Unwind: Volume 1 (Unwind Dystology Series, #1) (Unwind Dystology, #1)

by Neal Shusterman

Connor's parents want to be rid of him because he's a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev's unwinding has been planned since his birth as part of his family's strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together through desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing all the while that their lives are hanging in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthdays, they can't be harmed. But when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away...

• ISBN10: 1416912053
• ISBN13: 9781416912057
• Publish Date: 2 June 2009 (first published 6 November 2007)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Edition: Reprint ed.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[bearley]

Absolutely amazing! The use of multiple narrators and perspectives added so much more depth to this story and allowed you to relate to characters more. Such a great idea to take a current controversial issue and turn it into a what-if of the future.
I didn’t expect to get a first hand experience of the unwinding but wow it was so heartbreaking and powerful. I got a little nervous midway but the ending was better than I hoped for.
A definite must-read!

[Rinn]

Well, that was profoundly disturbing.

[Angie]

As improbable and unbelievable as I found this society to be, I could not put Unwind down. It brings up a lot of deep questions, which mostly don't have answers. It really made me think about things and question how our own society is run at the same time as I was question how anything in this book would be possible. If you like your Science Fiction to be realistic, this is not it. But if you like it to challenge your beliefs, then definitely give it a try.

I'll start with what kept me from loving Unwind. I just could not buy into this society. I know that's not really the point of the book, but it bothered me. I can't believe that something like the Bill of Life would ever be drafted. In a way, I can see the logic behind it. Pro-Life people think abortion is the worst thing ever, so let's outlaw that. But let's use unwanted teens for their parts so they don't go to waste! Waste not, want not, and all that, but really? "Aborting" a teenager is better than aborting a fetus? I don't think so. Also, how in the world is it possible to keep someone alive while you harvest every single piece of their body? It's not. And if they had synthetic blood for the teens being unwound, why couldn't they give that to patients who need blood rather than taking it from someone else? The only part of this society that I could see actually happening was "storking." There's really nothing to stop young women from dropping off babies at the first house they come across if no one sees them do it.

Anyway. On to what I did like. Unwind is told mainly from three POVs, and I found them all interesting. First up, we have Connor whose parents have decided to have him unwound due to bad behavior and slipping grades. It's messed up, but apparently he'll be of better use in pieces. Second, there's Risa who is an orphan at a state home. There's some budget cuts, so they sign her over since the world doesn't need more musicians. Again, messed up. Finally, and to me the most interesting, is Lev. He's from an overly religious family who believes in donating 1/10 of everything they have, including their children. Lev is set to be their tithe and he believes that this his purpose. That is the most messed up of all. There's also chapters scattered throughout from other POVs, mostly adults who are helping the run away teens or are otherwise involved in their lives, but everything is connected. Nothing is gratuitous or unnecessary. It all adds to the bigger picture.

There's not a whole lot that I can say about Unwind without spoiling it all. I seriously could not put it down as Connor, Risa, and Lev are on the run. Once I thought they were safe, something else would come up and get me back on the edge of my seat. The story is quite disturbing at times, especially when we start to learn the fate of the harvested parts. While I had to suspend belief (quite a bit), I still thought what the author came up with was really interesting. Unwind does read like a standalone, but clearly there's more to come. Luckily, I have the second book handy.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[wyvernfriend]

There were parts of this that didn't quite gel with me, but knowing folks who support those who blow up abortion clinics, I found some of the thinking that led to the decision that teens up to 18 could be unwound or harvested for parts, scarily plausable. The Tithes were even more believable and their attitude to the process reminded me of suicide bombers.

Several reviewers have commented about a chapter that is nightmare fodder and I really have to agree, it's a short, snappy chapter and reads so smoothly that you find yourself drifting along with it until your brain reminds you what you're reading about. You'll know it when you get there, the copy I read opened at it.

It was interesting to see how Conor, Risa and Lev develop along the story and how what happens to them changes them leaving you with the question of how many of the unwound could have been changed if people wanted to change them.

Scary, plausable on certain levels, choppy in bits but worth reading. Definitely not a bedtime read.

[Stephanie]

I definitely did not know what I was going into when I started reading this book. It was one of those times where I just picked up the book because I saw some good reviews but never actually read what it was about. I always love when I do that.

I tried getting my husband to read this because I loved it so much and I figured he would like it, but when I tried to explain it to him he looked at me like I was crazy (Granted, I'm awful at explaining books in person). Which I admit, the idea of the book seems kind of weird at first, but the world is so interesting! How did the world even get to the point where parents can choose to have their children unwound? The fact that parents could get annoyed with their child and decide to get rid of them so easily. And the fact that they don't see it as killing! It's just crazy! And the actual unwinding scene! It was just crazy. Amazingly crazy.

When I first started reading a realized what unwinding meant, that these kids were sent to a harvest camp and pretty much chopped up so people who needed certain body parts had them at the ready. The fact that they don't consider this as killing because all their body parts are kept alive, alive in someones body. It's all crazy! And that they set all this up to ease the pro-choice pro-life people.

I loved this book. The whole concept is pretty crazy, but it's amazing to really think about. The whole unwinding is crazy and I loved that there were religions that thought it was a good thing to raise their children solely to be unwind when they turned 13.

The whole idea of this book really makes you think. It had me in it's grip for the whole book because I was so amazed.

[nannah]

This book was intense. I think it may have been a bit to ambitious for one novel, but it still wrapped me all up and captivated me till the end.

Firstly, let's talk characters.
Immediately, this is what drew me into the story. Immediately, I felt for each character introduced, even though they were all so different and they all reacted differently to the same fate (ultimately, being marked for Unwinding). Shusterman really has a talent for painting real-like people on a page, instead of characters. Connor, Lev, and Risa all have flaws and strengths that aren't necessarily spelled out at the beginnings of their introductions. I love the way they influence and change each other, the way, though they were randomly thrown together, their thoughts kept going back to each other. It's beautiful. There's even a line Connor says (forgive me it it's not exact, this is from memory), "I'm a better person because she's in my head." That nearly melted me. There is some spectacular dialogue and lines in this book.

spoiler-ish stuff below:


Not to mention the topics and concepts this book explores! Especially the "risky" topics, such as abortion (which incited a huge war!) and racism and it's fantastic to have no fear about writing about these subjects. Which reminds me of Cy-Ty, who was probably the highlight of the book for me. This was when the whole concept of Unwinding starts to really make sense in horrifying clarity (and which leads to one of the endings; ugh it's so brilliant). Cy's a kid who has a brain implant, part of an Unwind. There was this bit of dialogue that really struck me:

"'There's people out there--like the lady in the Christmas store--they see an umber kid like me and they automatically assume I'm up to no good. And now, thanks to this kid in my head, they're right. And you wanna know what's funny? This kid was lily-sienna, like you. Blond hair, blue eyes.
. . .
But other people--they don't see HIM when he steals. It's me they see. My hands grabbing."'

Not to mention the "ending" of Cy's story in this book, using his point of view. I was about in tears.

And mentioning point of view, this book explores it all: major characters, minor characters, characters only seen once, even points of view from a completely objective standpoint, like the point of view from a school, or a crowd of people. It actually works somehow.

But hands down, the absolute coolest part about this book was that Unwinding was everything. We learn bits and pieces about the concept of Unwinding, and then we learn more. And stuff happens that makes us realize a bit more, etc. At the end, we totally get it: at the VERY end there's a scene, and I won't go into it in detail because of spoilers, that wraps up the concept and answers a question that we've all been burning up with during the whole book. It's gorgeous and it's sad but it's also perfect.

And don't even get me started on that one scene. That ONE AMAZING YET HORRIFYING SCENE. I definitely cried. It was something I didn't think Shusterman would actually have the courage to show us in detail, step-by-step, but he did, and it broke my heart. Dang, this book really left a mark on me.

So yeah, I loved this book. Every little subplot mentioned in the beginning comes back, every concept introduced comes back in the end or near the end, even if you've forgotten about it. This book is well-written, chilling, and beautiful.

[Amber]

All time favourite. ALL THE AWARDS.

Full review here: http://www.booksofamber.com/2012/09/unwind-by-neal-shusterman.html

---

I. Adore. This. Book.

Things I Loved:

- The characters. Each of the main characters is flawlessly (expect to see the word 'flawless' used several times in this review) developed and thought out. Connor, Risa and Lev are all characters I fell in love with, and I love that we got to spend lots of time with each of them.

- The writing style. Honestly, Neal Shusterman's writing is unlike any I've ever read. He's definitely one of the best, and after reading this book I'm definitely compelled to read everything else he's ever written or will ever write. The man is supremely gifted, pure and simple.

- The action. This book was INSANE. There was so much going on, and there isn't any point in which you could put the book down to take a break. Whenever it seems like there isn't going to be anything happening, something explodes.

- The way Shusterman connected everything at the end. It's not often that I read a book in which there are clues and references thrown around form the very beginning. At least, not unless it's in a totally obvious way which doesn't leave me surprised at all. In Unwind, the author puts things in and you don't even realise they are important until later on in the book.

- The dystopian society. Guys. GUYS. This could totally happen in real life if we had the resources to do it! It was creepily realistic in some ways, and like I said I could totally see the government banning abortion. I don't see them allowing kids to be unwound (i.e. pulled apart and donated to needy people), but who knows what people could be pushed into doing?

Things I Hated:

- NOTHING AT ALL BECAUSE THIS BOOK IS FLAWLESS.

What You Should Do:

- BUY THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW. FLAWLESS.

[violetpeanut]

This is one of the most disturbing yet compelling books I've read in a long time. Many others have provided reviews that explain much better than I can why it's so compelling so I won't go into too much detail but here are a couple of my thoughts.

There are a number of issues being explored here.
First and most obviously is the pro-choice/pro-life debate. No matter which side you're on this book provides some food for thought.

Second is the issue of parental involvement with their children. What if parents could sign over their troubled or unwanted teens? What if parents of newborns could leave them on someone else's doorstep making them legally responsible for them?

Third, when does a person become a "person?" When are we given or do we develop a soul?

There are so many other issues explored in this book as well. It does not preach. It is not blatantly religious. It poses the questions for the reader to ponder while also telling the compelling story of three kids scheduled to be "unwound." One scene in particular really affected me - the description of someone being unwound. It is written with tact and is not gory but is heartbreaking and difficult to read.

Highly recommended.

[sstaley]

Great book! I read this so fast because I could NOT put it down. There is so much
that you can not believe in this novel and that is the reason you keep on reading.
Shusterman does a great job with all of his characters! The feel of this book reminded me
a lot of Hunger Games; not the same plot, but the same angst and "sitting on the edge"
feel.