"Bumped"

The crappy thing about the end of a series is that you know that those characters will in all probability never be revisited again. If the author of the series is a good author with a unique and interesting style who knows how to develop characters and plots, it causes the reader to crave more from that author. And while it is sad to say goodbye to that series, it is really exciting to experience something new from an author that you've grown to love over the course of the series.

Right now I am most excited to read Megan McCafferty's new novel Bumped. The novel takes place in high school (similar to the first two books of the Jess Darling series) and is a commentary about the recent glorification and fascination with teenage pregnancy by the media and those who eat up everything that the media spins out about this touchy subject.

I am guilty of buying into the all of the hoopla surrounding teenage pregnancy. Maybe it's because I love a good train wreck or maybe it's because I feel for the girls, but I can never get enough of MTV's "16 and Pregnant" and its spin-off series, "Teen Mom." I certainly feel for the young women who are grappling with the difficult choice of what to do with their lives after finding out that they are pregnant. I feel for them more after they follow through with their decisions, whether they decide to give the child up or keep it and raise it as their own (MTV does not follow those who decide to abort the pregnancy, something that I wish they would do although I understand that there would not be much of an episode if a young woman decided to make that choice). I root for the young women who really grow into their roles (I'm currently thinking of Farrah from "Teen Mom" in the most recent season of the show and how she has really accepted and grown to love her role as a mother) and I want to strangle those who decide that they want to keep their child and then ask their parents or their significant other's parents to watch the child while they go out and party. All of the huge decisions that surround these young women on these shows are realities for thousands of young women in the United States each and every year.

It is about time that someone decided to write about what has been going on in our society in an interesting and unique way. Bumped is a futuristic novel that "takes all-or-nothing thinking to its most literal conclusion: either teen girls have babies or humans become extinct," (meganmccafferty.com/news). The novel's main theme of teenage pregnancy is juxtaposed with other issues that are prevalent in society today ("teen sexuality, social class, sibling rivalry, gender roles, and religious tolerance, to name a few"--meganmccafferty.com/news). This will allow readers to understand the characters in the novel on a normal level while entering a realm in which they have probably never seen before in any other novel.

Megan McCafferty said, "I’ve been calling it a cross between Heathers and The Handmaid’s Tale." This has made me even more excited for the upcoming release of Bumped. Snarky teenagers combined with the idea of women being forced to carry pregnancies for those who cannot do so for themselves? Awesome! I love a novel and subsequently, an author who can challenge issues that are prevalent in society by taking on a different point of view with a hefty shot of sarcasm, good writing and criticism.

Since I am very familiar with Megan McCafferty's writing style after reading the Jess Darling series more times than I can even tell you, I am extremely excited for Bumped to be released on April 26, 2011.

To learn more about Bumped, follow Megan McCafferty on twitter @meganmccafferty.