Second Chance Sunday – Thumped by Megan McCafferty

Posted October 27, 2013 by Andi in Second Chance Sunday / 0 Comments

Second Chance Sunday – Thumped by Megan McCaffertyThumped by Megan McCafferty
Series: Bumped #2
Published by Balzer + Bray
Published: April 23, 2013
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Megan McCafferty’s Bumped series of books are must-read teen dystopian fiction, along with Ally Condie’s Matched series and Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy. Thumped, the sequel to Bumped, manages to be satiric, scary, and romantic at the same time. It continues the story of separated-at-birth twins, Melody and Harmony, girls as engaging as McCafferty’s Jessica Darling. These sisters are the most popular teen girls on the planet. To their fans, they seem to be living ideal lives. Harmony is married to Ram and living in Goodside, the religious community that once meant everything to her. Melody has the genetically flawless Jondoe as her coupling partner, which means money and status—and a bright future. But both girls are hiding secrets. And they are each pining for the only guys they can’t have…. The biggest risk of all could be to finally tell the truth.

I was nervous reading this one. Bumped was such a great story that I was worried that Thumped wouldn’t live up to its awesomeness. Not to mention the fact that the description confused me. But I must say that McCafferty not only did an amazing follow up to Bumped, but she also left me wanting more of these characters.

Thumped picks up about 8 months after Bumped left off. Harmony is back with her church community and her husband Ram pregnant with Jondoe’s twins. She thought it would be best to go back but things are complicated and not getting any better. Melody, on the other hand, is still in Otherside the princess of a media frenzy that is now surrounding the twins of The Hotties as they have been branded. She and Jondoe are pretending to be an item to keep up appearances and another big secret…the world also thinks Melody is pregnant with twins. When Harm comes back to Otherside the twins’ whole world gets shaken up and not only are truths finally revealed but both girls seem to finally figure out who they are and what they want out of life.

Honestly, I really enjoyed this story. Sometimes when reading a sequel you can actually feel like you are reading two different books. There is no flow in some so it almost seems like you aren’t reading a continuation but an entirely different story. That wasn’t the case here. I almost felt like this was just an extension of the first book. The characters were all the same, minus some flaws I found with Zen this time around, and the situations and circumstances were the same. It was like coming home and just following on with their journey. I liked seeing where Melody and Zen’s relationship was and how Jondoe was missing Harmony terribly. There were also some twists in this story that I didn’t expect and some I saw coming from the first page.

Really what I liked the most was the message at the end. Melody explained perfectly what was being taken away from this teenage girls by parents, media and peer pressure. By these kids being forced to bump they weren’t really getting to make any choices on their own and it just wasn’t right.  McCafferty did an excellent job of pointing out exactly what the problem was in Harmony and Melody’s world and it was done with tact and great execution. I know there is likely no third book in the works, but for the record, I wouldn’t be opposed if she changed her mind. Really a great series.

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