Unwind, by Neal Shusterman, is a novel intent on showing the value of life. Based after a fictional war called the Heartland War, a war fought over abortion rights in the United States, the three warring parties agree to something called the "Bill of Life". The Bill of Life legalizes unwinding, which is a process of harvesting all of a child's parts and giving them to people who need them. The compromise is that the child doesn't die they live in a "divided state". If a child is considered to be a bad or useless child by his or her parents, the parents can sign an "unwinding order" which is a irreversible order to allow your child to be unwound.
The story follows three main characters, Connor, Risa, and Lev. Connor is a 16 year old boy living in Ohio. He has a girl friend, a brother, and a pretty normal life, accept for the fact that his parents are having him unwound. As he is en route to the unwinding facility called a harvesting camp he escapes and ends up rescuing two other would-be unwinds in the aftermath. He Saves Lev, a 13 year old boy who has been brainwashed his entire life into wanting to be unwound. Connor also saves Risa, a piano prodigy and a very smart girl. Lev was a burden on the two want-to-be escapees as he drags his feet and tries to get them caught. The changing point for Lev is when he calls his childhood mentor and religious leader, Pastor Dan. He tells Pastor Dan that he has been kidnapped and that he wants to be rescued, but Pastor Dan tells him to keep running so that Lev can grow up and do something with his life.
The best scene in the book, in my opinion, is the scene in which one of the minor characters, Roland, is unwound. It is very detailed and also very dark as you watch in your mind's eye the doctors take him away piece by piece, and how the doctors talk about stuff like football as they operate on the kid. Another interesting element to the book is when Lev meets a kid named Cy, a kid with part of an unwind's brain. The unwind whose brain Cy has was probably unwound because he had a love of stealing. the part of Cy's brain from the unwind sometimes takes over and make Cy do things he wouldn't usually do. One of the best emotional parts in the book is when a character named the Admiral gathers all of the people who received parts of his unwound son and got the to remember what it was like to be his son. The usually stoic Admiral bursts into tears as he says good bye to his son for the last time.
This book talks a lot about about some of the social issues we talked about last year, like abortion rights. This book appears to be against abortion. It shows how each of the characters is important and has the will to live. It shows how it is wrong to take the life of a living thing. How Lev is a very smart and kind boy who would live a successful life, but almost had his life taken away from him. We talked a little bit about that last year, and we were mostly pro choice, and this book shows the other side very artfully.
This is one of the best books I have read this year and reminds me a lot of the book/movie, The Island. The characters are well developed and you never want to put the book down. I think is book should definitely be a reading bowl book next year. I would have never read this book unless it was a reading bowl book and I am very happy I got to read it.
