Unwind

I???ve read this book before years ago, in Dutch. Then I already really liked it. But now that I knew there were more books, I wanted to read it in English again. The story really makes you feel for every character in every chapter. Every person has a motivation you can empathize with. I also like how everything comes together. Nothing seems to be really filler, everything feels like its been done on purpose. Every detail matters. 

Also the whole thing with Tyler and Cyrus is amazingly powerful, honestly this book is full of powerful moments and meaning full words. Definitely recommend it. 

Unwind follows runaway teens Connor, Risa, and Lev in a chilling dystopian world where abortion is illegal, but parents can choose instead to retroactively “unwind” their children between the ages of 13-17. Unwound teens are often troubled (Connor), unwanted wards of the state (Risa), or religious tithes (Lev); what they all have in common is that their bodies are systematically dismantled and the various organs purchased by the highest bidder. Rather than considered the end of life, however, unwinding is excused by society as living on in a different form, since 100% of an Unwind's body parts are required by law to be used as organ donations. This society, as you might expect, makes for plenty of teen runaways–and Connor, Risa, and Lev must make it to a place called “the graveyard” if they hope to hide out successfully until they reach the safe age of 18. Unfortunately, the graveyard turns out to be even more dangerous than the streets. A thrilling, heartbreaking book, Unwind will have you at the edge of your seat in a way that is thought-provoking rather than simply entertaining. I would recommend this book for both teens and adults.

When I was a child, my mother took me to a pediatrician that had a plaque hanging on his wall that said “Kids Are People Too.” Quite a few characters in this book seem to have forgotten that - or never seemed to have realized it at all. The complete disregard that society has for these teenagers is unreal. That they can “unwind” them and justify it by saying they are not dead but simply going on living in a “divided state” is astounding. Unwinding just shows how far people are willing to go to get the parts they need, how far man will go when science has advanced too far, and how far the pro-life/pro-choice zealots can take their feud.

It took a little while, but I came to feel for these characters in the book. Connor and Risa, I wanted nothing more than for the two of them to escape to their freedom. Lev, there's a love/hate relationship with that kid all through the book. He just came across to me as being so conflicted. Roland, I just loathed, but wouldn't you know that HE is the one the author chooses for unwinding? Reading through the unwinding process, knowing it was happening to Roland, a character that I despised, I still found myself feeling terribly sorry for him. It was not a pleasant thing to read.

All in all, this book was amazing. Shusterman definitely knows how to write a page turner. Even though I purchased this book out of the Young Adult section, I have to say, this is definitely a book for ALL ages. It's been a little while since I've enjoyed a book this much. I'd give it more stars if I could.

I wish I could rate this with a 3.5. I liked this book. It is shocking, disturbing, and thought provoking. Easy read with a serious, thought provoking topic. I'm impressed that this is for teens. I first I thought one of the character's voice used to many cliques but then I guess he started to grow and they disappeared. The characters and their stories are well developed. It does read like a movie flipping from POV and scene to scene but I don't think it takes away from the story. Easy read.

Rating: 4.5
Rounded up at 5 stars

I am glad I read this book as an adult. I would not have understood it or gotten out of it as much if read earlier in my life.

What a refreshing take on such a controversial topic. Set in the dystopian future, Neal Shusterman's characters grapple with the topic of abortion and childcare. While not a one-for-one depiction of the reality of the pro-life or pro-choice arguments, the book's central question asks the reader to imagine life at the extremes, taking into account what it means to be living and if it is possible to live in a world where people (and topics) are not black-and-white, but rather, muddy and complicated, where both groups can exist together without war or hatred. The author doesn't take a side on the debate of abortion, but rather points out different takes and, ultimately, says that he (through his characters) doesn't know the answer.

While this book starts slow, the end is what ultimately earned this book the 4.5 stars from me, especially the last chapter.

Quotes:

“She thinks about the days before the War, when unwanted babies could just be unwanted pregnancies, quickly made to go away. Did the women who made that other choice feel the way she felt now? Relieved and freed from an unwelcome and often unfair responsibility . . . yet vaguely regretful?
...
Which was worse, Risa often wondered—to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted, or to silently make them go away before they were even born? On different days Risa had different answers.”

“In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.”

“You see, a conflict always begins with an issue - a difference of opinion, an argument. But by the time it turns into a war, the issue doesn't matter anymore, because now it's about one thing and one thing only: how much each side hates the other.”

“People aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness all our lives.”

“Maybe it's the best answer of all. If more people could admit they really don't know, maybe there never would have been a Heartland War.”

first off I want to say that I didn't think i was going to like this book at all but I was so wrong!

Unwind by by Neal Shusterman is based on the premise that there is a war in the U.S. between the pro-choice advocates and the pro-life advocates. The outcome of the war leads to a crazy compromise: retroactive abortions, which means that a child is protected until he or she is 13, at which point the parents can choose to have the child “unwound.” Being unwound means that the child harvested for all of the parts and organs, which will then “live on” in other people. The children who are to be unwound are called “unwinds,” and if they try to escapse they are hunted down mercilessly by the “juvie cops” because the unwinds' harvested parts are big business. There are three main types of unwinds. Some are unwinds because their parents can't cope with their behavior any more, some are unwinds because they are orphans and the state can't afford to support them any more, and some are unwinds because they are “tithes” to the church or religion. Of course, there are exceptions, such as the boy whose parents got divorced and couldn't come to a custody decision, so they decided to have him unwound so that neither would have to deal with the other getting custody of him. One of each of these main types of unwinds is, of course, a main character in this book: Connor the troublemaker, Risa the orphan, and Lev the tithe. They all meet when both Connor and Risa, escape, coincidentally, at the same time, knowing that if they can survive until their 18th birthday they will be safe because they will be adults. When they escape, however, Connor unintentionally drags brainwashed Lev along with them. Their escape is a harrowing one with many close, and even closer, calls as they try to find somewhere to hide until their 18th birthdays.

I liked the book, but it was very disturbing -

Pros: excellent characterization, original ideas (unwinding, stoking), complex plot
Cons: written in present tense (jarring to read), simplistic writing (definitely a younger teen novel)

“The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of co...nception until a child reaches the age of 13. However, between the ages of 13 and 18, a parent may choose to retroactively ‘abort' a child... on the condition that the child's life doesn't ‘technically' end. The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called ‘unwinding'”

The Bill of Life is the foundation of Neal Shusterman's novel, Unwind. Three children are about to be unwound for different reasons. Connor has become an unruly child. Risa is a ward of the state and caring for wards is expensive. Lev is a religious tithe. When Connor runs from the authorities, his path crosses that of other unwinds, all trying to survive until their 18th birthdays.

The book is equal parts social commentary and horror - because everything that happens is perfectly plausible. The body parts harvested from the teens help keep other people alive, and with a higher quality of life. But even that has a cost as these parts have ‘memories' of their own.

The characters develop throughout the story, doing things that match their maturity at various points in the book. The climax is stunning, and when you finally learn how unwinding happens... I haven't been so chilled by an idea in quite some time.

My only problem with the book dealt with the fact that it was entirely written in the present tense. I found the transitions between dialogue (which I'm used to reading in present tease) and narrative (which I'm used to reading in past tense) would bump me out of the story. It was especially noticeable when a past event was being narrated. One of my favourite aspects of the novel was storking. I won't explain it as its ‘fun' to learn about and it's a highly original idea.

If you want to get a teen boy reading, or want something fun and creepy for yourself, this is a fantastic book.

It's almost frightening that I'm reading this at a time where it isn't impossible for a future in the far off to happen along these lines. Like The Handmaid's Tale, it expands from a long time persisting issue, pushing human morals and creating a solution for the issue, which is ridding the world of abortion but also of unruly, unwanted children.

Schusterman has this way of writing which makes it difficult to put down. The chapters and done bite size, leaving you reading more and more before you finally discover you're at the end. These kids are people you could have, will have and may well know in the future - if society took a wrong turn then it could become a horror reality like what Schusterman has created.

The one scene of unwinding has definitely made me think. It's always been a tiny thought that comes out now and then, what makes a human alive, but the scene will stick with me.

The ending wasn't too great, but it has opened the story up for the sequels, which I'll have to read.

An incredible novel that really pulls you into the story and does not let go til the very last page. I had a very hard time letting the book down and had to keep reading to see what would happen next. The characters were terrific and each developed a different way. This is a distopia book that is definitely worth reading.

Loved this book. The full story is scattered across many characters (that you switch between rapidly which keeps you up all night reading) and you'll have a roller coaster of feels for many of them, not just the central three. I found the story unbelievable at first, but the characters feel so real that it consumed me quickly. The author mixed bits of real like quotes and articles amongst fictional ones, which opens you up and makes you start to notice parallels in life and then you start to see what's sickeningly possible.

I haven't read a story quite like this, but it kind of reminds me of Ready Player One and Girl With All the Gifts for different reasons. If you liked those (which I did) you might like this one.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman is the beginning of a dystopian series that explores the question of what the world might be like if abortion debate was resolved by banning the termination of pregnancy, but replacing it with “unwinding” or a retroactive abortion where parents may have a child aged 13-17 surgically taken apart and redistributed to various organ recipients. Let me start out by saying that I think the premise is unrealistic to the point of absurdity. No one, neither Pro-Life nor Pro-Choice, would think this was an acceptable situation. Nor would anyone reasonably consider a person taken apart like this to still be alive. The foundational concept for the book doesn't work for me. Additionally, as I read the book I was reminded that I really don't read a lot of YA and maybe there's a reason for that. The plot and characters developed rapidly, relationships escalating to intimate friendships at a pace that seemed totally unbelievable to me. Also the way the book is written, the prose itself, seemed very simple at times. I'm not this book's primary audience, and maybe when I was a teenager I would have loved it, but I think this book is unrealistic and mostly mediocre. Yet, there were a couple of things Shusterman managed to do well though. I thought the book did a good job of including the importance of life AND choice. I never felt like this book exclusively sided with the Pro-Life or Pro-Choice crowd, even if the scenario presented in the book was unambiguously monstrous. Perhaps the author's main message is that political hatred can drive us all to abandon our principles out of spite, blind us to our own evil, and even reach the point of absurdity. Reading this book in 2021 in Texas, something about that rang a little bit true to me. Overall I didn't love this book, and I don't know if I'll read the next book in the series, but I did get something out of it. For that reason ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Summary: In the world of Shusterman’s Unwind, America is a few decades removed from a civil war that was fought over the issue of abortion. The war ended with the passing of the Bill of Life, which stated that, until a child reached the age of 13, his or her life was sacred and could not be harmed. Once a child turned 13, however, he or she could be “unwound,” meaning that all of his or her body parts would be harvested and used in transplants for other people, meaning that the unwound child technically never died. Shusterman’s story follows Connor, Risa, and Lev, 3 kids all marked for unwinding, on a journey that is both compelling and unbelievable.

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!

This author has quite the imagination. I loved the Arc of the Scythe series and have had this series on my shelf since last year.

Welcome to the world of the unwinds. You have until the age of 13, and then if your parents decide they don't want you...you are unwound and harvested out to people who buy your pieces. Are you pregnant? Don't want the baby? Leave it on someone's doorstep and now that baby belongs to them.

Crazy but really good start to this series.

Menunda lama sekali untuk membaca buku ini Karena terjemahannya blm komplit. Akhirnya terjamah setelah sekian lama. Pertama kali membaca karya Neal Shusterman, dan suka banget sama seri ini.
Setelah perang Hertland ada sebuah UU yg menjembatani 2 kubu, pro pilihan & pro kehidupan. Seorang wanita apabila hamil tdk boleh menggugurkan kandungannya, namun jika naka tsb telah memasuki umur tertentu, anatara 13 hingga 17 thn, maka orang tuanya boleh mengikutkan anaknya untuk menjalani pemisahan raga, yaitu badan anaknya akan dipisah2an untuk didonorkan pada yg membutuhkan. Namun setelah berusia 18 thn anak tsb sdh dianggap dewasa & boleh melanjutkan hidup.
Connor, Risa & Lev dijadwalkan untuk mengikuti prosedur pemisahan raga dgn alasan yg berbeda. Connor yg suka membuat masalah dikarenakan org tuanya yg mendaftarkannya. Risa Karena anak asuhan negara maka negara memutuskan untuk mengurangi anak asuhan mereka dgn mendaftarkannya. Lev yg sdh dipersiapkan sejak lahir untuk menjadi persembahan. Ketiganya dipertemukan dgn alasan yg berbeda namun pada akhirnya menjadi korban dr system UU yg sama.