Unwind (1) (Unwind Dystology)
Three teens fight for their lives and each other in this breathtakingly suspenseful first book in the twisted, New York Times bestselling Unwind Dystology series by Neal Shusterman. After America's Second Civil War, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life armies came to an agreement. According to their Bill of Life, human life may not be terminated from the moment of conception until the age of thirteen. But between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, the child may be gotten rid of by their parent through a process called "unwinding." By repurposing a teen's organs and other body parts in living recipients, the unwound child's life doesn't technically end. According to society's leaders, unwinding leads to a healthier and safer community, as troublesome and unwanted teens are used for the greater good. Curtis is a rebel whose unwinding was ordered by his parents. Rita, a ward of the state, has been slated for unwinding due to cost cutting. And Lev, his parents' tenth child, has been destined for unwinding since birth as a religious tithe. As their paths intersect, they start to fight for their own destinies. But do they stand a chance of escaping their fate or proving their lives are worth saving?
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Community Reviews
4.5, really. This book was disturbing and thought-provoking. But that was why I wanted to pick it up. I read Scythe and Thunderhead and both of those books asked interesting moral questions: what if we were responsible for each others' deaths; would life have purpose if we couldn't die; does life have purpose if an AI controls everything. This book also gave me a lot of pause. I know I'll be thinking about this book for a while to come.
The premise is that there was a major war fought between the pro-life and pro-choice camps and this is the resolution they came to: every viable pregnancy must be carried to completion, but that doesn't mean that a kid necessarily makes it to adulthood. Their parents have the choice to have them "unwound" before they turn 18, where they are technically alive because every part of them is in use, but every part of them is divided up and given to strangers. There are so many moral quandaries inherent in this concept. Are you alive if you aren't together? Are you dead? There's a concept in this book called "storking," where new moms will drop their infants on someone's doorstep. Those people whose doorstep it is are now obligated to adopt that child when they find it. There's a horrifying story of a child being passed around a neighborhood, each family dropping it off on another's doorstep pretending they hadn't been storked, until the baby was too sick and died. And that actually ended up being one of the less disturbing stories. spoilerBy far, the most disturbing scene was when Roland was being unwound. I had to stop several times while reading. It was horrible to read and I don't think I will ever forget that scene. It was heart-wrenching and gut-wrenching all at the same time. And honestly, I think this book made me more pro-life than before. All of these people who were being unwound had lived lives; so many of them ghosted into the lives of the people they got grafted onto, like the ending scene with Harlan Dunfee. To me, it seems monstrously more unfair to rip apart humans who have lived long enough to understand the impact of what's happening to them. I found it horrifying.
Anyhow. This book made an indelible mark on me. I see there's another one. I don't know that I need to read it. This book could be styled as a stand-alone, and I'm interested more in what happens to the characters in the Scythe series. But it made an indelible mark on me and I will be actively thinking about this book for a long time.
The premise is that there was a major war fought between the pro-life and pro-choice camps and this is the resolution they came to: every viable pregnancy must be carried to completion, but that doesn't mean that a kid necessarily makes it to adulthood. Their parents have the choice to have them "unwound" before they turn 18, where they are technically alive because every part of them is in use, but every part of them is divided up and given to strangers. There are so many moral quandaries inherent in this concept. Are you alive if you aren't together? Are you dead? There's a concept in this book called "storking," where new moms will drop their infants on someone's doorstep. Those people whose doorstep it is are now obligated to adopt that child when they find it. There's a horrifying story of a child being passed around a neighborhood, each family dropping it off on another's doorstep pretending they hadn't been storked, until the baby was too sick and died. And that actually ended up being one of the less disturbing stories. spoilerBy far, the most disturbing scene was when Roland was being unwound. I had to stop several times while reading. It was horrible to read and I don't think I will ever forget that scene. It was heart-wrenching and gut-wrenching all at the same time. And honestly, I think this book made me more pro-life than before. All of these people who were being unwound had lived lives; so many of them ghosted into the lives of the people they got grafted onto, like the ending scene with Harlan Dunfee. To me, it seems monstrously more unfair to rip apart humans who have lived long enough to understand the impact of what's happening to them. I found it horrifying.
Anyhow. This book made an indelible mark on me. I see there's another one. I don't know that I need to read it. This book could be styled as a stand-alone, and I'm interested more in what happens to the characters in the Scythe series. But it made an indelible mark on me and I will be actively thinking about this book for a long time.
this was my first introduction to dystopia, and i think i'm going to get a lot more of these kinds of books. the characters didn't feel copy-pasted personality wise, the plot is great, and the most unexpected things come up. there are a few disturbing things in this novel, such as a minor sa mention, but if you're comfortable, this is a book that is always going to stay with you.
3.5/4 stars.
Although this book had a slow start and I wasn't really into it for the first half (hence the 3.5 rating), by the end of the book, it picked up and became much more exciting. Or maybe not picked up because it wasn't slow per se, but I actually started caring about the characters more, whereas I didn't so much at first. I did like that this was a very original idea and world, and in a world over saturated by YA dystopia, this was something I hadn't seen before even though it has the elements of every other YA dystopia out there.
This story also brought up really great talking and discussion morality points, which I always really like thinking about, and it didn't try and necessarily preach one side over the other. And the last scene with the Admiral was really bittersweet and I liked that a lot.
Originally I wasn't going to read the sequels because I just didn't care enough to, but now I think I'll come back to this series after I read a few other books.
Although this book had a slow start and I wasn't really into it for the first half (hence the 3.5 rating), by the end of the book, it picked up and became much more exciting. Or maybe not picked up because it wasn't slow per se, but I actually started caring about the characters more, whereas I didn't so much at first. I did like that this was a very original idea and world, and in a world over saturated by YA dystopia, this was something I hadn't seen before even though it has the elements of every other YA dystopia out there.
This story also brought up really great talking and discussion morality points, which I always really like thinking about, and it didn't try and necessarily preach one side over the other. And the last scene with the Admiral was really bittersweet and I liked that a lot.
Originally I wasn't going to read the sequels because I just didn't care enough to, but now I think I'll come back to this series after I read a few other books.
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