Monday, July 13, 2009

Unwind - Neal Shusterman


UNWIND - Neal Shusterman

Description:
In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would "unwind" them. 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 by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, 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.In Unwind,Boston Globe/Horn BookAward winner Neal Shusterman challenges readers' ideas about life -- not just where life begins, and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive.


The first question is why Unwinding? Maybe what is Unwinding? In some alternate future the war (which became an actual war) betwen Pro-Choice and Pro-Life was settle with a abolition of abortion. You could "stork" a baby by leaving it on someone's doorstep, as long as you didn't get caught. But other than that, every pregnancy had to attempt to succeed as a live birth and the parents were responsible for that child until they were at least 13. At that time a parent could choose to unwind a child.

The unwound child was harvested for body parts, and this compromise between pro-life and pro-choice was agreed on because if the parts lived on, then the child never really died. I guess the soul doesn't count. The book touches on whether "the parts" retained some memories of the original owner. Society had figured out a way to use nearly 100% of the body in transplants. Things like the appendix didn't seem to count.

The book description above gives reasons for the three chldren's unwinding. Every life is precious doesn't seem to apply.

The book was very interesting, even though it seemed slow in the beginning. That could be because I was reading it so slowly. It is hard to really get into a book when you can only read a couple of pages at a time. But I found myself really vested in the outcome of Connor and Risa. I seem to remember feeling the same way about "Everlost", so perhaps it is simply Mr. Shusterman's style.

Read it.

Unwind is available in both paperback and hardback.

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