Unwind

Very rarely does the mere concept of a story creep me out even the slightest bit. This... definitely qualifies as one of those times...

THE BASICS: In the craptastic future (The Future is always lame in books), there exists "unwinding" in which an individual between the ages of 13 and 18 can be sent by their parents to be unwound (this law was set in place to be an alternative to abortion, which is now completely illegal). Unwinding is basically the taking apart of a person and giving said parts to other people who need them. For transplants and such. The unfortunate teenager isn't dead, they're just... in a different state.

Or so they say. No one actually really knows.

THE CHARACTERS: There's a boatload, but there are three recognizable mains: Connor, your typical bad boy who's parents sign the order for his unwinding, Risa, who's orphan status combined with budget cuts seals her fate, and Lev, who's extremely devout, religious parents raised him to be a "tithe" (they had ten children so...). I love these guys' interactions, although admittedly it's mostly a two-sided story with Connor and Risa on one end and Lev on his own. The former two are a bit predictable in their personalities (he's your basic jerk with a heart of gold, she's the resourceful, tough girl) but I liked them all the same. Lev was fascinating though- he's totally okay with being unwound because he's been raised knowing it'll happen all his life. He considers it his duty, his honor even.

I smell brainwashing!

It's not a spoiler to say that his opinion soon changes drastically, which makes for some great stuff later on. He goes a bit off the deep end, to put it mildly.

TECHNICAL STUFF: The book switches perspectives a lot, but it works since it was such a fast-paced story. The chapters tend to be pretty short too, so it reads pretty fast. It meanders a bit from the main plot because of this, but funnily enough, that's totally okay. The book isn't about the characters persay (they're still fabulous though); in many ways they're more of representations of different senarios that might occur in said craptastic world. There're a lot of "what about...?" and "well, what if-?"s that happen as you're reading (Where do unwanted infants go anyway? How would giving someone else part of your brain work? Would they remember anything? Do these laws apply to disabled people?) but I can honestly say that the book covers pretty much all it's bases. You understand this world by the time you're done. You may not like it, but you definitely get it.

THE THEME: Extremism- 'tis a bad, bad thing. Also, don't compromise with terrorists. Bad things happen like, oh, say, unwinding maybe?

OVERALL: Fab, fab, fabulous book. I was honest-to-goodness never bored- not once- and that is majorly rare. It sucks you right in- from it's nightmarish premise to it's "seriously, holy crap, edge of your seat" ending. Love it.

GRADE: (I've decided to stop giving grades. I mean, let's say I don't really like a book. Not because it's bad or anything, it's just not my thing. So I give it a "C". But what if it were your kind of book? What if it was a "B" or "A" in your mind? I don't want to accidentally dissuade anyone from reading something they might actually enjoy...)

But for what it's worth, this one was definitely an "A".

Author: Neal Shusterman