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Book Review of Unwind (Unwind, Bk 1)

Unwind (Unwind, Bk 1)
zoesnicholson avatar reviewed on + 20 more book reviews


Beautifully written - yet utterly painful and disturbing in the best possible sense - Neal Shusterman's Unwind is a phenomenal read!

First came the Second Civil War (a.k.a. the "Heartland War") - a long and deadly war fought over abortion rights. Neither side would give up. Until, finally, a compromise was made. The compromise: Unwinding.
UNWINDING: the act of a 13-18 year old donating their internal organs - where they will be given to those with medical conditions who need them
The plot of this book is brilliant and disturbing! The originality of this horrible concept is just breath-takingly scary - mainly because it's so plausible! However, I enjoyed the creativity; I truly have never read such a unique and powerful story!
        The writing was also top-notch! It was beautiful and eloquent; it flowed perfectly. I enjoyed how Neal used multiple POVs to help convey his message - it definitely worked! Written in present-tense third-person, his writing style is truly unique and different. It takes a few moments to warm up to, but once you do it's just beyond amazing. (Personally, he pacing is great, but I felt it slow down in the middle - but it immediately made a comeback.)

The characters are brilliant as well! During the course of the story, readers will our follow three teenage protagonists - who all happen to be getting Unwinded (but for very different reasons).
*Connor: Connor's short temper annoys his parents on multiple occasions - eventually causing him to be Unwinded.
*Risa: Risa is an orphan who is being Unwinded to help her orphanage save money.
*Lev: Lev's parents have certain religious views that believe Unwinding is a service to God.
I've truly not read a book with such real and vivid characters! I loved each character in Unwind...Neal definitely did an amazing job with character development - even the supporting charterers seemed to have depth!

However, what I loved most about this book is that it makes you think. There are a lot of great books out there - but Unwind is one of those rare books that truly gives you a new opinion on how much life is worth. It provides some excellent moments for deep thinking and rejoicing on how much we, as people, take for granted.
        About 100 or so pages before you end the book, it still might not appear to be that brutal. But once you finish, you'll see not only how brutal it is - but rather how much we can learn from it.

All in all, Unwind is a masterpiece! I'd highly recommend it to fans of science fiction stories - especially the Uglies series and The Hunger Games. Happy reading!