to me that I'm nowhere near a young adult anymore. The constant use of slang will probably appeal to the age group this book is intended for, but it was annoying to me. I liked Melody, but Harmony was flat out annoying, and I decided that I didn't care about Melody enough to finish the book. I'm bummed that Bumped wasn't for me, but I have no doubt it'll be a huge succ More...

Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Book Rating: 4/5 Stars
Cover Rating: 3/5 Stars


Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (April 26, 2011)

"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 More...

I will try to keep this review spoiler free but no guarantees.

Since I read both Bumped and Thumped one after the other, this review will be for the whole series.

* * * * * *

So I sort of sit on the fence with this series.

Part of me liked it, thought it was entertaining, but the other part of me was seriously disturbed with the whole mass production impregnation world the book's got going on.

I got the e-books because I was intrigued by the genre/topic and the similarities it had to the Chemical Gar More...

Oh man. I LOVED Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling series, so I had high expectations for this one. I did not connect with Bumped at all. The premise of the novel is really interesting: set way in the future, a virus has affected fertility so that nobody can have a child after age 18. Therefore, teenagers are at the highest value, as they are the ones who "bump" to get pregnant and sell their babies to older couples. Melody has a great contract with a family who wants a baby, and then she discov More...