Unwind: Volume 1 (Unwind Dystology)

I am a sucker for a dystopian series and somehow this one had passed me by so i was excited to dive in. It is a particularly dark plotline which was definitely upsetting in places, but considering the debates happening in the world right now about women's reproductive rights this book was a very timely read for me. The book does have multiple points of view which made it much more interesting for me as i liked hearing from the different teenagers. You see how they ended up where they are and their reasons for different decisions and behaviours and you see them begin to grow. The story is thought provoking, chilling and heartbreaking and then there are also undercurrents of hope which push the reader to continue with the story. The characters are damaged and flawed and proud and scared and hopeful and feel very real. This book is by no means perfect, but the book had a physical effect on me and there were times i put the book down and just laid staring at the ceiling just considering what i had read. Some parts really did hit hard, one part in particular will probably stay with me forever. I will absolutely continue the series to see where the characters journeys take them and if they can make a change.

For a relatively old fish in the dystopian pond right now, this book was surprisingly original, fantastically written and absolutely worth a read - there were moments for me when I held my breath, felt excited or had to keep it together instead of getting my heart stomped on. This book is clever and you need to read it. Imagine a World in which mistakes are rectified, abortion is forbidden and new laws mean that, if you feel like you've just bitten off more than you can chew and had just one too many kids than you can cope with, that you can just get rid of it. Or leave it on a neighbours doorstep and it be socially accepted and legalised. Imagine a situation in which you need a transplant. Forget the waiting. Those times are gone. Now there are endless supplies of organs just waiting for you to buy. Even if you just want a new eye colour. Or hands that know how to paint. Crazy right? It's diabolical, makes me feel sick just thinking about it and made my brain whir for hours afterwards. In Connors world though, this is commonplace. In fact his family have been "Storked" plenty of times by neighbours not wanting their newest addition. But Connor is a rebellious teenager. And his parents really want that trip to the Maldives; Connor is about to be Unwound. That's right, he's been signed away by his parents for his organs to live on in someone else. You see, the people of this generation believe this isn't manslaughter. Oh no, it's just transferring of your soul, in bits, to others. No death involved...right? The only catch was that all children must be unwound before they turn eighteen and become an adult. Risa is a ward of the state. Her parents didn't claim her. But the state home doesn't have space for another girl who plays piano. They have mouths to feed. So Risa is declared ready to be unwound too. Oh and Lev, well he's slightly different. You see, rather than Spring it on him at the last minute, Lev's parents have chosen to Tithe Lev. This basically means that they've sacrificed Lev from the goodness of their hearts. For God. And Lev is effectively brainwashed into thinking this is cool. All three main characters have a unique story, which somehow blend really wonderfully together. I think Shusterman writes so intelligently. He pulled me in immediately with short chapters, fast pacing and a particular knack for surprisingly me by doing the unexpected. No characters path was straight forward to me, no fork in the road became too obvious to see coming and he had no issue with damaging key characters here and there. What I liked most was the moral dilemma. I like that this concept is structured by rules, to make it easier for me to believe. But I think the best part was the human corruption within. It is difficult to imagine, in a world where these things are allowed, how commonplace unwinding would be. And I loved questioning human nature and where my own beliefs fell within this. A large part of the book, the latter end, was hard to read. Not because it was bad. But because it was so so good! There's a particular scene many reviewers have mentioned which really left me with goosebumps feeling sick and doubting whether I could read on but knowing some sick part of me had to see it through. Ultimately this book is disturbing, thought provoking and challenges you to think about what you might feel, or do, given a similar situation. The world is well fleshed out and the characters are easy to connect with - something I find essential to actually continue with a book. My only complaint was that some of the story lines were disjointed. At times characters would appear somewhere without the reader being shown how they got there - a bit difficult when it really is a massive change in situation for a character. Nevertheless, a really good read and I can't wait to see, given how explosive the ending was, what happens next!

(Source: I borrowed a copy of this book.) 16-year-old Connor is destined to be unwound. What's that? Well following a pro-life/pro-choice war, the government passed a new law - abortions are illegal, children are protected `til age 13, but between the ages of 13 and 18 a child can be `unwound' - taken to pieces and re-used in other people. This means that no child actually dies - their constituent parts live on. Yeah right! Tell that to the poor kids being unwound! Connor messed up a bit when he was younger, Risa was a ward of the state - and there were budget cuts, and Lev was a tithe (his parents were unwinding him as a way to give back to god/ humanity!). Irrespective of their reasons for being unwound, all three find themselves on the run, and thrown together through circumstance. Finding themselves in unusual circumstances and strange places along the way, they grow in ways they never would have otherwise, and question what being alive or having a soul is really about. But when it comes to the chop, which is worse; to die, or to be unwound? Wow! That is one of the first things that comes to mind with this book. I absolutely could not put it down, and when I did put it down I couldn't stop thinking about it! The book has an eerie dystopian setting, which is unsettling in the way that the reasons for the changes in society are ultimately understandable! Which is very scary! The idea of unwinding is sickening, whilst at the same time makes a disgusting sort of sense. Why abort a child that you can allow to grow up, and then harvest for parts? Parts that are desperately needed! And what an interesting argument - if all the parts live on, then has the child really died? There are loads of questions like this posed in the book; with tricky subjects such as life and death, the human soul, and religion all touched upon. It is truly an emotional experience to get an insight into each childs life and viewpoint, and to see how they view the idea of their own unwinding, and ultimately their own death. It is also interesting to see how much each child is willing to fight to preserve their life, and really does make for an absorbing read. I have to say that at times I did feel physically sick though - especially the chapter where we follow a child through the operation to be unwound (the child is conscious throughout), especially given the fact that we are told that this child is taken to pieces and ultimately redistributed in just 3 hours 19 minutes. How wrong that an entire life can be disassembled into constituent parts and ultimately ended, in such a clinical fashion, in a little over three hours. Overall, I enjoyed this book, and the ideas that it provoked, (even the sickening ones) and I think anyone with an interest in young-adult, dystopian stories will really enjoy this. 9 out of 10.

Unwinding: a cruel law that has unwanted or troublesome kids terminated, and their parts re-used. This excellently crafted dark dystopian YA thriller touches on some of the most interesting ethic topics I ve encountered. The author presents them through different perspectives and through the fast paced hide and seek adventure of the protagonists. Dark and scary, it has a clarity of thought and an awareness of human nature that is chilling yet powerful. Very good writing, great characterisation and strong plot make for a page turner that i couldnt put down till i finished. The best chapter for me was 'Roland', nearing the end, where it describes the procedure of Unwinding, its one of the best written suspense horror scenes ever. Connor is a very well developed male lead, clever, a survivor, considerate, kind. The only comment i would make here is that i wished their romance was threaded out a bit better, its like the author didnt want to devote much time to the romantic sub plot, focusing mainly on the action and ethics. The other comment i would make is that i found the changing per chapter POV a bit frustrating. It would be very interesting to see the same book written by a woman, it would certainly be from Rissa's point and have the romance drawn out much longer. Saying this, we got a great inside into a male lead, which i dont see as often in female novelists' books. I feel like we really got to know Connor and like him, where in the first chapters i was indifferent to him. Great book, i d strongly recommend it to those who enjoyed books like the Hunger Games, Divergent, the Uglies, Forest of Teeth and Hands, Warm Bodies, Upside Down, Incarceron etc.

I don't dabble in YA very often but when I do, I rather enjoy a good dystopian society to get my teeth into. In 'Unwind' there is no longer any abortion but parents or guardians can choose to 'unwind' their offspring once they reach the age of 13. The book follows three teenagers who are each due to be 'unwound' for very different reasons. One is an orphan whose state children's home has too much supply and too little space to put up all the unwanted kids and so decides she's surplus to requirement. One is a bit of a 'bad kid' whose parents have just given up on him and the third is the child of parents with 10 children (natural and 'storked') who have dedicated his life as a religious 'tithe'. This society is a weird one but no weirder than many in its genre. I think it's better not to look too deeply into the thinking behind it as you could drive a truck through the holes in the 'pro life vs pro choice' storyline and just accept that it is what it is and come to terms with a society that has no need to deal with illness any more due to an abundant supply of 'spare parts'. I found the first half compelling, got a bit bored towards the end, and found some ideas - most notably the 'clappers' - poorly explained. This didn't hook me in the way that the Hunger Games or the Divergent series did, but it was better than some other dystopian YA books that I've read. I won't rush to buy the rest of the series but will grab them if they come up on special offers. Kudos to the author for the eeriest chapter where we're taken step by step through an 'unwinding' process - really moving stuff.

I read 'Unwind' very quickly; it is easy to get absorbed into Neal Shusterman's unique world and the book is a definite page turner. Though there isn't strictly a main character (as the book is told from various viewpoints) Connor is the child who one connects with first, and so for me, he is the main character. I always enjoyed returning to Connor's sections, though I welcomed seeing events from different point of views. I feel that it helped to move the plot forward and kept me reading for even longer! So what is being 'unwound'? It means having your body chopped up in a harvest camp and your various body parts get divided up and given to people who need them. Technically it is not dieing, because individual body parts live on. Instead of finding cures, people just simply receive a new body part or organ. Parents can send their children (possibly unknown to them) to be unwound from ages 13-18. Of course, for most children (including Connor and Risa) this is a terrifying thought. This is why Lev is perhaps the most unusual character in the book. At the start, Lev actually welcomes the thought of being unwound because he has been preparing throughout his life for this very moment. He is a tithe, whose parents had him specifically to be unwound (to give something back to God). It's an interesting, and somewhat believable, idea. I particularly liked comparing Lev's thoughts to the other characters because they were just so different! Here are some of the main reasons why you should read this book: > It has a great and let's be honest, HORRIFIC, plot > Reading from different POVs is interesting > There's lots of action throughout > It's extremely well written, especially to give the perspective of such different characters > There's some romance (though this is more of an underlying theme) > One of the characters gets unwound and you get to read it from their perspective, step by step! > It has a dramatic, yet pleasing ending Defintely worth 4 stars, now for book 2...

'Unwind' is the story of three very different teenagers, Connor, sixteen, who is constantly in trouble at school because of his temper, Risa, fifteen, an orphan who was raised in one of the many state homes all over the USA and Lev, thirteen, who has been raised to believe he must make the ultimate sacrifice. Connor, Risa and Lev have one thing in common, they are about to be unwound. Following the second Civil War, also known as the Heartland War twenty years ago, a war between the Pro-life and Pro-choice armies, the Bill of Life was created, which states that a human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen, this means that between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent or guardian can 'abort' their child on the condition that the child's life does not 'technically' end, this process is known as 'Unwinding', the child will not die, parts of he/she will be harvested for transplants, which has become normal within society, every part of your body can be replaced at the price of ending another person's life. Connor is being unwound because of his behaviour, Risa is being unwound because the state home she lives in can no longer afford her and due to the vast amount of abandoned babies who have been 'storked' unsuccessfully ('storked' is when a baby is abandoned at a person's house, under the law, the person must accept the baby, if the baby is ignored they eventually arrive at a state home) there is no place for Risa. Lev has been preparing to be unwound since birth because he is a tithe, he been taught that his unwinding will be a contribution in the greater scheme of things, Lev is happy to be unwound the day after his thirteenth birthday. Connor and Risa take the opportunity to run and Lev is forced to run with them, now the three of them are on the run, all they can hope is that they keep running or hidden until they are eighteen. In a world where all teenagers are at risk of being 'unwound' by their own parents/guardians, who can they trust? What I thought of 'Unwind' ~ I went through various emotions reading 'Unwind', I could not understand how a bill like the Bill of Life could be passed but given the situation within the society and the 'need' for transplants, it was acceptable to society, I also found it cruel that all the children who are unwinded are put forward for various reasons, behaviour, lack of money and with such a lack of conscience, what would possess a parent/guardian to do such a thing while telling their children that effectively they will still be alive in someone else, and in some ways they are but the person they were is gone with only parts left. 'Unwind' is a strong story with characters who are faced with death before their time, there is so many discussions surrounding the nature of human transplants but with 'Unwind', the majority of children are not given an option or are taught to believe it is the right thing to do, there are so many questions raised within this book but it leads back to the same thought, well for me it did, that no one has the right to decide when someone should die. Each character has their own story and as you read you learn more and about them, and the cruelty of their situation, and how they are lied to by people they trust, none of them deserve their fate. Neal Shusterman has wrote a story with the subject of an future that could happen, which makes it more frightening, at times, sad and in one particular part, heartbreaking, you will care about Connor, Risa, Lev and the rest of the children about to be unwound. 'Unwind' is an excellent story, its heartfelt, insightful, and definitely gives you something to think about. An excellent book, highly recommended and I hope to read more books by Neal Shusterman.

This book reeled me in from the first page. The characters are relatable to and are extremely 'human'; you can imagine being in their place and reacting as they did. The range of characters worked for me also, because there were so many personalities and back stories that it seems impossible that you couldn't empathise or relate to someone in the book, and empathy can be very important when it comes to engaging the reader. Another way that Shusterman shows us his ability, a factor that leaves me in awe and respect of him, is the fact that the entire book is written in present tense. This amazes me, and if any prospect readers go on to buy the book I'm sure they will feel the same if they understand how hard it can be to sustain a written piece in the present tense. The plotline and overall idea behind the book are both extremely original and well crafted. I'm sure that anyone who goes on to read this book will understand and value this book, and I advise it to anyone who wants to be sat up in bed in the early hours of the morning, blissfully enveloped in the folds of the magnificent story that N.S has created here. - Excuse the pun, but more authors could afford to take a leaf out of Neil's book.

Is this the way the earth will end up, I sure hope not, very interesting read, am going to read the rest of the series, HAVE to find out what happens, really enjoyed this book.

It's a great read, had my son read it with me. I think it's judged super heavily for its premise because it's content hits home more now than ever. Kids do be dealing with school shootings on the news and terroristic issues both in real life and online and this book is a clever insight into how societal issues can push people to extreme purposefully and unknowingly. It's relatable and has characters from every side dealing with issues of a dark theme in realistic and brutal ways. Great read

Great book! Amazing story, it deserves To be read carefully! I totally recomend it! You can't stop reading! Ana Paula

Mi comentario no es por el libro, o el embalaje, todo en perfecto estado. Mi comentario es sobre el envío en sí mismo. Me gustaría ser avisado con antelación de cuando lo van a llevar a casa. El mensajero va cuando le va bien, y puede que coincida con que no estoy en casa. No creo que sea difícil que el mensajero llame con antelación, o que Amazon pida al comprador horas de entrega prioritarias. Se evitarían tener que llevar el paquete dos veces. Por lo demás, muy bien embalado el libro, y tiempo razonable de entrega. Seguiré siendo cliente.

Excelente