Book title: 5 to 1
Author: Holly Bodger
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Release date: May 2015
Format: Hardcover, 244 pages
Source: Library.
Synopsis:
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.
The review:
The year is 2054. The place is Koyanagar, India. The male to female population ratio is 5:1. And thus, this novel, 5 to 1, is about the trials five boys go through in order to win one girl’s hand in marriage.
Specifically, the story is told in alternating viewpoints and formats: Sudasa, who is unhappy with being controlled by her manipulative and overbearing grandmother, narrates her side of the tests in beautiful, heartrending verse. Kiran, one of the boys who is in her selection pool and who actually sets out to fail the tests, narrates in normal prose. The two of them long to escape the harsh laws of their walled-in city (which is declared a utopia, when it’s really a dystopia), and have different motives fueling their secret and personal acts of rebellion.
The Leaning Tower of Tomes 