Review Detail

In an alternate (or future)
United States, the Heartland War between pro-life or pro-choice parties has
been fought, and one of the compromises that the people have come up with is
unwinding: any teen between 13 and 18 can be signed over by their parents to
the government, to be "unwound" into parts for other people's bodies.
It's not death, they say, because you remain in divided parts. But is it really
living?

Connor is a troublesome teen
whose parents are having him unwound. Risa is an orphanage at the overcrowded
state home that is planning to cut costs by having a number of kids unwound.
And Lev is a tithe--born and raised to fulfill his role of being an Unwind, and
thus giving back to his god and the community.

The three teens are thrown
together in a desperate adventure to save their own lives--and, eventually, the
lives of thousands of other Unwinds. But the journey they must make is a
dangerous one, one that can fall apart at any second through betrayal or bad
luck. How much can they possibly do to undermine the system that threatens to
dismantle them?

UNWIND takes on a variety of challenging topics that to
this day still have no clear answer: abortion, how to deal with unwanted
pregnancies, religion, and the existence of souls. Thankfully, it provides no
cut-and-dry answer to these issues, and instead presents them in a thrilling
and approachable novel. While I was not particularly impressed by Shusterman's
writing style (too much telling and not enough showing), the
characters--especially Connor and Risa, but even some of the secondary
characters--come across as strong, unique, and appealing. They are good
protagonists for readers to follow in this book that will most certainly leave
an impression on you.