REVIEW: Unwind by Neil Shusterman

Title:                      Unwind
Author:                  Neil Shusterman
Release Date:     Nov 6/2007

Publisher:           Simon and Schuster Teen

Page Count:        335

Acquired:            Library

Format:              Paperback

Read From:         Jan 5-17/2013

Goodreads:         ADD

Purchase:           Amazon/Indigo/The Book Depository

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 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.

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My head..my heart..this book..WHOA. I am such a mixed bag of emotions right now. I LITERALLY just turned the last page, and am trying to maintain some kind of composure here. Hold on, I JUST realized that the front cover is a fingerprint. Okay, I'm done being amazed at my lack of observation. I think I have words now:

I kept seeing and hearing/reading about this book everywhere. I was completely iffy on the topic, and decided that I would just hold off reading it until I got some other books read first. Then the library happened, and there it was, all yelling and shouting at me from the shelves. Long story short (actually, it isn't a long story at ALL), it came home with me. I ended up cracking it open that same NIGHT, became COMPLETELY immersed in the first quarter, and then set it down again for a while. I literally PLOWED through the remainder of it tonight, and finished it in near TEARS...TEARS!!

This.novel.is.INSANITY. In the worst and best meaning of the word. The concept ALONE is OUTRAGEOUS-I won't go into much detail about that, as the synopsis pretty much lays it out. At the start of the book, we meet Conner, Risa, and Lev, all separately, and within their own stories. I loved how the author sectioned it off this way-I loved that we were able to see inside the heads of each character personally. We learn that they are all on the path to becoming "unwound," one willingly, and two, not so much. Shusterman's writing was captivating, and hard-hitting. I thought I was in for SO much less than what he gave us. The book began as your regular, run-of-mill cat and mouse chase, but then became EPIC, beyond ANYTHING I could have imagined. The scenery was constantly changing, and I welcomed the loops I was thrown for at every turn.

I was drawn to the three main characters with ALL of my emotions, and even eventually felt this way about ones I had no right becoming attached to. The author created a world with a backstory that was believable, and TERRIFYINGLY realistic. He took a topic that is, and will continue to be, very controversial in our society today, and crafted a solution to it that spoke very loudly to me. It really made me question my own thoughts and opinions on the act of being either pro-life or pro-choice, and what it COULD mean for our future. I LOVE when authors could do that to me. I simultaneously lived within and outside of these pages while reading-constantly comparing this fiction to my reality.

My whole being took in this book. There were twists I did NOT see coming, and plot developments that seriously pulled at my heart-especially nearing the end. The conclusion of Unwind had to be my favourite part, even though I know it continues on in three more books, I still found myself deeply satisfied with the loose ends that were tied up. However, I do wish some things were not as they were, but those are totally selfish, superficial wishings, and really have no reflection on how I felt about the book on a whole.

I recommend this book a THOUSAND times.