With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. Like most of the boys in the Tests, this one can’t compete.Īdventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.Įlisa-Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle-has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. Set over just three days, this novel is a mishmash of tropes that have been done better elsewhere, sophomoric poetry that uses typographic elements for emphasis (“n#mber”), and weak characterization with about as much Indian flavor as the curry powder supermarkets sold in the 1950s. It’s a match, although neither of them immediately sees how they can help each other. Contestant Five could win but doesn’t want to Sudasa just wants to live her life. They both hate the Tests and wish there were another way. Sudasa narrates in poetry, and Contestant Five (readers do not learn his name until the very end, unless they read the flap copy that completely destroys that particular element of suspense) narrates in prose. A lottery determines competitors girls are primped while boys compete, with death as a possible outcome and no one is happy (sound familiar?).

In Koyanagar, a walled city-state formed on the edge of India in 2042, the small coterie of women in charge has created a series of tests to select the boys who will be lucky enough to win wives. In Bodger’s soft dystopia, years of legislation restricting families to one child has resulted in a significant imbalance-roughly six boys to every one girl. This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view-Sudasa’s in verse and Kiran’s in prose-allowing readers to experience both characters’ pain and their brave struggle for hope.Another debut. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Kiran thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing. Sudasa, though, doesn’t want to be a wife, and Kiran, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife. In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Part Homeless Bird and part Matched, this is a dark look at the near future told through the alternating perspectives of two teens who dare to challenge the system.

5 to 1 by Holly Bodger