Unwind

Unwind is a riveting tale of adventure by author Neal Shusterman. It is only book one of a series of books. After the second civil war over reproductive rights a child’s life is still important but inviolable from conception to the age of 13.When a child is between the ages of 13 and 18 parents have the opt out of having their child unwound. Unwinding is where they take all of the child’s organs and give them to other people. This “unwinding” is basically aborting the child without them technically dying. This is the story of three children Connor, Risa, and Lev who want to escape this fate.

Connor is the typical uncontrollable teenager who just doesn’t care. Connor had a feeling that he could be a candidate for unwinding but didn’t know for sure if his parents would have him unwound until he found the unwinding order. Connor knew that even if he acted his best he would still be unwound because one you put in the order it cannot be taken back. As Connor started to read the order he saw that the date of the unwinding order was set for the day before his family took a Thanksgiving trip to the Bahamas.

Lev was a tithe, meaning that he was born for the sole purpose of being unwound. Lev lives in a loving family with other siblings. As he gets closer and closer to the time when he would be unwound the more second thoughts that he has. Why me? He asked himself. He lived in a religious family and talked to his Pastor, Pastor Dan about the questions he asked himself and the issues he was having. Lev just didn’t understand why he was chosen to be the tithe even though it was a “blessing” to be chosen as the tithe he didn’t see much blessing in it for him. The biggest thing that he didn’t understand was why he would not get to enjoy his life in one piece like everyone else.

Risa is a ward of the state. She just is not “special” enough not to be unwound. She doesn’t really have any special talents or anything that sets her apart from the other children. Risa did not realize that she was being unwound until one day while she was at school she was called to Headmaster Thomas’ office. When she arrived she saw her social worker, Headmaster Thomas, and the school’s legal counsel. When she got there and sat down the exact words said to her were. We feel you’ve reached your full potential here. That was the way that they told Risa that she was being unwound. When Risa didn’t understand they let her know that in order to make room for more wards, they had to cut the teenage population by 5%. In other words they were getting rid of her to make room for more people.

These three teenagers did not want unwinding to be the way that they leave this earth so they did not just let it happen they tried to escape. Individually they may not have a chance, but together they just might have a bigger chance of escape. Read more to find out whether they escape unwinding or not.

I highly recommend this book. What makes this book so amazing is the author’s ability to capture these characters emotions, making the characters very relatable. You can really put yourself in these characters shoes and feel what they feel. I give this book 4.5/5 star. The only reason that it gets 4.5 and not 5 is because bouncing between the characters and different storylines can get a little confusing at times. Sometimes this caused me to have to go back and re-read sections for more understanding. Overall this is a really great book and you should go pick it up from your local library today or as soon as possible.

Book Review by Allen H.