By: Jefferson Palma

*Warning: Spoilers below

Have you ever heard of a dystopian world where a gender’s role plays an important part to your whole life?

The book called ‘5 to 1’ is an outstanding story that depicts this sort of life but in a poetic way.

It is a book in verse that is quick and captivating to read and uses outstanding ways to visually emphasize words.

‘5 to 1’ refers to the unbalance in both genders. Implying that for every 5 boys there’s only 1 girl. And to make it fair, the boys have to win each trial to ultimately win a girl for a richer and better life.

There are two perspectives in this book that depicts both main characters’ thoughts about the trials and tribulations they endured.

The author has some interesting ways of keeping a secret of Kiran’s plan throughout the story to keep the reader interested.

On page 9 it says, “I’m a puppet strung up in a box hanging over a theater of heads. Of faceless people,” which really shows the interesting idea Bodger wrote to illustrate the main character’s feeling of not being a human and more of being a property.

Although the book was quick and interesting to read, there were some flaws that would be better to change.

Both characters were very likeable, but I found myself not very immersed by the fact that the characters’ only thoughts were that they didn’t like their situation. It felt as if their thoughts were very repetitive and I felt a bit uninterested.

Another flaw I would like to add is that the book was lacking some details for the settings. I didn’t really get the idea of what it’s like in the book because of it.

In other words, there could have been some changes to improve the book more, otherwise I would recommend it to anyone who’s interested of a dystopian future with a bit of romance in the mix.

My final rating is 3 out of 5 stars.