Bumped by Megan McCafferty

First, I need to apologize for the length of time since my last post. I'm taking cataloging this semester and it is kicking my butt! The workload is unbelievable and the professor just doesn't explain anything, so I'm doing double work because I have to teach myself how to do stuff before I do it! : )

Anyway, enough of my whining and on to the review!

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. (picture and summary from www.goodreads.com)

My Review

I’m not sure how to review this book.  So I’m going to review in a couple sections:  story, characters and writing style.

The story was very, very good.  It was an interesting concept to think that everyone would WANT teen pregnancies and encourage them.  That is one of the things that attracted me to this book and I loved watching the whole story play out.  In fact, I was so enthralled with the story by the end that I was horrified by the cliffhanger ending and wanted to stomp my feet and pitch a temper tantrum like my 3 year old. (I know, it doesn’t help.  But it would have made me feel better!)  It took me a while to get into the story, but once I did get caught up in it, I found the book hard to put down.

The characters were great.  I loved Harmony and Melody and it was great to see how each of them grew and changed throughout the book.  I really liked Zen and Jondoe.  The mean girls were perfect, because every high school book needs those mean girls, right?  I was hoping for more from Ram and I’m hoping that in the next book I will see the development I want from his character.

So, some of you are probably wondering what the problem is?  I mean, the story is fine and the characters are interesting.  The problem that I had was with the writing style.  I felt like the author tried too hard to capture “teen speak”.  And I HATE that!  It is so obvious when an adult is trying to sound like a teenager.  Maybe it’s because I spend all day with teens, but I know when the teen talk is being forced and in this case, it was WAY forced!  I think it’s because it was overdone.  And cheesy.  For example, there was a play on the Fergie song “Fergilicious” and it turned into “Fertilicious”.  Really?  Not only is that silly, but it will easily date the book.  After all, my 13 year old thinks that songs from 6 months ago are “old”, so that makes any pop culture reference obsolete before the book even makes it onto a shelf.

The other reason that “teen speak” bothers me is because I think it is patronizing.  The teens that I teach don’t need to be spoken down to.  They may have their own lingo, but they understand plain English as well!  And especially teens that read.  Many of them don’t use typical teen slang like some of their peers.  The use of that slang/lingo is not going to suddenly make teens who don’t read want to, and I think teens that do read will be slightly insulted by the use of it.  Teens are intelligent and authors should bear that in mind.  And I still maintain that no 30-something will get the teen lingo right.  It just sounds forced.

So, once I got past the whole “author trying to sound like a teenager” thing, I enjoyed the book.  But authors need to for reals not talk that way because it is sooooooo epic fail!  (See how silly I sound??) : )

My grade for this book?  Probably a B.  The story was fun, interesting and good food for thought.  Once I got past the teen speak.  Totally…….

This book will be available on April 26th.  Thanks to HarperCollins and netgalley for the ARC!