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Saturday, May 23, 2015

Review | 5 to 1 by Holly Bodger

Goodreads Summary


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. 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.

Sudasa 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. Sudasa’s family wants nothing more than for their daughter to do the right thing and pick a husband who will keep her comfortable—and caged. Kiran’s family wants him to escape by failing the tests. 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.

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.


I received this book as an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This is an Indian dystopian! If that doesn't sell you on this one, I don't know what else will.. I must say, the Indian culture wasn't much explained in this book, so if you have no clue about India, I think you should make a quick research about it, but I think you'll understand the terms in this book.. The amma is the mother, the appa is the dad. This is pretty much what you need to know - that confused most people - before getting into this book. At first, I was confused by the whole prose/verse alternating POVs and I was like.. I need to read the synopsis. And so I did and I understood that Sudasa's POV is in verse while Kiran's POV is in prose. Keep in mind that Kiran's name wasn't even mentioned until by the end of this book, which irritated me. 

I really admired the feminism aspect, but I hated how women were having the upper hand in everything which depicts our views as feminists. People don't understand that we don't want to be in control, we want gender equality which defines as both men and women having equal rights. I think Holly portrayed that perfectly and how she went against her beliefs to create cruelty towards men instead of towards females to stress on the views on feminism and equality. She did that through extreme eloquence, while using simple and non-complex words. I looved her writing style and I definitely will be picking up books by her in the future. 

The characters were admirable. Sudasa reminded me of Lena from Delirium and Kiran of Alex, which was my favorite dystopian BOOK (not series) and probably somehow still is one of my faves. This - at least to me - is Delirium meets The Hunger Games. I loved how Sudasa insisted on doing the right thing and was sticking up for herself and defying her Nani (her grandma). 

The community and how everything worked bewildered me. Coming from a feminist, I hated how men were being treated and I wanted to slap the women of the society. Men shouldn't be below women and that's not how this should work. I admire Holly for changing up the usual "females are inferior to males" due to a lower birth rate of females. 

I was confused at first, as I mentioned earlier, I didn't get the changing of POVs thing, but that was definitely on me. Strangely enough, I haven't read any books in verse before and this was amazing! I love how short sentences (verses) carry much greater meanings behind them. 

Now onto the characters... Sudasa's parents were extremely admirable, they held onto each other despite the consequences and they pushed Sudasa into doing the right thing and where supportive of her the whole time. She was a strong character and she did whatever her little heart desired. Kiran's Appa was my favorite. His sayings were to live by and I really respected him as a person and his broad mind was inspiring. Kiran, I was in love with. He did everything he could and he kept his head clear of everything until something else came in his way, but it was admirable still. 

Overall, I gave this book 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. It was original, I loved the characters and the writing style was beautiful. This alone makes a good book, add to that an awesome plot line - of course. And the cover.. oh man the cover is GORGEOUS!!! 

Have you read 5 to 1? If not, are you excited for it? :) Comment down below what you think!

Have an amazing day everyone!



14 comments:

  1. Amazing review, sweetie! :D I keep seeing this book and the cover is just gorgeous! I finally read the synopsis and it really sounds interesting ... hmmm.

    Your review made me pretty curious and even though you mentioned Delirium and that the characters remind you of the ones from Delirium - you know how much I disliked the book, ugh. I think that was my first or second book I rated with only 2 stars - I think I'll still check it out sometime ... probably not soon though, haha.

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us! <3

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    1. Nooooo you should definitely at least give it a try! I didn't want to mention the Delirium part so I don't push people to correlate between the two, but that's just what I thought while reading this book. Very distantly though.. they aren't THAT similar. Only some similarities. And that's a good thing because Delirium is like a fave..

      You definitely should, the writing style and the idea of this is very unique as well! :)♥

      Sure! Thank you for visiting gorgeous! xx

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  2. I have this on my " next to buy " list on amazon! I've heard nothing but great things about this book, and I think it's amazing how it's writing in verse and prose! The cover is beautiful, and the concept is sooo dope and original, so I can't wait to pick this up. I'm glad you enjoyed this one Jay :)

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    1. Aww Martika! This is comforting to hear! You really need to get on it soon, this is soo original and the characters are great. It ends on cliffhanger though, but I didn't feel like I wasn't satisfied.. I mean I still need to know what happens, but I'm not in a rush, you feel? hahaha
      Thank you! and whenever you start this one, be sure to write a review or I'll stalk you on goodreads to see if you liked it :) (not in a creepy way)

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  3. Wow! This sounds incredible! I haven't heard of it before but it sounds like such an incredible book. I have put it on my wishlist! Also, I absolutely love the cover!

    WritingMonique

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    1. IT DOES!! Me too, the cover was what hooked me and the premise just sold me on this. You definitely should♥

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  4. Yes finally a book which shows how they are needed in society and should be valued more but I don't like the fact that in the book both sexes are not treated equally which is what feminism is really about, the equality of the sexes. I love the cover of this book it is gorgeous. I definitely have to buy the physical copy of this book! Great review!
    Naomi @The Perks Of Being A Bookworm

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    1. I need to buy a physical copy of this as well!! I'm so glad somebody else commented on this. I definitely agree with what you said. Feminism isn't about favoring a gender over the other and I love how gender inequality was portrayed in this book as a dystopian. It showed gender inequality to men more and it was refreshing to see women being empowered, but saddening to see men being inferior to them. It made me want to push men to take a stand against women and to punch women like her Nani who don't see men as valuable creatures.

      Thank you Naomii♥

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  5. I'm glad to see that you really liked this one! I've been looking forward to it for the longest time. I'll be sure to order a copy and read it as soon as possible. Great review, I'm a new follower! :)
    Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian

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    1. I actually really did! I cannot wait to read your review of this one if you plan on writing one :)
      Thank you so much for following! I'm also a follower of yours (duh)!♥

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  6. I loved this book! Gave it 5 stars :D One of my favorite dystopian of the year, surely. I just loved how phychological it was and raw, intense and especially original. Plus it reads really fast, so it never bored me at all. Lovely review :)

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    1. THIS IS AMAZING! So glad to hear this :)
      Yes, yes and YES! If you have a review, be sure to link me right now! I'd love to read it and discuss. I definitely agree on the pace of this book. It was very quick and didn't bore me for a second :) I was always on edge!

      Thank you so much gorgeous!♥

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  7. I really enjoyed this one, too. It was a twisted sort of feminism depicted in the book, though. The girls were still victims, even though they supposedly had power.

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    1. Oh my God I actually haven't thought of that... WHAT?! hahaha
      This is amazing, thanks for sharing :)♥

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