Series: Unwind #1Published: November 2007
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books
Format: Kindle
Pages: 335
Rating: ★★
The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.
REVIEW: Upon reading the synopsis of this book I was thoroughly excited to read something different; a YA dystopian novel with a bit of depth and meaning to it, something dark and haunting. I genuinely thought the whole premise of the idea of 'unwinding' teens was incredibly imaginative and looked forward to seeing how the story developed and if there were any dark truths behind everything. To say I was extremely disappointed would be an understatement.
The story is told from the view points of quite a few people, including people who had nothing to do with the storyline (which was pointless), but primarily from the eyes of Connor, Risa and Lev. At the beginning, the way the three view points stories interlaced made me think that perhaps seeing things from three different angles wouldn't be so bad just because it was really nicely choreographed, if only the rest of the book went along like that in the same fashion. The angles made it confusing, and it wasn't as if they were long chapters each either, some characters only had a page at a time sometimes and I don't feel that that is enough to attach with their particular story. The idea of lesser characters getting chapters really frustrated me as well as you as a reader shouldn't care for these characters as they haven't been created as the main three have - I don't want to read a chapter from the eyes of the pawn broker, why is that even necessary? Why couldn't it have been told from the angle of one of the three? It just all seemed a bit haphazard and more hassle than it was worth.
The plot (or lack of it) was what I was most disappointed about - I felt as though Shusterman had a brilliant idea and just wasted it. Everything seemed either a bit too pre-meditated or really stereotypical, and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot and thinking "oh, how convenient" for a lot of the book. The way the story moved just didn't excite me or keep me reading the book, and in the end I was more excited to finish the book than I was to see how the book was concluded. The majority of Unwind didn't actually feature anything to do with the 'unwinding' at all and there were points where I completely forgot what the book was primarily about - it just, to me, ended up like any normal YA book with teen angst and rivalry, which bored me immensely as that is exactly what I was trying to get away from.
Every single character annoyed the hell out of me; they were all so self righteous in their own ways and were completely unbelievable. I didn't feel anything for anyone and I didn't believe for an instant any of the emotions that they claimed to have felt - it all seemed fake. They all changed so quickly, followed easily and changed sides easily. It just didn't seem as though they were real people living in the real world, and the fact that everyone seemed to be the same, except the four main people, made it seem a little weird and unrealistic.
The one thing I did like about it however, when it did appear, was the depth of the idea of the 'bill of life' that was introduced after the second civil war when the pro choice and pro life armies came to an understanding and opted for the unwinding. The laws around this premise were very well thought out and the ideas behind everything from the 'storking' to the 'unwinding' and what happens when other people get unwound body parts was just so touching and fascinating at the same time. When the subject was touched it always seemed to move me and make me think about the life as we know it now, and what we take for granted. Another thing was at the beginning of each section there was either a famous quote or an extract of an article relating to the issues at hand, and I felt as though this gave you an insight as to how Shusterman came up with these chilling ideas and it portrays how his imagination works in putting his opinions across in the form of a published book. It's just a shame that these ideas, as great as they were, weren't included a great deal in my eyes.
I feel as though this book got too much hype over the idea, rather than the story itself which isn't what it should be about.
The story is told from the view points of quite a few people, including people who had nothing to do with the storyline (which was pointless), but primarily from the eyes of Connor, Risa and Lev. At the beginning, the way the three view points stories interlaced made me think that perhaps seeing things from three different angles wouldn't be so bad just because it was really nicely choreographed, if only the rest of the book went along like that in the same fashion. The angles made it confusing, and it wasn't as if they were long chapters each either, some characters only had a page at a time sometimes and I don't feel that that is enough to attach with their particular story. The idea of lesser characters getting chapters really frustrated me as well as you as a reader shouldn't care for these characters as they haven't been created as the main three have - I don't want to read a chapter from the eyes of the pawn broker, why is that even necessary? Why couldn't it have been told from the angle of one of the three? It just all seemed a bit haphazard and more hassle than it was worth.
The plot (or lack of it) was what I was most disappointed about - I felt as though Shusterman had a brilliant idea and just wasted it. Everything seemed either a bit too pre-meditated or really stereotypical, and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot and thinking "oh, how convenient" for a lot of the book. The way the story moved just didn't excite me or keep me reading the book, and in the end I was more excited to finish the book than I was to see how the book was concluded. The majority of Unwind didn't actually feature anything to do with the 'unwinding' at all and there were points where I completely forgot what the book was primarily about - it just, to me, ended up like any normal YA book with teen angst and rivalry, which bored me immensely as that is exactly what I was trying to get away from.
Every single character annoyed the hell out of me; they were all so self righteous in their own ways and were completely unbelievable. I didn't feel anything for anyone and I didn't believe for an instant any of the emotions that they claimed to have felt - it all seemed fake. They all changed so quickly, followed easily and changed sides easily. It just didn't seem as though they were real people living in the real world, and the fact that everyone seemed to be the same, except the four main people, made it seem a little weird and unrealistic.
The one thing I did like about it however, when it did appear, was the depth of the idea of the 'bill of life' that was introduced after the second civil war when the pro choice and pro life armies came to an understanding and opted for the unwinding. The laws around this premise were very well thought out and the ideas behind everything from the 'storking' to the 'unwinding' and what happens when other people get unwound body parts was just so touching and fascinating at the same time. When the subject was touched it always seemed to move me and make me think about the life as we know it now, and what we take for granted. Another thing was at the beginning of each section there was either a famous quote or an extract of an article relating to the issues at hand, and I felt as though this gave you an insight as to how Shusterman came up with these chilling ideas and it portrays how his imagination works in putting his opinions across in the form of a published book. It's just a shame that these ideas, as great as they were, weren't included a great deal in my eyes.
I feel as though this book got too much hype over the idea, rather than the story itself which isn't what it should be about.