From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

Unwind (Unwind, #1)

Neal Shusterman

Start date: January 7, 2016

Finish date: January 12, 2016

Discussion: 2016 Challenge prompts

Why we're reading this: This is an amazing book that I'd recommend to anyone who likes YA…more
[close] This is an amazing book that I'd recommend to anyone who likes YA

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2016 Challenge prompts

A book with a protagonist who has your occupation...
By Danah · 8 posts · 184 views

last updated Jan 27, 2017 08:22AM

The first book you see in a bookstore
By Juanita · 64 posts · 492 views

last updated Dec 29, 2016 04:24PM

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What Members Thought

Feb 27, 2011 stephanie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2011, would-rec, young-adult, dystopian

i actually added this book to my "to read" list because in a review of XVI the reviewer mentioned that Unwind was much more believable. and let's face it, i love dark dystopian ethical dilemma books.

here was are in the midwest (and later, arizona), in a society where abortion has been banned but "unwinding" exists.

unlike many readers, i don't think this book tackled the question of abortion (the book is set after a war between the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice groups), but rather, what value we find i actually added this book to my "to read" list because in a review of XVI the reviewer mentioned that Unwind was much more believable. and let's face it, i love dark dystopian ethical dilemma books.

here was are in the midwest (and later, arizona), in a society where abortion has been banned but "unwinding" exists.

unlike many readers, i don't think this book tackled the question of abortion (the book is set after a war between the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice groups), but rather, what value we find in our lives and in each other. the line that sticks with me the most was early in the book, and one of the peripheral characters said, "If only more people had become organ donors." (unwinding is the process of harvesting 99.4% of a teenage body in order to use the organs, skin, eyes, etc. for those deemed "normal".)

talk about bringing up some existential questions. If you divide a person into parts, do they still exist? We can now breakdown atoms, the building blocks of matter - but does that matter?? do souls exist, and if so, where do they go? can they still exist if there is no whole? where does the soul exist? at what moment does it arrive? when does it leave?

there was another interesting moment in the book - the idea of "storking". here in america, we currently have the "safe haven" laws. created to hopefully stop women from leaving babies in dumpsters and having them die, you can leave a baby at a hospital, and just walk away. in shusterman's world, these unwanted babies don't get left at hospitals, they are left on doorsteps. a citizen must take the child if they find it. this leads to large families, or babies getting passed around an entire neighborhood in one case. i took this to mean that even in a society where human life is so "valued", there can still be the unwanted.

connor isn't wanted anymore. risa has outlived her time at the StaHo and must do her part by donating herself to those that need her, even though she is a talented pianist. lev is a tithe - the 10th child in a religious family that believes in donating 10% of everything to the greater good/church.

nothing goes as planned.

to be honest, i found myself not caring much about lev, but more about hayden. and roland. and the admiral. humpty dunfee. the Akron AWOL.

seriously, there are so many threads of discussion in this book, i don't even really know how to write a coherent review. pick this up if you are looking for a good story, grab it if you are looking for something to make you think even after you put the book down. ...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic, young-adult

from the NPR poll of best young adult fiction

The book everyone is talking about! Well, other than The Hunger Games or Fifty Shades of Grey or about a dozen other books people are probably talking about ... I'd read that this one will make one think about today's pro-choice / pro-life debates. I thought it was meant allegorically, but no. This book quite specifically IS about today's pro-choice / pro-life debates. It takes place in the future (in our grandchildren's time, since ipods are feature from the NPR poll of best young adult fiction

The book everyone is talking about! Well, other than The Hunger Games or Fifty Shades of Grey or about a dozen other books people are probably talking about ... I'd read that this one will make one think about today's pro-choice / pro-life debates. I thought it was meant allegorically, but no. This book quite specifically IS about today's pro-choice / pro-life debates. It takes place in the future (in our grandchildren's time, since ipods are featured in an antique store as from my grandfather's day - a nice touch to let us know what time period we're in) - at a time after the Bill of Life, an agreement that satisfied both the pro-life and pro-choice groups. Now, I can't see how this agreement satisfies ANYONE. But okay. It's sort of sci-fi. The Bill of Life decrees that no fetus and no child shall be harmed, up to the age of 13. From ages 13 through 18, it's a crap shoot. You can have your children "Unwound." That horror being defined on the first page, the book proceeds to follow the stories of several children chosen for Unwinding (Connor, Risa, Lev, and then later other kids are introduced). I can't decide if this is a dystopian story or a horror story.

In the end, I had a hard time rating this book. It was "just okay" ... but 2 stars doesn't seem like enough ... but 3 stars is too much, considering how annoyed I am.

On the one hand: it's well written, the characters are compelling (although, for 13-year-olds, they are awfully wise and mature), the dialogue feels real, the book was a real page-turner, I looked forward to reading it each night, and I was reluctant to set it down. It's horrifying, and yes maybe a little thought-provoking, but ... it's just so completely implausible. I never once felt that this could really happen, the author never convinced me. Sure, some parents are awful and don't love their kids, I suppose, and so okay maybe some parents would have their kids unwound, and yes I can see how state homes might start having older kids unwound, but ... for it to be an epidemic as it's portrayed in this book? No. SO many people have to participate, not just the parents (which, sorry, but no f***ing way do I believe so many parents would sign their kids up for this) but the juvey-cops, the clerks, the guards, the surgeons, and then the patients on the other end all accepting these body parts. No. Just, no. Sure, some adults helped the kids out, but they were the exception, and I just can't believe that would be the case. There would be FAR more adults helping create an Underground Railroad of sorts for these kids. I may sometimes say this country is going to hell in a handbasket, but we aren't THAT far gone.

In the end, this book suffers from the same problem that I felt plagued Ender's Game: all the adults are clueless and awful, only the kids are wise and interesting. I'm sure that a teenager would eat this up with a spoon and ask for more, but as a 40-something adult, it just doesn't play for me. Also, many male characters, but only one strong female character (just like Ender's Game!) I'm wondering if all of Shusterman's work has this same issue.

I really liked the idea of the terms black and white being replaced by umber and sienna, but at the same time, I was completely distracted by the fact that sienna is really a quite dark brown, no where near the color of my "white" skin. I quickly reviewed the paint tubes sitting in my painting bag ... better choices would be Buff Titanium, Naples Yellow, or Yellow Ochre (sure, none of those are perfect matches, but neither is Umber a perfect match). This bugged me far more than it should have.

The sudden mention of ipods in an antique store was jarring. Up to that point, nothing about daily life sounded all that different from today. Kids ride on bikes and have cell phones and carry their stuff in backpacks; tractor trailers haul goods, the drivers pull over in rest areas and sleep in the sleeper cabs of their trucks; police patrol in police cars; there are freeways and public schools and suburbs ... The only mention of something different was a girl who follows fashion by changing the color of her irises, and terrorists who have explosive blood. All of the basic slang is the same as today. So I figured we were maybe 20 years in the future. Not 50! Now, admittedly, I at first thought of MY grandparents, born in the early 1900s - electricity was new, no one had TVs, and most people did not have cars or phones, and they sure didn't have most of our modern conveniences (microwaves and DVDs and ipods and cellphones and the internet and washers and dryers, etc etc). But then I realized, this is about teenagers. My kids are in elementary school now, and their grandparents were born in the mid 1940s, so for a similar jump in time, we can look back to the 1950s. A few changes to day-to-day life: no internet, no cell phones, most people still had party line telephones, TV shows were in their infancy, and the only way to see movies was in the theater. So I expect that same level of change in the time period when MY grandchildren will be teenagers. But I'm not seeing it in this book.

What it IS, is a fast read! I read almost half the book in one go. I'm sure if you have fewer distractions, you could read this in one day. And it certainly inspired me to write a long review! Probably a good book club book, there's a lot to talk about here. ...more

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Feb 15, 2012 Hannah added it

Shelves: ya, dystopia-post-apocalyptic

Okay, I will be finishing this because it's a fascinating concept, it's gotten good reviews, and it's on the syllabus for next semester. But GAWD, I'm three chapters in and am already so annoyed by the complete lack of competency in and grasp of comma function that I have to write this. And now back to reading....

Okay. What this book is not is very good. And that's too bad, because what it is is fascinating and intriguing and full of potential. But here are the reasons, in no particular order, w Okay, I will be finishing this because it's a fascinating concept, it's gotten good reviews, and it's on the syllabus for next semester. But GAWD, I'm three chapters in and am already so annoyed by the complete lack of competency in and grasp of comma function that I have to write this. And now back to reading....

Okay. What this book is not is very good. And that's too bad, because what it is is fascinating and intriguing and full of potential. But here are the reasons, in no particular order, why it's just not successful.

-Dystopias should have good worldbuilding. This one made a big deal about the Heartland Wars every few sections or so and then tried to be cheeky and cute when it mentioned things like "Back in the day, they called us black people" but also had people using cell phones. It confused itself, basically.
-Anybody who thinks the future is postracial is, quite frankly, dumb, and to make a postracial future dystopia without explaining it is just irresponsible.
-The only character who showed really interesting development was Lev. The others, quite frankly, were kids whose parents wanted to kill them and I didn't even care. That's bad.
-One point to its credit: I didn't know this was a trilogy until I started reading, and unlike the vast majority of trilogies these days that just end abruptly and make you wait a year, this one actually ends like it's a real book--that is to say, it has an ending, not a dumb cliffhanger. Well done there.
-Did I mention that the technical writing skills are non-existent? Bad editor, bad writer!
-Also well written was the part when (view spoiler). It was one of the few times that things were emotional and high stakes and interesting and it was actually shown, not told.
-What is really frustrating about this book is that it understands that it should be about the characters and their relationships with each other, but it never actually gets there and never shows anything. It just tells, tells, tells.
-Did I mention the inconsistent worldbuilding? It goes from normal now-ish world with just a big change (as in it rewrote history instead of takes place in the future) at the beginning of the book to The Girl Who Owned a City meets Lord of the Flies in the middle and then goes to robotic grownups at the (view spoiler) and then to feel-good ridiculous at the end. What that achieved was making me not care about any of it.

I was so excited for this book, but it's just a fail. Every time it does something that is really interesting or new or meaningful, it does something to execute it badly. ...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Connie rated it it was amazing

Wow. That was different.

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Sep 19, 2011 Christina, Join Me on Storygraph! rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio-book, 2014

I've been struggling lately with audio books, so when my husband suggested this one, I jumped at the opportunity to take a listen.

It really took me awhile to get into Unwind, but once I did, I found it fascinating. Yeah, parts were predictable, but it was entertaining.

I'm glad to have finished an audio book! ...more

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Jan 30, 2009 Amanda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kids-or-young-adults, 2009-all-others

I've been waiting for this book since the author spoke of this premise at my daughters' junior high a couple of years ago. Once I started, I found it hard to put it down. Amazing. ...more

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May 02, 2008 Julie rated it really liked it

Shelves: teen

Really interesting concept and very entertaining book. The ending was a little disturbing as compared to the rest of the book, but I think teens who like sci-fi would enjoy it

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