Review Detail

This was a great, thought-provoking read that actually made me tear up a little towards the end. Neal Shusterman gives you the perspective of three very different teens who are all facing the same consequences but for very different reasons.

Could this story have been told from the perspective of just one person? Of course, but I don’t think it would have been so effective on me as a reader. Unwind is a story about controversial subject matter and I think it was successful at not being preachy or patronizing. Ultimately, I think it was written objectively and its purpose was only to get the reader to reflect and think deeper on the subject because clearly, not everything is always black or white. The perspectives of Lev, Risa and Connor (as well as a few others in some chapters) provided the grayness in between so if you don’t empathize or identify with one character, you will with one of the others. Even though they are all going to be unwound, the three of them have very different takes on what it means and how they feel about it.

One of the best scenes of the book is when Neal describes an actual unwinding. It’s not actually gory or described in a particularly gruesome way, in fact it’s a very clinical and sterile process, but that – and the doctors’ flippant attitudes – is what makes it most horrifying. So horrifying I even found myself sympathizing with some of the antagonists in this book.

Although it’s not light subject matter, Unwind is a great page-turner that you can definitely breeze through in a few days. I did!