Date: April 26, 2011
ISBN: 978-0061962745
Pages: 323
So the story is about twin girls named Melody and Harmony. The girls were adopted in infancy by radically different families. The girls take turns telling their stories by chapter. Quite honestly, I found it hard to determine which one was which, for all that they were supposed to be so different - they didn't have their own voices.
The year is 2035 and once you hit 18 years old you aren't capable of reproducing. There's a virus that kicks in at 18 apparently. Therefore, teenagers are the Kings and Queens of society. There are three groups of teens:
Reproductive Professionals: surrogate mothers who are paired with hand-picked sperm donors and the babies go to wealthy families who pay for it.
Amateurs: girls who pick their own partner and then either 'donate' the baby or put it on public auction.
Trubies: members of the Church who don't believe in pre-marital sex or technology and marry young.
Of course Melody belongs to one group and Harmony belongs to a different group.
Things I didn't like:
- the made up slang. I don't mind a few new slang words, but this went over the top and became annoying.
- I get that the story is satirical, but I still felt like the characters were too 'done up'.
- The girls didn't seem to have separate voices, they sounded too similar and I would get confused on who was with which group.
Interesting. A lot of reviewers have said that one of the voices was annoying, while the other was okay. The book in general definitely generated a lot of mixed reviews. We're still not sure whether or not we want to check it out, but you've given us good food for thought. Thanks!
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