Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.
The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive
rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of
conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen,
however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the
child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't
technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a
ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child
conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape
and to survive.
I went partially insane
buying books these last two weeks guys. This is just one of the books I picked
up, but at is point I think it’s going to be a favorite for January. I rated Unwind
5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I was so blown away by this book. Neal
Shusterman uses some intense social issues such as abortion rights, and social
responsibility to create the society of Unwind. The protagonist, Conner, lives
in a world where parents have the choice to Unwind their children anywhere
between 13 and 18 years of age. Unwinding is basically a complete organ
donation. Every part of an Unwind is saved and used for people who need them
after accidents, due to disease, or birth defects.
The Good:
This was one of the
most original story concepts that I have read in a while. I was completely freaked
out by the idea of unwinding. I found myself thinking about every bad thing I
had ever done and wondering if I was at risk of being unwound. I loved how
Shusterman touched on many issues through the different reasons people chose to
have their child unwind. His belief about Americas social welfare system is one
of the many subjects touched about in this book. Besides uwinding the other law
that has come into effect in this future world is Storking. This means that if
a baby is left on your doorstep and you did not see who did it then it is now
your legal responsibility. One particularly tragic flaw in this storking system is
illustrated by Conner, the main character, but I won’t ruin it for you.
If you’re like me, then
you see a movie in your head when you read a book like this and boy did I get
scared sometimes. During one particularly important scene towards the end of
the Harvest Camp scenes I found myself so disturbed that I literally had to put
the book down for a day and just think happy thoughts.
The Bad:
The history of this
future society does slowly make its way into this book but I do wish that it
would have come sooner. Most of what you find out about the war and how
unwinding and storking came to be is very vague. I was especially disappointed
by the explanation of how the two sides of the war came to agree on this crazy
unwinding idea. It just could not have been that simple and I would love a
whole book on just the history of this world because I am left with an
insatiable curiosity!!
Overall:
In the end guys this is
a 5 star book for me even with a few minor let downs here and there. I would
completely recommend this book to anyone looking for a really engrossing read.
I will say though that some of the emotions brought on by this book and some of
the questions it evokes can get a bit mature. Definitely recommend this for anyone of unwinding age and above.
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