Thursday, March 20, 2014

Review: "Thumped" by Megan McCafferty


Title: Thumped
Series: Bumped #2
Author: Megan McCafferty
Publisher: Corgi
Year: 2012















"The world has been gripped by a catastrophic virus, and everyone over the age of eighteen is infertile. Society now values teenagers above all others, and 'conception contracts' with the most attractive, intelligent girls are eagerly snapped up by would-be-parents, desperate to pay for a healthy baby. 

Eight-and-a-half months ago, Melody scored an amazing contract with a rich couple, and was matched with the hottest 'bumping' partner in the world: the gorgeous Jondoe. Her future looked set - until her identical twin Harmony opened the door to Jondoe. A case of mistaken identity and a moment of madness followed - and the wrong sister fell pregnant. 

Now Harmony has disappeared, determined to raise her babies herself - and for the last eight-and-a-half months, Melody has been faking the most high-profile pregnancy in the world. And both sisters know time is running out..."


Apparently there were about ten different ways of saying “pregnant” that I was totally unaware of. But now that I am thoroughly educated, I can tell you this. I was unsure about Bumped when I first read it, but really liked it the second time around. With Thumped I only needed the first read to like it. This book was great and the only thing I am sad about is the fact that there won’t be any more installments in the series.

The world was quite well established in the first book, leaving Thumped with the important mission to go through its complicated storylines. Granted, when I look back, it seems as like its predecessor it set out to tackle a lot of problems. In addition to the ones from the first book, we now got homo-sexuality, adoption pro’s and con’s, relationships to parents and more. But strangely I never felt like the book took on more than it could handle while I was reading.

What I ultimately liked was the huge extravaganza that was set up. It was flamboyant to the point of silly, but that is why I liked it. The end of the first book could have gone so many different ways. And in salute to Megan McCafferty I must say that Thumped went the best possible way. McCafferty took caution/smallness by the hand and then proceeded to wipe the floor with it. The pure scale in which the main characters took over the world they were living in was magnificent! We got intrigue, heartfelt emotions and the biggest scams in history of the dystopian world of Bumped.

So coming back to the characters that I came to like in the first book of the series.
Melody became my second favorite twin in this book. But not because she was any less awesome. I really enjoyed her journey. How she wanted to find her way in her own terms, not just by discarding the wishes of her parents and taking up Zen’s, no-no, she wanted to make sure that what she does is what she wants. I respect that.
But nothing really beats what Harmony did. At first she went back to Goodside, but that was more for the benefit of Ram. When she finds out that the Church would choose to control her to the point of extremities she flips them off and flies off to the night (I am not even kidding. Flying). She takes drastic measures to claim her life as her own and then proceeds to make some difficult decisions. Also, her decisions are not based on the wants of a man. Bad-assery in the making, you go girl!
I liked that there was not an abundance of new characters, the book focused on the story itself. The only new people that were introduced actually existed in the first book, and those were the Jaydens. The couple who paid Melody to deliver their kid. I really like how things turned out with them. But no spoilers.

Bumped and Thumped are the kind of books that seem extremely breezy and simple. But whilst they might be easy to read, they deal with some complicated problems and when you put the book down you just have spend a few moments thinking through the whole thing and shudder at the realization that the world of Bumped sounds so real that it could probably easily happen in a few years in our world. I half-expected to see teenagers with huge bellies on the streets and anyone who blinked a lot/funnily had to have been checking the latest craze in the social media.

I give Thumped 4 stars, the book was a joy to read and I plan to recommend it to a number of people.

This review has been brought to you by your Book Mistress for the day.

-Linda

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