Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this science-fiction tale is set in a society that kills teens to obtain body parts for transplants. Amidst other violence, there's a very disturbing (though not graphic) scene of dismemberment that makes this book inappropriate for tweens and younger children.
Families can talk about the many issues raised in the book. What makes us human? Is a person alive if all of his body parts are alive? Where is the soul?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
This is a horrifying book. How horrifying, you won't realize until chapter 61, near the end, where author Neal Shusterman essentially conducts a master class for horror writers. He describes, at long last, an "unwinding" -- the act at the heart of the book. He describes it at length but in virtually no detail. In what amounts to the systematic taking-apart of a human body, there isn't a drop of blood. Not a bit of gore. Nothing that is in any way graphic or disgusting. And yet it's one of the most profoundly disturbing and deeply terrifying pieces of writing you'll ever read. Chapter 61 is also the reason we've rated this book for ages 13 and up.
All of that said, once readers have managed the pretty huge suspension of disbelief that UNWIND's premise requires, they'll find the story both exciting and thought provoking. Raising issues that range from abortion, organ transplant, and euthanasia to the rights of parents, children, and society, Shusterman does what he's done many times before -- takes an idea and runs with it, far beyond where most authors are willing to go.
From The Book
The date on the order was the day before the Bahamas trip. He was going off to be unwound, and they were going on vacation to make themselves feel better about it. The unfairness of it had made Connor want to break something. It had made him want to break a lot of things -- but he hadn't. For once he had held his temper, and aside from a few fights in school that weren't his fault, he kept his emotions hidden. He kept what he knew to himself. Everyone knew that an unwind order was irreversible, so screaming and fighting wouldn't change a thing. Besides, he found a certain power in knowing his parents' secret. Now the blows he could deal them were so much more effective. Like the day he brought flowers home for his mother and she cried for hours. Like the B-plus he brought home on a science test. Best grade he ever got in science. He handed it to his father, who looked at it, the color draining from his face. "See, Dad, my grades are getting better. I could even bring my science grade up to an A by the end of the semester." An hour later his father was sitting in a chair, still clutching the test in his hand, and staring blankly at the wall.
Connor's motivation was simple: Make them suffer. Let them know for the rest of their lives what a horrible mistake they made.
Plot Summary:
In the future, a war has been fought between the pro-life and pro-choice armies. Their final settlement: the Bill of Life, which ends abortion but allows parents to choose to have their children "unwound" between ages 13 and 18. "Unwinding" is the transplanting of every part of the teens' bodies; since every bit of their bodies is still "alive," they haven't technically been killed, right?
Connor, after discovering that his parents have signed an order for his unwinding, decides to try to escape. Eventually meeting up with Risa, another escaping Unwind, and Lev, whose life has been tithed to the church, he tries to keep them all one step ahead of the police. But Lev may have other ideas.
Related Books:
Other Books by Neal Shusterman
Dissidents
The Eyes of Kid Midas
Scorpion Shards
The Shadow Club
Speeding Bullet
What Daddy Did
Darkness Creeping II: More Tales to Trouble Your Sleep
Mindquakes: Stories to Shatter Your Brain
MindTwisters: Stories to Shred Your Head
The Dark Side of Nowhere
Mindstorms: Stories to Blow Your Mind
Full Tilt
The Schwa was Here
Everlost
Other Future-Shock Stories
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Wild Jack by John Christopher
Eva by Peter Dickinson
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Waterbound by Jane Stemp
Shade's Children by Garth Nix
Among the Hidden (Shadow Children, Book 1) by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick
Feed by M. T. Anderson
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Uglies (Uglies Trilogy, Book 1) by Scott Westerfeld
Related Web Sites
Author's Site
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Sexual ContentSeveral kisses; reference to homosexual marriage. |
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ViolenceParents condemn their child to death. An intended rape is foiled. A disturbing, though not graphic, scene of dismemberment while the victim is conscious but unable to feel or see what's happening. Some fights; a man is beaten to death. Deaths due to highway accident, suffocation, and terrorism. Spousal abuse mentioned. A man is knocked out with a blunt object; a near strangulation. |
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LanguageA few "hells" and the like. |
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Social Behavior |
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CommercialismAn Old Navy store is blown up. Mention of iPods, Spam (the meat, not the mail). |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoDrinking and drunkenness; mention of illegal drugs. |
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