Review: Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Confession: I am not usually a fan of dystopian literature.  Or of young adult literature.  Or at least, I thought I wasn't, until 2011.  The last "YA" books that I read were Twilight and the Princess Diaries series.  We all know my feelings on Twilight, I doubt that I need to go over it again; and as for the Diaries...I found myself liking them less and less the further on I went.  I liked the originals, but as time went on, Princess Mia's lack of character development really started to chafe on me...but this isn't a review of Diaries.  This is my four dystopian-YA lit book review of the year (after all three books of The Hunger Games series).

In Megan McCafferty's Bumped, it is the year 2036, and the United States has been stricken with a virus that renders everyone over the age of 18 infertile.  For the first time in history, teen pregnancy is not only encouraged, it is a booming (and expensive) marketable enterprise.  Sixteen-year-old, separated-from-birth twins Melody and Harmony find themselves on opposite viewpoints regarding the business of giving birth.  Ambitious Melody is days away from sealing a contract that will give her a six-figure deal and a guaranteed position at a prestigious college in exchange for "bumping" and giving a couple her baby.  Virtuous Harmony has come to visit her sister, determined to help her find faith in God and realize that bumping for pay is a sin.  But a case of mistaken identity sends the two girls into tailspin, forcing them to admit to each other what they have never been able to give voice to on their own.

This book is (there's no other way to put it) a very quick read.  I bought it around 6 PM last night and I finished it this morning.  With cliffhangers at the end of nearly every chapter, it is nearly impossible to put down.  Unfortunately (and I expected this), the end is a cliffhanger as well -- McCafferty is said to be writing the sequel to Bumped right now, but since the book just came out at the end of April, I think it's going to be a very long time before the next installment of the saga of Melody, Harmony, and everyone else in their universe.

The biggest hurdle I had to overcome in reading Bumped is the futuristic language.  The world that McCafferty has created is wholly different from ours, where technology has literally taken over everything (except, ironically, bumping -- more on that later) and sometimes (especially in the beginning) trying to figure out what the characters are saying or doing can be difficult.  Once you clear the hurdles of the technical terms and slang, however, it's an easy read.

The book is eerie, not because it is so far-fetched, but because, as Bill Watterson once said in a Calvin-and-Hobbes strip, it's "not enough, really."  We talk today about the idea of being able to create life in a petri dish, or "test-tube babies" -- a world where sex-based procreation no longer exists, because it is unnecessary.  McCafferty envisions another world -- a world where sex is mass-market, where pregnant teens are the world's most expensive commodity, where safe sex is a myth and "everyone is doing it" isn't just a slogan, it's a way of life.  And yet, for all the sex that is going on, the emotions are cut right out of the act itself.  Even though sex is rampant, the heart of it is out.  "Lovemaking" is obsolete, even something to be scorned; a girl's worth is determined by how fruitful she is and what her genetic makeup will provide in the way of children; men are deemed worthless if they are missing a couple of inches in height or if their IQs aren't top-notch.  We talk constantly about "preserving the sex act" but in McCafferty's world, the sex act is preserved but emotionless -- leading me as the reader to imagine "what if we went in the opposite direction?"  Is it all that far-fetched, really?

As for character development: I have to admit that at first I did not sympathize with either Melody or Harmony, since they make themselves so very unsympathetic in the beginning of the book.  Melody comes across as a jaded opportunist, a girl who is willing to sell her soul and integrity for six figures and a good college.  Harmony is an insipid Bible-thumper, parroting what she has been told her whole life, someone to be completely ignored and overlooked.  Yet as the book progressed, and each girl endures her own tests and trial by fire, so to speak, the character development was impressive, and I found myself liking both girls immensely.  In regards to the back-up characters, with the exception of one, they were all completely zombified, toeing the party line on bumping and pay-for-pregnancy.  It was hard to relate to any of them, but I think that's where McCafferty was going with it.

I enjoyed Bumped very much, and I will be on the lookout for its sequel, whenever that day comes.

Rating: ****