by Carolyn W.
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
(2007) 337 pages
Final Rating: 6/10
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 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:
I quite liked this book. So many things it excelled at but it definitely fell short in many places.
1. THE CHARACTERS:
One of the most important things to me in a story is the characters. Are they realistic? Do they develop? Do they have an actual personality? It turns out that in this book, although dystopian, I could find the characters quite real, although not real enough. They were definitely more developed than other characters, but they were still quite hollow personality-wise, and I definitely didn’t feel much of the romance between Connor and Risa. In fact, each character lacked a depth where the author was incapable of wringing much emotion out of them. No matter how many bad things they went through, I could not sympathize with them because I could not feel their pain. Yet each one was complex with different opinions and views about life. Not only that, but the book didn’t focus on just the main characters with a significant impact on the story. No. Somehow, Neal Shusterman pulled off a difficult 3rd person view including more than just the three main characters, but also other side characters’ perspectives as well, and it worked amazingly. Even if some of the characters had small jobs in the book that almost seemed like nothing, Shusterman gives them names, personalities, descriptions, etc., so I wouldn’t forget them if I saw them later. Another complaint I would have about the characters is the gender ratio. Shusterman consistently uses a 2 boy, 1 girl ratio. I can not remember a moment where there were more girls than boys. This disturbed me a bit, but overall the use of characters is impressive.
2. THE WRITING:
I was so impressed and I approved of the 3rd person writing style and how well Neal Shusterman did it. It helped me believe that everyone in this book, no matter how much they contributed to the story, were real people just going through their lives. It made me believe that anyone in this world could have a story, not that they were just props for Connor, Risa, and Lev’s story only. Also, I found the writing style immersive and enjoyable.
3. THE PLOT:
Although a few plot holes, in general, the plot is very well described and understandable. The story feels realistic. I believe that it could actually occur one day in the near future if we make it so.