Review: Unwind

Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Unwind Dystology #1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: June 2nd, 2009
Source: Bought
Date Read: 5/26/15 to 5/29/15
335 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰ 

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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This is so different from anything that I've read, and because of that you can't even tell that this is actually dystopian. And this book ACTUALLY, TRULY deals with organs (unlike a more recent book I read *cough*).

Unwind takes place in the future, where parents can have their children unwound between the ages of 13 and 18. After 18, the children become adults and they cannot be unwound no matter. What exactly is unwounding, you ask? Well LET ME TELL YOU. It's the taking apart of your live, fresh body, in order to harvest for organs. The most important part is that these parts are STILL ALIVE, and will still think they are part of their original body. In all honestly, it's disgusting, creepy, and slightly scary, but so amazingly well executed. 

Unwounding can happen to anyone between those ages, but most of the time only children who are raised to be a sacrifice from a young age, or children who aren't worth being kept "alive", are unwound. This is where Risa, Connor, and Lev fit in. Before their trip to the harvest camp, they all manage to turn their situation into an opportunity to escape together and hopefully survive until they're all 18 years old.

This is intense. Did I say that? The scene where the actual unwounding took place really shook me, and I'm sure it will stay with me forever. And even though I didn't connect with the characters fully, they still grew on me, and I was rooting for them to, well, not be unwound. Lev, who is only 13 years old, grew up so much since the beginning of the novel. 

The only thing holding me back from giving this a full 5 stars is the parts where I was confused (man this is no surprise.) And I guess this is one book where I should've read the blurb or synopsis of, but I didn't because I'm lazy. I also never understood WHY children were being unwounded. I'm sure it was mentioned briefly along with the war in the book, but I either wasn't paying attention, or didn't understand what it was implying. Ah well. 

This is an INCREDIBLE START to the series, and I will be continuing this as soon as I can! This is seriously the most creative dystopian I have ever read.