Review: Unwind (Dystopian Challenge)

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Title: Unwind
Author: Neal Shusterman

Publication: June 2009

Publisher's Blurb:
Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

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 talented 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.


My thoughts: This was a chilling and disturbing book.  Many questions went through my head as I read: How could a society get to the point that this was acceptable?  How could any parent make this choice?  What was most disturbing for me was the fact that the author used real news storys and quotes from real people at the beginning of every part of the book.  There are some people that are thinking in quite disturbing ways already in this society.  This book is one that will keep me thinking for quite some time.  I really felt for all three protagonists and agree wholeheartedly with the book's premise that this practice is wrong and needs to stop.  But it is really intriguing to think about how a society would get that bent out of shape.  With the intense debate out there about abortion, we are not so far away from the fictional Second Civil War and all of the implications of it.  This book is about the way that people sometimes blindly fight for an idea and lose sight of what they are fighting for.  It is also one that makes you pause a little bit to think about the medical advances and things that are being discovered through science.  How much is too much?  When is it better to stick with the things that we are doing?  This book made me curious to find out more about some of the advances they are making now.

I would absolutely recommend this one to teens and adults alike.  Even if you are not a big science fiction fan, I think this one is worth reading.

I read and reviewed this book as a part of The Dystopia Challenge 2013 on Bookish Ardour

I am trying for the Contagion level of 15 books. You can find out more on my 2013 Challenges page.