I just finished reading _The Unwind_ by Neal Shusterman. The novel is set after the second civil war between pro-lifers and pro-choice armies. There are massive losses. In the end, the opponents sign a Bill of Life which ends abortion as we know it. The Bill says between thirteen and eighteen years old, a parent can sign an unwind order. This essentially means retroactive termination. Children are sent to harvest camps where all of their organs are harvested, and the child lives on in the lives of many. The story is about three unwinds who run away and hope to survive to their eighteenth birthdays.

The way Shusterman presents complex moral and ethical issues here is similar to speculative fiction writer, Octavia E. Butler does. Neither of the authors supplants simplistic stances over others. While a reader may have an initial preference or belief, they soon find their ideas and perspectives challenged. The work demands deeper examination. What the reader initially feels repelled by becomes complicated when faced with circumstances that dont lend themselves to either/or choices.

There are parallel stories involving the three main characters that collide, and there are some good secondary characters to help round out the cast. There is intrigue and mystery and action that move the story along at a good pace. The reader can feel the adrenaline kick in for the characters and feels choked with anxiety and fear.

I really enjoyed this page turner. The author doesn't take a position on abortion, when life begins or what army was right. Instead, his characters wrestle with the ramifications of the war and the creation of the Bill of Life. Shusterman is a new author for me. I intend to check out more by him.

Share/Like this Review?

In a dystopian future, the USA has survived what was called the Heartland War - a war between pro-life and pro-choice forces that eventually ended with "The Bill of Life". "The Bill of Life" basically states that life is sacred from conception to the age of reason, thirteen, but from thirteen until eighteen, a teen can be retroactively aborted - "unwound". The law states that all their parts have to be reused, so people all over the world have parts from unwound teens grafted or implanted into them when needed. This book follows three very different teens who run from the decision made to unwind them - and the paths they follow and the places at which they arrive are philosophical as well as physical.

This book has a pretty big creepy factor with the kids being "harvested" and the fact that people seem to think it's a GOOD thing. Overall, I thought it was very thought-provoking - you cannot help but wonder about where a society that does not revere life could head - and this is certainly a future I would not want to see. I would NOT recommend this book for younger teens.

Share/Like this Review?

Reviewed by The Compulsive Reader for TeensReadToo.com

In his chilling new novel, Neal Shusterman paints a picture of a world where there aren't any cures and doctors, just surgeons and replacements.

Three unwanted teenagers face a fate worse that death -- unwinding. Their bodies will be cut up, and every part of them used, from their brains to their toes. But if they can stay out of the authorities' clutches until the age of eighteen, they just might survive....

The most frightening science fiction novels are always the ones that are most similar to our world. Shusterman doesn't fail to describe how a wrong solution to a modern issue can affect generations to come. Thought-provoking, terrifying, and almost inconceivable, UNWIND will keep you reading late into the night.

Share/Like this Review?

In an alternate (or future) United States, the Heartland War between pro-life or pro-choice parties has been fought, and one of the compromises that the people have come up with is unwinding: any teen between 13 and 18 can be signed over by their parents to the government, to be "unwound" into parts for other people's bodies. It's not death, they say, because you remain in divided parts. But is it really living?

Connor is a troublesome teen whose parents are having him unwound. Risa is an orphanage at the overcrowded state home that is planning to cut costs by having a number of kids unwound. And Lev is a tithe--born and raised to fulfill his role of being an Unwind, and thus giving back to his god and the community.

The three teens are thrown together in a desperate adventure to save their own lives--and, eventually, the lives of thousands of other Unwinds. But the journey they must make is a dangerous one, one that can fall apart at any second through betrayal or bad luck. How much can they possibly do to undermine the system that threatens to dismantle them?

UNWIND takes on a variety of challenging topics that to this day still have no clear answer: abortion, how to deal with unwanted pregnancies, religion, and the existence of souls. Thankfully, it provides no cut-and-dry answer to these issues, and instead presents them in a thrilling and approachable novel. While I was not particularly impressed by Shusterman's writing style (too much telling and not enough showing), the characters--especially Connor and Risa, but even some of the secondary characters--come across as strong, unique, and appealing. They are good protagonists for readers to follow in this book that will most certainly leave an impression on you.

Share/Like this Review?

I was telling one of my knitting buddies (who works at the library) that I've been reading a lot of YA dystopian sci-fi recently, i.e. Hunger Games, and she recommended this one. I picked it up the very next day and am so glad I did.

Set somewhere in the not-to-distant future where iPods are sold in antique shops but very little else has changed technologically, this book is pretty light on the sci-fi, but heavy on the dystopia. A second civil war has been fought over abortion with an, er, interesting compromise as the result. Children may not be aborted in utero, but can be "unwound" (broken down into their individual parts, which are then transplanted into others) between the ages of 13 and 18. Both sides have justified this because all parts of the teenager's body "live on" as part of someone else. The story of how this compromise was proposed (given in the middle of the book) is pure literary genius.

Obviously, most teenagers are not going to greet their own death with open arms and many try to escape. (If they survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can be imprisoned, but not killed.) Among these are the three main characters of the book, all from different backgrounds. Connor's parents signed the unwind order because he got into too much trouble. Risa is an orphan who just wasn't talented enough to justify the government continuing to foot the bill for her upkeep. Lev has known his entire life that he's being given to God as a tithe. All three end up on the run from the police. What follows is a fascinating story about human nature with some "what if" thrown in.

The sequel comes out later this year, with a third installment sometime after that. And, of course, a film adaptation is in the works.

Share/Like this Review?