Unwind

Possibly the most powerful exploration of abortion that I've ever encountered. Don't let that throw you off, it's also a ripping good read. I couldn't put it down and it disturbs me yet. A really extraordinary dive into "what if".

Unwind by Neal Shusterman is a disconcerting look at how the abortion question is answered in the future. After a civil war is fought over pro-life issues, laws are passed that protect human life from the moment of conception to the age of thirteen, when the parents then get to decide whether to keep the child or to “Unwind” him. The unwinding is a process whereby all useful organs are harvested from the child. Of course this leads to all manner of other problems such as storking, where a unwanted baby is left on a random doorstep, and supposedly must be taken in. And AWOL’s who are children meant to be unwound but manage to escape and go into hiding. If these children can survive until they turn eighteen, they are safe.

There show more appears to be a lot of candidates for Unwinding. The over-populated government run group homes pass on a certain percentage, people who wish to be free of storked children, religious fanatics who donate a child to be unwound as a tithe or donation to God, and of course, those troubled teens whose families just can’t deal with them anymore.

Although the premise is far-fetched and I personally couldn’t see either pro-life or pro-choice activists settling for this solution, I found myself willing to suspend my disbelief as I became totally invested in this dystopian story of teens trying to escape their unwinding. There were definitely parts of this book that were difficult to read, and, I was left feeling a little dissatisfied by the ending, I guess I thought as this is a YA story everything would be tied up neatly at the end. Nevertheless, Unwind is a good story that manages to pose some very interesting questions. show less

Talk about rustling my jimmies. I found the concept behind this book to be more profound and disturbing than that of say, the Hunger Games or Divergent. At least, in the Hunger Games, the people of the Districts don't like the Games, they don't want to send their children to the Games, etc. However, in the world of Unwind, Unwinding is seen as a normal part of life, something as nearly ordinary as sending your kid to bootcamp for bad behavior.

I actually read this book over half a year ago, but I felt I needed time to process it before writing a review, because this book really hit me deep.

The sad thing is, children can be Unwound for ANY reason, however arbitrary or fucked up. Here are the following...
-Because the kid is your typical show more (but not dangerous) troubled teen (Connor Lassiter)
-Because there are too many children in the orphanage so a certain percentage needs to be culled out to fir the budget, regardless of them being troublemakers or not (Risa Ward)
-Because your parents are religious whackjobs who take the Biblical tithe thing way too seriously (Levi Caulder)
-Because you stood up against your stepfather when he was beating up your mother, and your mother sided with your stepfather and chose to get rid of you instead of the asshole who abuses her (Roland)
-Because your parents are getting divorced, and their divorce is so bitter than they can't agree on custody and so would rather have you Unwound than share. (Hayden Upchurch)
-Because your father wanted a boy, and abortion is illegal, so he had several daughters before finally having the son he wanted. As soon as the daughters turn 13, off to Unwinding! (I can't remember the girl's name, I think it was Mai?)
-Because abortion is illegal, unwanted babies are abandoned at other people's houses (this is called Storking, and such children are called Storks) Once a baby is abandoned on your doorstep, you are obligated to take care of it unless you manage to sneak it over to someone else's house. Because many people resent being left with a Storked child, they will sign an Unwind order as soon as the Stork turns 13. (Michael Starkey)
-Because your parents are dead, and your greedy bitch of an aunt would rather use the money your mother left you, for her own children instead. (I forgot this child's name, but do recall he was the recipient of an lung from an Unwind when he was younger)
-For any reason, really.

So if a child finds out he/she is to be Unwound, they will try to escape. The goal is to remain hiding until they turn 18, in which case they are no longer Unwindable. Many are of course caught, but some do make it all the way to 18.

This story focuses mainly on three people - Connor, Risa, and Levi, as they are on the run from the people who would literally take them apart. This book was one hell of a rollercoaster ride with so many twists and turns, including a chapter where the Unwinding process is gone into detail, and it is horrifically revealed that each Unwind, by law, must remain conscious during their Unwinding, even when all that is left is their brain.

That left my jimmies rustled for a long, long, long time. Still, an excellent book and one I found much more immersive and scary than Hunger Games. show less

In the near future, after a second civil war over reproductive rights, the US lives under the Bill of Life, which makes life inviolable until the age of 13. From 13-18, though, a person’s parents can choose to have their child unwound, a process by which every bit of the body is harvested and used as grafts and transplants. Doctrine states that his isn’t death, but that the Unwound live on through the lives of the various people who receive those…parts. The book follows three teens who have been scheduled to be unwound and find themselves thrown together as they try to escape.

Charlie read this one and immediately handed it to me, saying that I *had* to read it. So, of course, I dropped all other books and read it. And he has show more excellent tastes when it comes to books. This was fantastic, and I’ll absolutely be continuing with the series (Charlie’s already halfway through the second book). The characters are really well drawn, the story is unique and interesting and really uncomfortable (in the best way) in parts, and there are some wild twists along the way. show less

Shusterman imagines a dystopian future in the aftermath of a civil war between pro-life and pro-choice factions. It ended with a treaty that banned abortion but allowed parents/society to choose to “part out” the children they no longer want between the ages of 13 and 18 via unwinding. Since parts of the unwound go to needy recipients, the lives of the unwinds don‘t end. Connor, Risa, and Lev are three unlikely friends on the run from their fate.

Told in simple language, Unwind is a twisty thriller and an on the nose indictment of the absurdity that can surround the problem of abortion, exaggerated to the extreme. Character development is left in the dust by the fast-moving plot but catches up as the book speeds to its conclusion. show more Shusterman teases a future for his characters where they have the chance to discover their own power and change their world, and I‘m ready to read more! show less

In the future, abortion is outlawed, but retroactive abortion through "unwinding" is permitted between the ages of 13-18: these children are harvested for parts (see also: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro). Connor is scheduled to be unwound, but escapes; he causes a highway pileup during which Risa, another Unwind from a state home (StaHo) escapes and joins him. At the same time, Connor also impulsively saves Lev, a "tithe" from a large Christian family. Lev doesn't want to be saved, but Pastor Dan pushes him toward Connor, and the three runaways attempt to stay safe until they turn 18.

Connor and Risa stay together, but Lev is separated from them, and teams up with CyFi, who has an Unwind's hand. Connor and Risa find a safe house and show more are shuttled around for a while before ending up at the Graveyard in Arizona, a benevolent dictatorship of sorts that serves as a safe place for Unwinds to hide out and learn useful skills until they turn 18. Lev arrives there separately. But agents of chaos lurk even in the Graveyard, and Connor and Risa and Lev all end up at a harvest camp, where Risa's musical skills save her, Lev is recognized as a tithe, and Connor is scheduled to be unwound sooner rather than later. But there's chaos at the harvest camp too, in the form of Clappers - of which Lev is now one.

This work of speculative fiction has undertones of the Holocaust and the Underground Railroad, as well as The Handmaid's Tale and Never Let Me Go. Both thought-provoking and fast-paced, with strong characters.

Quotes

Thinking ahead has never been one of Connor's strong points. (11)

Stupid dreams. Even the good ones are bad, because they remind you how poorly reality measures up. (17)

It would probably be a relief for them, for now they're all broken up on the inside. Better to be broken up on the outside instead. (68)

"One thing you learn when you've lived as long as I have - people aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives." (Sonia at the safe house, 111)

Everyone's mind is trapped in the holding pattern of their own uneasy thoughts. (166)

Whether or not souls exist Connor doesn't know. But consciousness does exist - that's something he knows for sure. If every part of an Unwind is still alive, then that consciousness has to go somewhere, doesn't it? (172)

...but how do you prepare yourself for something like this? (303)

"What you did, Lev - it confused people. No one knows whether you're a monster or a hero."
Lev thinks about that. "Is there a third choice." (327)

"We have a right to our lives! We have a right to choose what happens to our bodies! We deserve a world where both those things are possible - and it's our job to help make that world." (333)

I find the "Bill of Life" premise highly unlikely - but with a willing suspension of disbelief, the rest of the story is compelling. show less

Connor isn't quite a bad boy, but he'll be the first to admit that he acts before he thinks, which gets him into fights and other trouble pretty frequently. Still, it's a shock to him when he finds the signed paperwork for his unwinding. His parents have made the decision to have him unwound, to have every part of his body transplanted into new recipients. He's not going to die, just live on in a separated state. Unwinding is, after all, the compromise that was reached between the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers in the second Civil War. Still, Connor doesn't plan to let it happen to him, and makes a daring escape at the first opportunity. He ends up taking two other Unwinds with him: Risa, scheduled for unwinding due to budget cuts in show more the state home she was living in, and Lev, a tithe of his religious parents. They'll need to evade capture until their 18th birthdays if they're going to really survive, but that won't be easy--especially when Lev's determination to tithe himself puts them all in jeopardy.

Dystopian in the sense of --holy crap, what has the government agreed to? Unwinding was proposed as a joke, intended to scare both sides of the Reproductive Rights war into cooperating, but the bluff was called and now it's a horrible reality. There are Harvest Camps all around the country, ready to unwind teenagers in a sort of retroactive abortion. I suppose it really is more sci-fi than dystopian, but I can make a case for dystopia based on the societal and religious value of lives and the government's solution to the abortion debate.

Short chapters and varied viewpoints keep the pace moving briskly. Light romance doesn't overshadow the plot and the characters are mostly well-developed. It wouldn't hurt to have had another girl somewhere in here, or to better develop the one who is there, but she wasn't such a sideline character as to be annoying. I just wished more had been done with her. Great for 8th grade and up, particularly boys. show less