5 to 1 by Holly Bodger5/13/2023 However, when her second cousin shows up as Contestant One in her Test, she receives final confirmation that the system corrupt as well as flawed, and this pushes her over the edge into rebellion. She doesn’t have to become disillusioned with the system she can already see some of its flaws, though she tends to think about it from her perspective rather than that of the boys. Sudasa doesn’t start out as naïve as some dystopian heroines. Five boys are competing for her hand, but the only one who intrigues Sudasa is Contestant Five, who seems to be walking the fine line between deliberately failing the Test and being conscripted into the army as punishment for failing to participate. Twelve years later, Sudasa, who barely remembers life before Koyanagar declared independence, turns seventeen and must choose a husband through the Test even though she doesn’t really want to get married. The women of the city of Koyanagar fight back, creating an independent city-state walled off from the rest of the country, where every boy will have a fair chance to win a wife through a series of challenges called the Test. “Instead of fixing things/ of making changes/ of making improvements/ all they’ve done/ has been to break them/ in reverse.”Īfter decades of ultrasounds and selective abortions thanks to an ill-advised One Child Policy, India has five boys for every girl, turning women into a valuable commodity.
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